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I’ll take the snow
By Susan Olling

It’s been a week since the Blizzard of 2016, or Snowstorm Jonas as some are christening it.  Why someone started naming winter storms is mystifying.  Perhaps too much time on his/her hands?
 
Anyway, there’s been much here in the greater D.C. environs to observe in the past week.  Some good, some bad, and some funny.
 
Kudos are in order for the following.
 
Pepco.  As recently as 2010, storms caused widespread, lengthy power outages in their service area, which includes our part of MoCo.  Our local electric utility has been trimming trees, replacing poles, and reinforcing power lines since then.  We were ready for a power outage in our house.  Not even a flicker.  Some of the local news talking heads seemed a bit disappointed that they couldn’t report thousands of power outages.
 
Road crews.  These folks are still working long hours to get the snow off the roads.  Residential neighborhoods weren’t the first priority.  When and whether the road crews were able to plow curb-to-curb or one lane in the middle of our street would happen when it happened.  We had no problem staying off the roads.
 
Metro.  Our little subway system was closed for the weekend.  Made perfect sense.  People were strongly encouraged to stay off the roads.  Not much, if anything, was open.  Certainly nothing touristy.  The safety of Metro employees was as important as the safety of the rest of us.
 
Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  This time, OPM got it right.  And before anybody squawks, there was no public transportation to speak of on Monday and Tuesday.  Many neighborhood streets were unplowed, particularly in Northern Virginia.  The main roads still needed work.  Interstate 270, for example, went from six lanes to three at the Spur (where I-270 meets the Capital Beltway).  Closing the federal government on Monday and Tuesday and three-hour delays on Wednesday and Thursday with the option of liberal leave or telework was spot on.
 
Then there are those for whom a “thumbs down” is in order.
 
Local NHL team.  This bunch had a game scheduled for 22 Jan and decided to move the start time from 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  There were questions as to whether team officials were considering the safety of their fans and the team.  Finally, the game was postponed.  Team officials were evidently reluctant to postpone the game because the opposing team was from the West Coast, and rescheduling would be difficult.  It’s just a game.
 
Drivers who cleared very little snow off their vehicles.  A chronic problem here when it snows.  It’s hard to tell whether it’s laziness or a disregard for other drivers.   In any case, give ‘em lots of room when you see them on the roads.
 
Metro.  Service on our little subway system was reasonably back to normal by Friday.  That’s a charitable description.  Shorter trains were running because cars were still being dug out of the snow, inspected, or repaired.  No surprise, there were lots of unhappy passengers trying to get to work.  Station platforms were crowded, and trains were filled with people.  The criminal element, in the form of teenagers, was having a field day.  One poor man was mugged by one of these groups as he was trying to exit a train one morning.  Fortunately, six fine examples of the teenaged population here were arrested.  That same afternoon, a group of about twenty of the little dears were reportedly yelling and harassing passengers on a train.  They reportedly hit a man in the face with a snowball and began beating him.  
 
People who thought parking spaces on D.C. streets were their personal spaces.  They spent quite a bit of time cleaning their vehicles and clearing space to get them out.  For some reason, there were errands to be run.  When these drivers returned, they found that others had taken “their” cleared parking spaces.
 
As I noted earlier, there was some good, some bad, and some funny that came out of all this frozen precipitation.  The something funny occurred on Tuesday, 26 Jan.  No XY-chromosome carriers could be found in the U.S. Senate chamber.  No male pages, no male parliamentarians, no male senators.  But the female pages, female parliamentarians, and female senators were able to get to the Capitol.
 
We’re not done with snow yet, if past winters are any indication.   Unfortunately, after winter comes the weed festival and all those tourists.  I think I’ll take the snow.


 
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