Leaving the store after a 13 hour shift with only one break. Shelves are near empty, the store has set an all-time one day sales record, and we still are not closed yet.
I am too tired to grouse anymore and tomorrow it’s the same thing all over again. All for a storm named after the annoying kid from Sleepless in Seattle.
People are abandoning their cars in DC? Even though traffic was at a standstill in most directions I had no problem moving in my 1990 Corolla. I knew I’d never get to my appointment on time (it was actually near the creek discussed in SD where there was supposed to be a few smallmouth bass).
Beware the snow whales…
Apparently we’re expecting weather here in Connecticut this weekend, too. They’re sending us an extra truck this week, full of snowthrowers.
All along NH Ave, they’re not getting up the hill and people are parking and walking to the Petworth metro.
Apparently everyone was so distracted by Friday that MDOT and VDOT just forgot to pre-treat the roads today or didn’t take the forecast seriously or something. It’s a disaster out there. This seems to happen every year with the first measurable snowfall, then they get their act together. Hopefully not a portent of things to come this weekend.
This was similar to Carmageddon from a few years ago; snow strikes and the roads are both untreated and so full of traffic that the trucks can’t get out to spread the salt. For me my 1 hour commute was 4 hours.
The beltway from Conn to Rt 50 in MD normally takes 15 - 20 minutes. Today it was 3 hours with an average of 5mph driving.
My wife left work in Southwest DC at 7 and still hasn’t made it home 5 1/2 hours later. VDOT put out a story about pre-treating not working below freezing, which is silly, while Arlington said it did pre-treat, of which there is no evidence. Basically, it sounds like everyone was asleep at the switch and is now trying to BS their way through it.
You know those double long Metrobuses with the accordion section in the middle? One of those slid sideways blocking all lanes of traffic near my house. My wife and I were walking our dog and just marveling at the chaos of one inch of snow. I’m working from home tomorrow.
It is in situations like this that people who do a bit of prepping, me for example, get to sit back, relax and enjoy feeling a bit smug.
Me too, but my neighbors all took it to the next level. I noticed everyone moved their cars to the alley which I thought was weird, but then I saw all the cars bail on NH avenue and try to drive up our side street fishtailing from curb to curb. Every car on the block would have been hit had they been on the street. My wife and I drank hot buttered rum and watched from our upstairs window as people slid around.
Dweezil’s shift was from 10 to 6 yesterday, and he stayed a bit late because they were so swamped. He walked home, as both of our cars were unavailable - the snow had just started to get heavy enough that when he came in, his beard was covered. He works tonight from 3:30 to 9 - I expect it’ll be a zoo then as well. He works tomorrow night, same hours, and that’s what worries me as the roads will be getting pretty unsafe by then.
The roads were apparently a real mess last night- housemate and my husband both had “fun” commutes home. I’d heard we were just supposed to get flurries, but it was a lot more than that.
My husband stopped at the store to pick up a few things. I’d forgotten to get eggs when shopping Tuesday (can’t make snowed-in-need-munchies baked goods w/o eggs, after all!) and apparently the supply was pretty well picked over. He didn’t go down the bread aisle but the last time I shopped when snow was predicted, it was decimated.
Oh yeah: our housemate was at a Home Depot yesterday and managed to snag their last bag of ice melt. With the bin that’s being shipped to arrive today, and the couple of small bins we have in the cars, we should have more than enough to pretreat the driveway and front walk. I wonder if there’ll be a black market for the stuff on our street 
It all reminds me of the first big storm in the winter of 2009-10. My gallbladder decided it really wanted to come out and play, as we were snowed in with 18+ inches of the stuff with no way to get out to go to the hospital. I was waiting on the insurance company’s nurse line, thinking about how if they said “hospital. Now.” I was going to have to struggle out to the main street (which had been blowed, sort of) and call 911 for a lift.
It’s now a lot later: has she made it home???
I’m fortunate to work 100% remotely. My husband works in Maryland but the Beltway in that direction was solid red traffic so he’s spending the morning here. He’s planning on working from home tomorrow.
I think it’s a comfort-food thing as much as anything. You’re snowed in, you want to be able to lounge in front of the TV (when you’re not outside shoveling) and
eat goodies. When else do you have an excuse to be that indolent?
Ground beef can be hard to find just before a storm, too - I wanted to make some chili once, as that’s great freezing-weather fare, and apparently I was NOT the only one with that idea. It took hitting 3 or 4 grocery stores before I found any.
Left the Kennedy Center at 10 on Wednesday evening. At 11, I could still see the Kennedy Center. I got off the interstate as soon as I was in Va and had no trouble getting home after that.
I just talked to a coworker who said it took her 4.5 hours to get home from our DC office last night. And that a friend of hers was holed up at a supermarket until 4am because she couldn’t get her car up the hill to her house.
Eventually. DC drivers get a lot of flak for their ability to drive in snow, but the ultimate problem on her road was that a Metrobus had spun out and blocked all but one lane. And bailing out onto a side street would have been a crapshoot, since they were hilly and untreated.
I wish we could have a snow event in Los Angeles. 
Doesn’t rain cause the same effect?
Just on traffic because people dint know how to drive in the rain. Im also really disappointed because this was supposed to be an El Nino winter with lots of rain. Mother Nature, you let us down.
WMATA just announced they’re shutting down Metro services for [del]most of[/del] the weekend.
ETA to remove “most of.” I misread.