Fuck you, Nashvillian drivers! It's just fucking snow!!!

[Max Carnage]

Fuck every last one of you stupid shits that don't know how to handle winter driving!!! Every last interstate and side road in Nashville is at a standstill because YOU have to get home faster than everyone else and you wind up smashing into the drivers trying to be safe. Right now, there are no more policemen available to work wrecks, no more tow trucks to haul your asses out, ambulances can't get to emergencies. All of this is true, by the way, not just my making wildass assumptions, at least being reported on the radio.

I decided to go home. Well, the office closed so it was decided for me. And I can't even get out on the road because no one can move. So here I am back in the office ranting! Fuck, people, I don't see Minnesota falling apart when it snows. They've done just fine. It is humanly possible to get from point a to point be when it snows! Do it for fuck sake!!!

Someone owes me a hotel room and room service, cause I'm gonna be stuck here for a while.

[BoBettie]

And it's on it's way here to Charlotte! Hooray! I know I'll be staying inside for a day or two. The panic that snow brings here is incredible to me (a former Upstate NY Yank). Man alive, people just drive like maniacs- you couldn't pay me to get on the Interstate tomorrow morning when it hits.

Sorry you're stuck, Max :(

[Berkut]

Man, I live about a mile from campus, and it was all I could do to get home. MTSU cancelled classes for the first time in like 30 years.

I wouldn't mind so much if I had some food here and my TV hadn't gone out.

Damn.

[FairyChatMom]

Sure hope you all stocked up on bread, milk, and toilet paper!!

[NurseCarmen]

I love being in southern cities when it snows. It makes me giggle. They are completely clueless.

[Bearflag70]

I lived in San Diego, and they had a hard time driving in DRIZZLE fer cryin' out loud!

[Max Carnage]

Oh, and here I was all smart and stocked up on groceries well in advance. Yep, got lots of movies I haven't watched, food to eat, even got my dog some food last night. I just can't get to any of it.

Traffic has been stopped on the interstate for 4 hrs according to the radio. Someone shoot me.

[lieu]

Too much Carnage Max? :)

[airdisc]

Yeah, roads were hellacious in Ohio too. I just got a ride home with an inexperienced 16-year-old friend of mine, so my "pucker" factor was rather high.

I hate driving in snow.

[light strand]

Have you noticed that it's usually the guy in the biggest fucking SUV on the market, that ends up in a ditch?

Notice to SUV drivers: 4 wheel drive does not make you God. You still have to slow the fuck down, no matter how big your truck is. Ice is slippery even if your vehicle does weigh eleventy million pounds. And driving your huge ass truck up my ass in a blizzard will not make me go faster, if your truck is so bad-ass drive in the non-plowed lane.

That is all.

[I can't believe that's butter!]

Same phenomenon here. However, there are at least a few like-minded Yankees (us included) or even Canadians residing here that can drive in snow; at least that helps a bit against the onslaught of inexperienced drivers.

[diku]

I'm just laughing at the reports of all the 2 wheel drive SUV's getting caught, while my Max's little Saturn is making it through. Glad I'm stuck at home with a bad back.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

I work at the Nashville Int. Airport, & live in Murfreesboro. 30=odd miles.

2 1/2 hours.

I'm lucky I'm safe.

[ataraxy22]

Do they still have "Snowbird" to warn of all the bad weather on the TV in Nashville?

[Quintas]

Originally posted by NurseCarmen
I love being in southern cities when it snows. It makes me giggle. They are completely clueless.


Yeah. It makes me giggle too, when I see the cars with Northern Tags in the ditch. Cars on snow+lack of plows+overnight freezing=Ice.

[diku]

Yeah, we have Snowbird on channel 4. Snow is still falling here, not as heavy, but it's still at about an inch per hour. Looks like we'll get about 6.5 inches.

[Skammer]

What pisses me off is that I work in a call center here in Nashville and every last customer service representative just went home. Pussies! Just because it's snowing doesn't mean we don't have customers to help! You're a lot safer here at your desk than you are on I-40 right now!

So it's me and the other supervisor doing the work of 13 people today.

The funny thing is, one of our analysts left here at 9:30 this morning and she just called in - she's not home yet. Should've stayed at work, maybe, where we'll all nice and warm and dry and fed? Then, by the time your shift was over, most of the traffic would have cleared. Fool.

You people act like you've never seen snow before. Pisses me off. Get back to work.

[Ethilrist]

So, you're not having as much fun as HillbillyQueen? (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=156850)

[Lsura]

Originally posted by Joey G
Man, I live about a mile from campus, and it was all I could do to get home. MTSU cancelled classes for the first time in like 30 years.

I wouldn't mind so much if I had some food here and my TV hadn't gone out.

Damn.


Well, over here in Knoxville, UT didn't shut down...their reasoning is that we're primarily a residential campus (for undergrads anyway), but professors do have the option to cancel classes.

I had both of my classes today (potential rant about one in the making...I'm just not sure that I'm worked up enough about it to rant) and made it home fine. Sure, it took me 45 minutes to go 5 miles and the last 2 blocks were the only ones I felt were at all worrisome (up a steep hill), but everyone else was slowing down so I did too. And I would have anyway, even if they hadn't.


Now I think I need some lunch....popcorn is sounding delightfully tasty and ever so healthy.

[Sauron]

Originally posted by NurseCarmen
I love being in southern cities when it snows. It makes me giggle. They are completely clueless.

Tell you what ... you don't make fun of the way we drive in winter weather, and we won't make fun of you when you try to make cornbread.

[Berkut]

Originally posted by NurseCarmen
I love being in southern cities when it snows. It makes me giggle. They are completely clueless. As opposed to up north, where they're clueless no matter what the weather.

[I can't believe that's butter!]

Yeah, but it's a "controlled" cluelessness.... :p

[Berkut]

Oops, forgot the :)

(how did THAT happen ;))

[Skelji]

I grew up in the North, and am now living in the South, and lemme tell ya something:

Most people are clueless no matter where they live, no matter what they drive, no matter what the weather. I know this is a fact, because if it wasn't, the SDMB would have 6 billion members. :p

[NurseCarmen]

Originally posted by Sauron
we won't make fun of you when you try to make cornbread.

Do you mean that it shouldn't require 4 tall glasses of milk to swallow 1 square of cornbread?? :D :D

okay, deal.

[Tuckerfan]

Originally posted by Joey G
Man, I live about a mile from campus, and it was all I could do to get home. MTSU cancelled classes for the first time in like 30 years.

I wouldn't mind so much if I had some food here and my TV hadn't gone out.

Damn. Last time MSTU cancelled classes was in January of 1993. I know, because I was climbing into my Jeep to head to class when my landlady's daughter came running out in her PJ's to tell me we didn't have class that day.

Heh, can't really bitch about the snow, though. Thanks to it, I get to work my job in the Stop-N-Rob tonight, since the other clerk won't be able to make it in. Think I'll bring my alarm clock and sleep since I doubt if I'll have too many customers :D!

[Calliope]

Tell me about it! I had to go to Austin Peay this morning for a test. I was done by 9:15am. I live 22 miles from campus. I finally arrived home at 12 noon. 2 hours, 45 minutes to go 22 miles. So it isn't just Nashville, the Clarksville drivers suck, too.

NOT FUN.

[smiling bandit]

Lsura

Wanna have lunch at Gus's sometime? Its greasy, fatty, and loaded with nutritional death.

But its delicious. :)

[BoBettie]

I don't mean they shouldn't be careful and such, but it's the two or three days of mass panic that the weatherpeople instill into the public. It's like "When in trouble, when in doubt, run around, scream and shout!"

They're cancelling school events for tonight all over, cancelling classes for tomorrow, the shelves are bare (no milk, bread), and people have been talking about it for days. That's what I find funny, not that people can't drive in it. (believe me, they drive like shit in NY, too)

[Berkut]

Originally posted by Tuckerfan
Last time MSTU cancelled classes was in January of 1993That's what I get for listening to a professor. He made it sound like the last time school was closed was when a T-rex got loose in the ag department or something. That long ago.

[Lsura]

Originally posted by smiling bandit
Wanna have lunch at Gus's sometime? Its greasy, fatty, and loaded with nutritional death.

But its delicious. :)

I have no idea what Gus's is (or where it is for that matter). I have no problem having lunch (even if you're an undergrad :p ).


Oh, and I did notice that they cancelled evening classes tonight...amazing.

[Berkut]

Originally posted by Calliope
Tell me about it! I had to go to Austin Peay this morning for a test. ... So it isn't just Nashville, the Clarksville drivers suck, too.
You live near Clarksville? I was born on Ft. Campbell and lived there for 25 years or so. Spent a few nights passed out at the Kappa Sig house at APSU :)

Always sucked having to go up Boot Hill in the snow.

[Batsinma Belfry]

Nashville traffic is pretty bad no matter what the weather, but this is ridiculous. They've been predicting "snow on Thursday" for the past week. Guess what? It snowed! on Thursday! The roads aren't even slick. It's just that everybody's trying to get home at the same time.

[Berkut]

Originally posted by Lsura
(even if you're an undergrad :p
Ouch. I'm undergrad and get treated better than the GTAs in my department. I guess the professors like having their computers working.

[Berkut]

Originally posted by Zette
They're cancelling school events for tonight all over, cancelling classes for tomorrow, the shelves are bare (no milk, bread)
Holy Crap! I forgot my duties as a Tennessean. I didn't rush to the store and get any milk or bread when the snow started.

I guess the favorite snowy-day pastime in TN is eating sammiches and drinking milk. Do people in other states run out and get bread and milk at the first sign of bad weather too?

[B.Pants]

Originally posted by Joey G
That's what I get for listening to a professor. He made it sound like the last time school was closed was when a T-rex got loose in the ag department or something. That long ago.

One of my professors at MT told me something to a similar effect. What's great is that before it even started snowing, I decided to skip some class today. What beautiful timing! I'm so glad that I can be a witness to one of these rare MTSU snow days! Woohoo!

[Cat Whisperer]

It's not just limited to southern cities; I've lived in Canadian cities across the Prairies (where it always snows in winter, regularly), and people lose their minds on the first snow fall here, too. People - most of you were born and raised in Canada. You have cars with winter tires on them. You have ALL done this before. How can you forget how to do this over the four months of summer we have?!? (And yes, the SUVs I pass in the ditch with my front-wheel drive Sundance just make me laugh and laugh...)

Stocking up groceries because of snow though, that's a completely southern thing. I've never felt the need to stock up on food in winter, even when living in northern Manitoba, where it was about -40 for about 8 months.

[Berkut]

Originally posted by B.Pants
I'm so glad that I can be a witness to one of these rare MTSU snow days! Woohoo! Apparently, it's rare enough that someone went out, took a picture of Kirksey Old Main, and put it on the website (http://www.mtsu.edu). That picture was up within an hour of the snow starting.

Those ITD guys work quick. :)

[BoBettie]

I guess the favorite snowy-day pastime in TN is eating sammiches and drinking milk. Do people in other states run out and get bread and milk at the first sign of bad weather too?

They do it from time to time in NY- when they call for 18" plus. Still, in my 32 years living there, I think I got "snowed in" twice, ever. And that was for about 3 days. I mean, can't you eat something else? I don't know- I guess they all stay home and make bread pudding over an open fire in the yard?

[Max Carnage]

I'm finally home!

FIVE HOURS!!! Five damned hours!!!! That's how long it took me to get 16 miles!!! Work to home usually takes me about 45 minutes in afternoon traffic. I left 4 hours early and got home 15 minutes later than normal.

Snow day my ASS!

[Max Carnage]

But yes, it was kind of worth it to watch the real wheel drive SUVs slipping and sliding. Take that, Terrorists!! :)

[scout1222]

Originally posted by Bearflag70
I lived in San Diego, and they had a hard time driving in DRIZZLE fer cryin' out loud!


And as the saying goes...some things never change.

[Tuckerfan]

Originally posted by Joey G
That's what I get for listening to a professor. He made it sound like the last time school was closed was when a T-rex got loose in the ag department or something. That long ago. Dude, take my advice as a former MTSU'er, don't listen to 90% your professors at MTSU! One of the reasons I quit that place in disgust was that I knew more about the subject being taught than the professors did. (If Dean's still teaching undergrad English, you'll get to hear his story about how he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, so he became an English prof because it looked easy. :eek: ) In the rare classes I had with a professor who did know something, I had to content with a class full of fellow students who were upset because they couldn't turn in their papers written in crayon!

[Zoe]

(Dipping my cornbread in buttermilk and turning on my video fireplace...)

This is the largest snow Nashville has had in twenty years. The conditions really are different here from what they are in most other places. Nashville is a hilly city with some salt trucks. But I've never seen a snow plow. The salt trucks got caught on the interstates along with everyone else.

My street is still covered with packed snow. In other parts of the city, the snow melted just a little and is now freezing into a solid sheet of ice.

In an a nearby county, seven loaded school buses were hit by cars. (No one injured.) Sixteen other buses were stranded, the last I heard. Some had to return to the school because they couldn't get through.

In Nashville, a TV news woman stopped to offer her meager lunch to the driver of a school bus. The driver declined and said that every time they got stuck in front of a convenience store, people would run out to give the kids food.

You are right about Nashville drivers. But I see that the Yanks who visit have as much trouble as the rest of us. My latitudinally-challenged brother-in-law (from Michigan) once scoffed at letting a little snow keep us from shopping. He quit scoffing when his car went out of control on the ice.

It's all in the attitude. Homegrown Southerners surrender to the snow. Many, if not most, won't be going into work tomorrow morning. It's like a holiday -- once you are home! Everything is concelled! No meetings, no classes, no malls open. You have to stay at home with your family.:eek:

Look for a baby boom next October. (Hey, you can only clean out so many closets...)

Meanwhile, Max, this one's for you: THWACK!! (hard snowballs, huh?)

[Siege]

A friend of mine was one of a team of archaeologist mostly from southwestern Pennsylvania who were on a dig down in Huntingdon, WV one winter. They got a couple of inches of snow and over in Kentucky, they called out the National Guard and closed the roads down. This crew of archaeologists got one of the jeeps and had a fine old time joy-riding around. An inch of snow? Wusses! :D

Then there was the 10 year old boy from Washington, DC who moved into the house across the street who was surprised to find out that an inch of snow means a 2 hour delay before school, not a cancellation. We do, however, cancel for 6 inches of snow.

Actually, I'm happier if I don't have to drive in snow. It's much nicer looking at it through the window of my living room than it is through the windows of my car. On the other hand, the stuff that's falling now will probably be gone from the roads in 12 hours or so.

CJ

[Tuckerfan]

Hey ! I saw a snowplow in Gallatin today! Of course, the guy was driving around with his blade [b]up, so it wasn't doing a lot of good.

[Skerri]

Ha ha. My ex (who moved to Nashville 2 months ago) just called me to tell me that he totalled his Land Rover today. It was a choice of driving down the hill and flying into traffic or hitting a tree and stopping. So, he chose the tree. He wasn't hurt, but then he had to turn around and walk back up the hill to his apartment. So, on his way up the hill, his boss calls him and tells him not to come into work today. Hee hee! (Ii only laugh because I HATED that car, and because he's fine, just a dork!)

He was born and raised in Charleston, though, and we only get enough snow to make the yard look like it has dandruff

[Berkut]

Originally posted by Max Carnage
I'm finally home!

FIVE HOURS!!! Five damned hours!!!!
Sounds familiar. My roomie called me at about 1pm from Brentwood and told me he was headed back to the Boro. I took a nap, ate, surfed for a while, etc. At 5 or so, he calls again and said he was on I-24 finally, headed home.

He was also amused by all the SUV roadkill.

[Zoe]

Tuckerfan, maybe that was just a training run. :)

I'm a little frightened and I'm trying not to be since there is nothing I can do. My sister and her elderly husband left a small town in West Tennessee, (about 125 miles away) at ten o'clock Thursday morning on their way to Nashville. They got within about 85 miles and that was the last anyone has heard from them. They haven't shown up at their hotel (as of 1:20 a.m. Friday) and they haven't called to cancel their reservations. They have two cell phones but don't answer either. I'm beginning to wonder if they slid off the road and out of sight. I would call the THP but I'm sure they have their hands full as it is.

The irony is that this is the afore mentioned brother-in-law from Michigan.

Things are worse here than we had imagined. Nashville has 6 to 9 inches instead of the 2-4 predicted. I don't ever remember a 9 inch snow here. There is an inch and a half of ice on the roads.

Schools began letting out by 9 a.m. The last kids arrived home at about 10 o'clock tonight.

The interstates are full of stranded vechicles in all directions. One direction is blocked by two jack-knifed trucks. Four wheel drives that worked earlier in the day (well, some of them worked) are sliding around as much as the tow trucks. One tow truck hit four cars.

It's begun to snow again -- lightly. Tomorrow night we expect a low of six degrees. I know that is springtime to some of you.

[Lyllyan]

As a Southern type person, let me assure you that snow down here is a big deal. We rarely get it, and it usually turns to ice not too long after it hits the ground. Driving is snow is a piece of cake. I drive very well when we go to Colorado in February. However, driving in snow and driving on ice are two very different things. We are not equiped with sand or salt trucks, have no snow tires etc.




And most of the wrecks are caused by the damn Yankees who fly down the interstate saying stupid things like "It's just snow!! Learn to drive in it!", shortly before they spin out in a patch of ice.
:)




No offense to all the damn Yankees that frequent the SDMB.:D

[Max Carnage]

Just to clarify, I'm as southern as lightinin bugs, pecan (puh-'kahn) pie, and magnolia trees having been born and raised in Nashville.

This IS the worst storm we've had in quite some time (still not as bad as the winter of '92, was it?) but geez, traffic was hell 15 minutes after the snow started. We panic about inclement driving conditions waaaaaaay too much.

Anyway, I just had to vent yesterday because I misseda perfectly good snowday. Today however is different. I can't get my car out (I imagine :)) so I called in and I'm going back to bed. Good night everyone!

[Tuckerfan]

I had, less than 40 customers in an eight hour shift at the store. I had several people tell me that it took them eight or more hours to get from Nashville to Gallatin (normally a 30 minute drive) last night. Forgot to take my alarm clock, dammit!

Oh, and Skammer, your call center wouldn't happen to be located at 455 Great Circle RD, would it? That's where the one I worked at last year was.

[Skammer]

No, Tucker, must be a different one.

One of the co-workers I was complaining about yesterday left here at 9:30 am yesterday and called us at 7:30 pm to say she had just gotten home - she had had to abandon her car somewhere on Donelson Pike.

I left a little after six and didn't have too much trouble, except one of the back roads I usually take was completely blocked by stranded cars. I had to turn around and take a detour. This morning, some of the back roads were a smooth sheet of ice (like the one I live on) but the major roads weren't too bad.

Of course, still only 2 of the analysts on my team felt inclined to try to come in today. I think we'll buy them lunch.

[Texican]

Well, it is after nine on friday, and the roads are impassible in many places here in the Nashville area. I had to park about a half a mile from home last night as I could not make it up my hill. Heavier cars could make it, but my light truck didn't stand a chance. My wife ended up staying in a hotel near work, so she is still there today. This is a seriously big snow for this place. Some areas where the hills are steep and the sun doesnt shine on the roads will be frozen until mid next week. I keep hoping a salt truck will come by so i can get my car back home.

While I have your attention, i'd like to relate one of the funniest things i have ever seen which happened the last time we had a good snow here:

I live on a cul-de-sac, in a low density area. We had received a good snow, and the streets were covered with firmly packed snow. I was standing at my front window admiring the view of the hills in the distance, when a car pulled on the street outside and a teenaged boy got out. I didn't recognize him, but i quickly figured out what was up as they pulled out a hydroslide (do they still call wake-boards that?) and a coil of ski rope. Interested, i watched them get set up. They tied the rope to the car. the other guys got back in the car. kid backs off about 10 feet from the car, lays down the remainder of the 30 odd ft coil of rope, and straps himself into the hydroslide. At this point I think "no way they are this stupid, surely he sees what is about to happen" But no, he gives the sign to the driver that he is ready, and he accelerates off. I'm watching the coils flip off, and this guy holding onto the ski rope handles waiting. I'm thinking "where is my video camera when I need it, this is like a real-life Warner Bros cartoon". The last coil plays out, the rope pulls taught, and....
Junior is pulled right over the front of the board, and plows a furrow down the road with his face. Not only that, the impact pulled the straps loose, and his feet are pointed right at the car, making him look like the letter "C" being pulled along face first. (why he didn't let go at the first impact is beyond me, but he did a great impression of a plow) The rope gets yanked out of his hand and he tumbles to a halt. By this time I am out on the porch laughing my ass off. Dude gets up, grabs the board and jumps in the car and they take off. I can see him yelling at his friends, like they were supposed to know to slowly take up the slack. I think it took me two days before i stopped laughing like crazy every time i thought about it. This was truly a precious moment i will treasure forever.

[zenith]

People drive poorly on snow in Omaha, too.

Call it "global warming", El Nino, whatever; but we haven't been getting as much snow since here as we used to. And, the snow we do get is typically widely spread. Many people forget how to drive on snow when January's mid-winter storm hits almost 3 months after first-snow-followed-by-Indian-summer and last snow of the season hits 3 months after the January snow.

Actually, "global warming" doesn't apply, since we still get the Arctic air--just not much snow to accompany it.

Between October 15 and April 15, we typically get more sleet and freezing drizzle than snow ( the exception is this winter where we haven't gotten much of any kind of precipitation,thus far.) The idiots in 4x4s with excessive ground clearance get the wind under them and skate right into the ditches every time it drizzles. This ain't Colorado, or Minnesota, or Buffalo,NY, people; you don't need 9'' of ground clearance for 1/2 " of sleet.

Drivers' Ed is given only in the summer. By fall, the books from that class and the pages concerning winter driving within those books have gone into File 13. And idiot parents, instead of taking kids to deserted parking lots of closed K-marts after first ice and teaching them the basics, buy the kids "safe" 4x4 Jeep Wranglers and Suzukis.

Auto manufacturers have sold people on the idea that tech beats skill. The brainwashed masses believe that 4-wheel-drive, electronic traction control, electronic stabilty control, anti-lock brakes, etc., will forgive any and all boneheaded moves on their part.

[Lsura]

Well, I was bored this morning and walked down the hill to see what the road at the bottom looked like. It still looked slick at 9ish, but by 1 the areas that got sun were cleared of snow, and a breeze was helping dry up the water, so I went out. Shady spots are still slick though, as the guy in the miata who was coming up behind me at the light near my house found out.

He was coming too fast up the road, and didn't realize that there was a patch of ice in the center turn lane. He hit the brake and started sliding (since the light was red, I was watching him in my rearview mirror). When he started sliding, I moved forward a little closer to the person in front of me, because I had a good five feet that I hadn't felt like using.

His front wheels slid into the opposing lane, he got some traction and managed to stop. If I hadn't moved forward, he would have hit me, but he didn't.

The look on his face through my rearview was classic though. (no, it wouldn't have been funny if he'd hit me or someone else. Since he hit nothing at all...I was able to chuckle over it.)

[vibrotronica]

For the record, I believe we got 8 inches of snow in Middle TN in 1988, which was the biggest snow I'd ever seen at that time.

Conditions in Memphis today: 32 degrees with not a cloud in the sky and not a flake on the ground.

Enjoy!

[Zoe]

The sister that I thought had frozen to death on I-65 North is actually basking in the sun in Florida.

I had such dreadful images all night. Wait till I get my hands on her!

[Kalashnikov]

Thanks for reminding me how much I love New Hampshire! Especially the plow guys who do a great job.

I can't say there are no bad drivers at all, since a lot of people here don't come from around here, but there aren't enough to matter. When the roads are snow covered traffic on the highway moves along at a steady 30-45 mph depending on the visibility. I don't think my commute has ever taken much more than twice the normal time.