Snow Day

Having lived in Boston the past 2 years, I almost forgot about snow days!  It certainly wasn't due to the lack of snow, they just don't care.  Today is my second snow day of med school and it brings back memories of the massive amounts of snow days I had growing up in Maryland.  Lots of my classmates who come from around the country are baffled by these snow days, calling us Marylanders a bunch of wussies (hey, I didn't make the cancellations!) but having lived up and down the East coast now I understand the varying reactions to weather as simply a matter of preparedness.

This morning's snow day

When we lived in Charleston, South Carolina I don't think we saw snow once.  One time we did have freezing rain and it was like the end of the world!  We lived on Daniel Island, which required a bridge to get home from any direction.  Thinking how stupid it was that my work was cancelled, I headed to the mall in North Charleston to go shopping.  Apparently that was a bad choice, because when I decided to head home the bridge was closed.  No problem I thought, I will just drive downtown to the Ravenel bridge!  Surely they wouldn't close the largest bridge in the area, the main connection to downtown Charleston... Silly me, that bridge was closed too.  I literally had no way of getting home.

Bridge required!

winter in Charleston

Fast forward 2.5 moves later to Boston.  I woke up during one of the many blizzards that brought multiple feet of snow and thought for sure my office would be closed.  I texted the others in the office just to make sure.  "We're open! The roads are fine!"  I was texted back.  My husband had taken my car to work since he had to drive up to Maine and was required to be there no matter what.  So I was left with his car with its worn-out summer tires.  I skidded all the way to work.  At lunch I went to move the car, to avoid adding to my collection of parking tickets.  The car was plowed in.  This was just perfect.  Now I know why Bostonians keep a shovel in their car.  I had an ice scraper handy, and after a few minutes of sweating, cursing, tire spinning and a shattered ice scraper... I eventually got the car out.  Boston was prepared for the snow, but I wasn't.

Plowed in

So now I'm back to Maryland, something in between Charleston and Boston.  I have never seen snow plowing efficiency like I have in Boston, just as I have never seen plowing inefficiency like I have in Maryland.  The biggest blizzard we had in Boston, we had plows coming down our small side street (and even our driveway!) as soon as the snow started falling.  For an equivalent snow in Maryland, they called it Snowmageddon and we were stuck in the house for a week with no plows in sight.


I think the dogs choose Boston...


Okay one more dog video: