Now that it has been finally stopped snowing and all of Chicago’s various advisories and warnings have been cancelled, I thought it be nice to recap a couple of lessons learned from, not just the past couple of days, but the winter so far.
1. If I see a single snowflake I instantly double my travel time. I wish I could say it is because driving in the snow is dangerous or my car isn’t capable of maneuvering in the snow but the problem is that as soon as people see a snowflake something happens inside their head and they instantly forget the most basic aspects of driving. For example, unless you literally can not drive a block without fishtailing, there really is no need to not drive at a normal speed. Also even though there may be snow covering the road it doesn’t mean that the lane dividers underneath don’t still exist. I hate when I’m out driving and Little Julie in her Geo Metro is riding the middle of the street at 20 mph, as if shes only ever driven in a dome before. If you are one of those people either improve your driving, go out and get a 4-wheel drive car, or just get the hell off the road and start burnin up your calf’s crunching through the snow. I would say they could take public transportation but I’ve been reading stories all week about delays on the Amtrak, the racist CTA, death chunks of ice being knocked off underpasses, and bus on bus accidents on Michigan Avenue…so actually yeah they should go take public transportation.
2. Here in the city we can bitch as much as we’d like about snow on the roads but Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation (S & S) has done a DAMN good job taking care of the streets. WGNtv says we have received 29.1 inches of snow this season, which is double the normal average by January 8th. And so to counteract this, Streets and Sanitation originally sent out 175 plows and salt trucks at midnight and then at 5 AM they let loose their full fleet of 275. While we here in Chicago might be saying, “So what? It had been snowing all night obviously they needed to plow.” That is not necessarily the case in every state. Friends of mine in both Kansas City and New Jersey have told me that their states wait until after the storm to begin plowing. How in the world does that make sense? I mean I can understand for Kansas city as they only have 109 employees total to help try and remove the snow but New Jersey? Obviously the roads won’t be perfect but not only has the S & S been proactive removing snow they have even saved money by using new technologies available to them. If anyone else drove in the city last night and then tried to take either Eisenhower or Stevenson (which is cleaned by the Illinois Department of Transportation) then they probably have some idea of what I’m talking about.
(Photo courtesy of ChicagoBreakingNews.com, 1/7/10)
3. The final lesson I have learned is that apparently Chicago is one of the few cities still trying to raise children that aren’t little bitches. In places all across the U.S., school districts were closed while the CPS (Chicago Public Schools) decided to remain open. Now if the schools closed for excessive snows that is one thing but too often I’ve seen them closing purely because “it is too cold out.” Wow…when I was growing up as long as the doors of my schools weren’t snowed shut I had to get my ass out of bed, put all my snow clothes on(so I can play at recess), and walk my ass to school! But apparently Chicago is one of the few cities left that believes actually going to school is a good thing for students. Well at least with a snow day, the mother of the kid below won’t have to pack him his sugar-free lunch, refill his to-go hand sanitizer, and find a new cute sweater to have him wear to class.
Unfortunately, we still have some time left before Spring makes her arrival so there are many more lessons we can potentially learn from this winter. If any of you can think of something I’ve missed or just disagree with me step up and drop us a comment. But until then I will assume you all agree.
-Photos courtesy of Google Images. Information found on WGNtv, NBC Chicago, ChicagoBreakingNews.com, and finally KCTV5 Kansas City.
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