Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Snow day

Our house at 9am yesterday. I think it's cool that we have a stoplight at our house. Did you know that they continue to turn green then yellow and finally red, even when there are no cars waiting at the intersection? It makes me think the falling tree in the forest does make a sound even when no one is listening.

Why do the kids get a snow day but all the working adults (except teachers, but not teachers like me) don't? No need to answer that, I already know; it's because profits might be compromised. One of the things I don't like about capitalism is the lack of heart, or humanness. Everything that counts is boiled down to monetary profit or loss. A snow day would cause porfits (I'd fix that, but it made me laugh) to decline, hence no snow days. Anyway, getting around town yesterday was a fiasco. I left the car in the garage and took public transport. Getting on the bus meant wading through the hip high bank created by the snowplows. At each stop, upon braking, the bus fishtailed. The driver kept banging the bus into the curb and bouncing us back out into the street. I can not imagine having driven, though there were real human beings in cars doing it. You can call me a wuss, I don't mind. The metro was full of grim-faced adults slogging to work while the kids enjoyed the snow day at Grandma's. All the school districts closed yesterday due to the blizzard, but every class of mine was as scheduled. (fyi- I teach adults at their place of business.) Before my four o'clock class, I caught this guy getting stuck. Felt all proud I did, of my wussy decision to leave the car home.

19 comments:

CoffeeDog said...

I spoke to a co-worker in Montreal yesterday, he said you guys were getting pounded with snow! It's pretty, but I am glad I don't have to contend with that.

Steven said...

Don't feel like a wuss, but rather a sage. You probably saved your own life by not risking driving out in that mess. Not that you wouldn't be able to handle it, but that some other hot-shot driver couldn't.

Snooze said...

Oh it's so beautiful! Like Steven, I think it was smart to have left your car at home.

Anonymous said...

I so enjoyed the video. Your laugh at the other guys misfortune makes me like you more. I won't mention that I said in an earlier comment that you won't need snow tires if you don't drive until the snow is cleared. I wouldn't dare. Ed

Lemuel said...

I'll echo Steven and Snooze: I think you were quite wise to take public transportation. You not only avoided your own trauma of dealing with the driving, but you were then one less car to find a parking place, to clog the roads, etc. for others to deal with.

Unfortunately here in the "south 50" we seem to have this aversion to developing good systems of public transportation. I think it has a lot to do with that "porfit" motive that you mentioned.

Patricia said...

your home looks beautiful in the snow!!

and that moron in the truck didn't appear to know the first thing about how to get unstuck. i'da yelled at him if i was there, i swear i would've. take your foot off the gas, idiot! you must rock your way out of being stuck, it's the only way.

i have so little patience for bad drivers anymore. i'm gonna be one of those people who have various signs in their front seat to haul out and hoist up toward stupid drivers.

Rox said...

Wuss.

hehe. We have a ton of snow too, cold temps and a brutal windchill. I didn't leave the house yesterday and have no plans of doing so today either.

Patricia is right. Stuck dude was a dumbass!

Java said...

I cannot imagine dealing with snow of that nature.
Even I know one must rock that sucker to get unstuck. Don't know that I'd be any more successful getting unstuck, but I'd be rocking a whole lot more. Doesn't doing that, back and forward repeatedly, put an awful strain on the transmission?

Anonymous said...

I love snow storms, and try to avoid going out in them at all costs. I've had two vehicles totaled in winter weather... by the other drivers out there.

As for being wussy; think you may be more intelligent than wussy...


-C (http://christopherc.wordpress.com/)

Patrick said...

Love 'porfits'. It's fun to say out loud too. Yes, snow days for all seems like the only sensible response, but who said business was sensible. About this time of year I start thinking that we really all should be semi-hybernating, not struggling to maintain the same level of activity we achieve easily in warmer weather... but that would require not merely acknowledging weather, but acknowledging it is MORE POWERFUL THAN US. We can't have that.

You'd be amazed at how people here fall apart when there's just some rain. And snow... yowza.

Anonymous said...

Hey, it WAS brutal out there. If it's any consolation, the universities were open too, so no snow day for me either. I actually sawe a cab sliding down Cote des Neiges in a spiral, so there is no wuss-ness in not driving in THAT!

GayProf said...

I think if the public transport can't make it safely about town, there should be a mandatory snow day for adults.

A Lewis said...

In spite of your house looking fabulous and just like Holiday Time, I wouldn't wish that much snow on anyone. Hugs. Be safe, please!

Mark in DE said...

Though the traffic is unbearable and unsafe, it sure is beautiful when it snows like that. I think you were quite wise to take public transport and leave your vehicle in the garage.

Mark :-)

Adam said...

It still looks like fun to me even if it is a pain in the ass.

Polt said...

I LOVE your building! If I was in Montreal, I'd totally live there and be your tenant. And I'd even pay the rent ontime...no nude dancer drama from me! :)

HUGS...

dpaste said...

I've actually had employers close down during extreme inclement weather, so maybe capitalism isn't quite the profit machine it's made out to be. For schools, it's issues of safety and resulting lawsuits from parents that motivate the closing, so I think capitalism influences that as well. I remember one day in high school in the winter when the generator had broken. While there was no snow on the ground, the school had no heat, but we had class that day anyway. We wore our coats all day. I think it's the Puritan work ethic more than anything that motivates this.

Jason said...

Montreal bus drivers know their stuff.

We've had a couple of snow days at my job and I'm in IT at an insurance company. We did have to show up but then they sent us home at 1pm.

Loved it.

Johanne said...

As a working mommy, I kept asking myself that same question... Why do we, parents, should go to work, if teachers aren't???
What is happening to kids that the parents are leaving home alone??? I think there is something wrong there... no matter porfits or not... but it is unfair... on the kids...