MY LIFE - NOVEMBER

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

More and more this extra shift is looking like a mistake. Oh well, I made the choice so I might as well deal with it. Actually, what I went through on my way to both jobs and home was much more difficult than any work I did. I had just gotten onto I-480 to go to work this morning when I ran into a wall of snow that reduced visibility down to about a 1/10 of a mile at times. One minute there was nothing falling, next minute I couldn't see anything.

I drove through this mess all the way to I-71, then down 71 until I got past Bagley Road. Then, it just stopped snowing and looked like nothing had even happened. It stayed that way while I was at work in Strongsville for a couple hours, then word came from customers that it was starting to get really bad. We all looked outside and you couldn't see the street from the front of the store from all the snow flying. It just kept up that way much of the morning and afternoon and Strongsville ended up getting about 3 or 4 inches of snow from the whole thing.

Tom let me leave at 4, so I thought I'd go home and check some things out and make sure everything was in order. I checked my e-mail, wrote back those who wrote me, and left for my store at 5pm, which normally would give me plenty of time to get there. Problem with that theory was that I was leaving right as another snow squall was hitting, right in the middle of rush hour. It turned a 20 minute drive into a 45 minute drive and I got to my store at 5:45.

It wasn't busy at the old store and it really wasn't busy at my store either, so the night was a pretty easy one even though my feet hurt a ton. I'm even more tired tonight than I was last night and getting up tomorrow is sure to be an adventure just like today was when I woke up an hour late. The snow was what made things interesting this time and was what probably kept most of the people away, although not all of them. As usual, there were a few people who challenged the snow and hazardous driving conditions.

There were accidents everywhere today. Every interstate had at least two accidents and most of them involved people driving too fast for the weather. Semis were sliding around, people were spinning off the road and into barriers, and others were just sliding into other cars. It was a real mess and reminded me that people get even dumber when the snow flies. Simply put, you cannot drive fast or aggressive when it snows. You have to slow down. I don't care what you have, it won't work well going too fast.

I'm always amazed at people who try to do 65 or 70 when it's snowing heavily. Then there's the other extreme, the people who do 20 on the highway and 10 on the regular roads. People either drive like they don't see the snow or as if they've never seen snow in their life. I think people also think that it's going to be another mild winter like the last two, therefore when snow is forecast, they don't think it's real. Well, it was real today and we better get back to reality for a while because it's supposed to be like this all winter.

There are not going to be nearly as many 60° days this year like last year and the year before. Today we barely got into the thirties and it's not supposed to make it above thirty tomorrow. We need to drive carefully, but not like we've never seen it before. I'll do about 20 to 25 on regular, salted streets, 10-15 on untreated streets, and about 50 on the highway depending on the conditions.

The one thing that I think I'll dislike about this winter is the drive-thru at my store though. It faces the north (who was the genius who decided that?), which is often where the wind is coming from. Snow and everything else stands a chance at blowing into the drive-thru window like that which means soon we're going to have to use the drawer and speaker to do transactions.

That ought to be a little better than freezing my ass of, which is what I did tonight whenever I got drive-thru. Outside of the weather problems, today was a enjoyable day. It was slow as hell at my old store and it wasn't that busy at my store either. We finished up truck at my store, so that gave us something to do and Regina didn't seem to be in a bad mood, although her and Linda went on one of their bashes of Steve like they usually do.

It was a tiring, but decent day. I'm glad that this stretch is out of the way because it has worn me out.

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As I said earlier, the snow was flying today and it was all lake-effect snow. Strongsville got about 3 to 4 inches, Brunswick got a couple, but anywhere where live and east picked up more. We got around 6 inches at my house, the airport recorded around 6 inches, but as you moved east, the numbers went up. 8 inches here, 10 inches there, and then 19 inches in Ashtabula, which is still getting hit right now.

It was such a strong lake-effect system that there was thunder and lightning in a lot of the squalls, especially around the downtown Cleveland area. Traffic was snarled everywhere as the traffic reporters tried to accurately report all the accidents and problems around town. It was basically a nightmare to drive anywhere since no one expected this to happen at all. 1 to 2 was expected out of the snowbelt, not 3-5 like most areas saw that got snow. I certainly didn't expect 6 inches, but we live close enough to where we get a good taste of what's going on in the east side of town.

It was also very windy with the snow, so it was blowing around while falling and snow that had already fallen was blowing around too, making it even more hazardous. The airport was a real problem as it closed for about half an hour and stranded a lot of people in the airport who were trying to get a head start on holiday travel. So there were a lot of people unhappy with the early snowfall.

I wasn't one of them. I've driven in snow for two years and I have a pretty good feel as to how to drive when it gets sloppy outside. I've never had any real problems with control and have only had some close calls with other drivers, usually trying to go too fast or pull out in front of you, then try to stop. The snow doesn't bother me though. I like it and like to watch it fall, which is what I did when it was slow at my old store.

If the snow bothers you, then you shouldn't be living here because we will see our fair share of snow, especially with the lake. I hate listening to people complain about snow, especially when they used to live in warmer climates. I usually tell them to get used to it because that's what it's like up here in a normal winter. You can't make it stop snowing, so complaining isn't going to do you a whole lot of good either.

Of course, the snow's also why a lot of elderly people move to Florida for the winter, then come back in the spring and summer because it can be cooler here than it is down there. They're ahead of the rest of us though. Older people tend to be smarter, even if they do bother you a little bit. They know when to get out of town and when to come back.

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We need to get a shovel for the snow. Evidently, the one I thought we brought with us isn't to be found, so my mom was trying to shovel snow with a garden shovel and a rake, which doesn't always work that well. As a result, the back part of our driveway is only somewhat cleared. With all the snow that fell too, it's made opening the fence to the back yard interesting since the snow doesn't really want to give any ground.

It also made going up and down the steps in both the front and back of the house very interesting. Then the damn dog gets in the way and sets me up for a major fall, which I've managed to avoid. The only problem that I've had is remembering which way to park when it snows so that I don't have to clear off so much snow from my car. I also need to remember to stop brushing it off into the wind since it comes right back at me, usually at my face.

I need to get some gloves too since I don't have any at all. My steering wheel gets really cold and the fact that it's a leather steering wheel probably doesn't help much. I am happy to say that my car handles the snow really well though and the windows have not frozen shut yet, which is something I worried about. It also warms up fairly quickly, which is a great help when it's as cold as it has been lately.

The one thing that I'm really happy about though? No more long days this week. At least I don't plan on any long days the rest of the week. I'll probably be wrong though. I usually am.