It's Gonna Snow! (reprise)

Here's a piece that I wrote last year about this time.  Right now out side, it's the first snow fall of the season...and as expected, people are driving batshit crazy...since in Maryland they don't really know how drive in perfect conditions, but when it's less  than perfect...it gets...batshit crazy!

Here in Maryland, at the merest hint of snow, people panic. They rush out to the grocery store and buy 24 rolls of toilet paper, 5 gallons of milk and 10 gallons of water...why? I haven't a clue. If we get flurries, businesses and schools close. Forget driving, you're taking your life into your hands by getting out on the roads. They're aren't the best of driver in perfect weather..."oh leaf blew across the road, must hammer on my brakes!", or my favorite...getting to the top of the freeway on ramp only to see some moron has STOPPED! because "he can't merge into traffic".


This weekend it MIGHT snow, yet the grocery stores are noting an increase in people purchasing staples to weather out the looming blizzard. (we're expecting flurries!) Having grown up in Florida, before I moved back north, I could count on the thumb of one hand the number of times I'd driven in the snow.

That was the year my daughter was born in north Florida, we had a genuine winter storm. It lasted a good 24 hours and arrived on December 23, 1989. Where I lived in Tallahassee, we received six inches of snow. SIX! IN FLORIDA NO LESS! What's even funnier, is where my parents lived, in Panama City on the Gulf Coast, they got eight...I have some great pictures of the rug rat in a too big snow suit lumbering around the front yard...my neighbor, spent most of the day making a snowman. Of course all the kids on the street had their picture taken next to it.

I had a blast that night (at the time I was managing a Dominos Pizza) I made far more money pulling people out of ditches "...oh honey, let's go look at all the pretty liiiights..." (picture airhead saying this). Now , you'd expect that in Florida, but here in Maryland, where is does indeed snow every winter...you get much the same reaction. I was lucky, I lived in Michigan for several years and took the trouble to learn how to drive in snow...my prescription? Find a large empty parking lot and do donuts, etc to learn how my truck acted on slippery pavement. That thought doesn't seem to have occurred to many people here though.

So, living off of a rather busy road, I'm genuinely looking forward to the antics of my neighbors this weekend. It should be highly amusing!