Winter blast

This has to be one of teh oddest winters we've had in years. Last year it was horribly cold and snowy. In fact it was the third snowiest in New York history. The year before that we got snow, but not as much. It was cold. Not as much. This winter will complete the trilogy of winters with 40+ inches of snow altogether. We're about an inch from that milestone with snow being predicted for Friday and Saturday.

Actually that whole prediction thing has me pretty annoyed at the moment. Yesterday we got a brutal reminder that it's still winter. The day started near 60 degrees F. I saw a lot of people dressing for work like it was springtime. The predicted that the temperatures would drop as the day progressed. We'd see rain turning into snow that WON'T stick and the temperatures won't go below the freexing mark.

Part way through the day the snow picked up, as did the wind. The 30-40 mph winds were blowing the snow horizontally and drove the temperatures below zero on the fahrenheit scale. By night time there were several inches of snow on the ground, strong winds, subzero temperatures and everything was freezing. The complete opposite of what was predicted and it took the region completely unaware. Roads weren't getting cleaned fast enough. Accidents of every type all over the roads. Lanes closed from fallen lamp posts. Collapsing Scaffolding. A disaster that not a single weatherman foresaw.

I saw what a mess it was outside so I put in some overtime and left after the evening rush. I did relatively well. The driver's door was frozen shut but I have my choice of three other doors to get in. The snow was pretty heavy and frozen down to the car pretty well. The roads were okay and the battle wagoon has no problems moving in any weather.

My wife, however, really had a bad experience. She has a 2003 Mustang. It does very badly in ill weather conditions. She blames it on the rear wheel drive, I blame it on the driver as I've only had rwd before getting 4wd and never had the problems she has. So she stored the car in the garage at work and waited for the bus. A bus comes around and she hops on and realizes it's not headed home. It was the 26 headed for Jamaica, not the 25 heading to Lynbrook, a totally wrong direction. She hops off the bus at Union and Lakeville Road and trekked back to New Hyde Park Road in the strong winds and snow. Bear in mind, this woman never dresses warmly, and on this day that they said it wasn't going to be bad she only had a thin fleece jacket, no scarf, gloves, nor hat. She walked for over an hour before she reached the first LIRR station along NHP Rd where there's a cab station and hopped a taxi home. I bet she wished she had a cell phone that time. When she got home she insisted upon shoveling out the yard. She was about frozen to the bone by the time she called it a night.

In other words, the weaterh sucked and weatherman suck even more for doing such a crappy job. >:-(