But yes, it was kind of worth it to watch the real wheel drive SUVs slipping and sliding. Take that, Terrorists!! 
And as the saying goes…some things never change.
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!
(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?)
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! 
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
Hey [bZoe**! I saw a snowplow in Gallatin today! Of course, the guy was driving around with his blade up, so it wasn’t doing a lot of good.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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!
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!
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.