Snow forecast

Our community is all atwitter (does that have something to do with a large number of twits?) over the weather forecast for Thursday. Something like three to five inches of snow--maybe six, depending on forecaster--expected to fall some time Thursday.

Bah!

Aside from not having a snow bike, meaning that Jenn and I would have to coordinate our commuting using the one car, I find this worry over a few inches of snow baffling. We get snow every year. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I know folks who are happy to have *only* six inches of snow on their yards this time of year (meaning: a lot has melted off since the last foot of snow fell a week ago).

It could be far worse: This is not Atlanta, after all. My sister spent a few years in Atlanta in the early 1980s, as a student at Emory. I recall her glee that she was getting friends around with relative ease when there was an inch or so of snow on their roads one time, just because she had driven in snow here under our mother's tutelage, and knew to be smooth in applying control efforts and to think ahead planning for less traction than she had.

Still, that this town gets so worked up over half a foot of snow is really bewildering to me.

In the interest of disclosure, I will have to say: I used to drive a wrecker. I did a LOT of pulling cars out of ditches on "snow days." I was able and wiling to put my truck in places that many of my coworkers avoided, simply because I knew how to make use of the traction I had. I also knew when to stay out of potential trouble--most of the time. Sure, I got stuck a time or two, and learned from those experiences. I also learned to drive in snow during the aftermath of one of Louisville's bigger snowstorms--the 1977/8 winter had at least one two-foot snow dump on us. My car at the time had bias ply tires--not even snow tires--yet I got where I needed to go, learning about traction and "slideways" driving as I went. I learned about using the throttle to steer when the steering wheel doesn't do all it should--something front wheel drive cars don't seem to do as well, although they don't seem to have the same frequency of the problem, either.

In the mean time, I'm always surprised that the weather forecasts don't start with, "This weather forecast brought to you by Kroger, since we have an over-stock of milk and bread we need you to buy so that we are not stuck with it." It seems that would be a bit more honest...