Lately, Ive taken to spending time on Web sites searching vacation homes in Florida. Seeing all this snow and feeling all of this cold makes me long for a southern place.
Id hoped that the purchase of a snowblower would bring little or no snow this winter. The past couple of weeks have kind of dashed those hopes. Im getting tired of winter, already. And its not even winter yet!
(By the way, while the participation was modest at best, I was surprised that more people responded to our Life News poll question last week by saying they preferred a shovel to a snowblower. Are you kidding me?! I understand the measure of pride one takes in the manual labor of shoveling. But Ill take the snowblower and 45 minutes of pushing over 90 minutes of shoveling any day.)
One the problems of living in Freeport and working in Monroe is that I drive to work before the plows hit the roads. I leave home at around 3 a.m. (give or take a few punches at the snooze button). Plows dont start on state highways until 4 a.m. when it snows.
It seemed that last winter most of the heaviest snows were overnight events, which meant a lot of driving on untreated roads. There arent many cars on the highway at that time of the morning, which is a blessing when Im on the road but would be a curse if I wind up in a ditch.
This winter weather season has started out much the same way, and I dont like that. I understand why counties save money by waiting to send the plows out in the morning. It makes financial sense. But the bottom line is that condition of the highway between Freeport and Monroe worsens when you go north of the state line.
And if you think Im dissing on Wisconsin, its usually the Illinois drivers that ride your bumper when you drive a little slower to navigate the rougher road. Like that jerk in the SUV yesterday morning!
Anyway, the drive Tuesday morning wasnt much of a challenge. The drive home in the afternoon was a bit more tricky, but still OK. I could understand, though, why area schools took their first full snow days Tuesday. I imagine the roads off the highways were pretty dicey and icy.
I was a bit surprised when we found out Tuesday morning, and again this morning, that the traffic toll of the storm wasnt too bad. No serious accidents. Only a handful of slideoffs.
I was heartened that one of the reasons given Tuesday for the low numbers was the media attention before the storm.
John Reichling, Lafayette County chief deputy, said the amount of attention made people aware of how serious the storm would, or could, be. Id like to think that in our own small way, The Monroe Times contributed to that awareness.
Id hoped that the purchase of a snowblower would bring little or no snow this winter. The past couple of weeks have kind of dashed those hopes. Im getting tired of winter, already. And its not even winter yet!
(By the way, while the participation was modest at best, I was surprised that more people responded to our Life News poll question last week by saying they preferred a shovel to a snowblower. Are you kidding me?! I understand the measure of pride one takes in the manual labor of shoveling. But Ill take the snowblower and 45 minutes of pushing over 90 minutes of shoveling any day.)
One the problems of living in Freeport and working in Monroe is that I drive to work before the plows hit the roads. I leave home at around 3 a.m. (give or take a few punches at the snooze button). Plows dont start on state highways until 4 a.m. when it snows.
It seemed that last winter most of the heaviest snows were overnight events, which meant a lot of driving on untreated roads. There arent many cars on the highway at that time of the morning, which is a blessing when Im on the road but would be a curse if I wind up in a ditch.
This winter weather season has started out much the same way, and I dont like that. I understand why counties save money by waiting to send the plows out in the morning. It makes financial sense. But the bottom line is that condition of the highway between Freeport and Monroe worsens when you go north of the state line.
And if you think Im dissing on Wisconsin, its usually the Illinois drivers that ride your bumper when you drive a little slower to navigate the rougher road. Like that jerk in the SUV yesterday morning!
Anyway, the drive Tuesday morning wasnt much of a challenge. The drive home in the afternoon was a bit more tricky, but still OK. I could understand, though, why area schools took their first full snow days Tuesday. I imagine the roads off the highways were pretty dicey and icy.
I was a bit surprised when we found out Tuesday morning, and again this morning, that the traffic toll of the storm wasnt too bad. No serious accidents. Only a handful of slideoffs.
I was heartened that one of the reasons given Tuesday for the low numbers was the media attention before the storm.
John Reichling, Lafayette County chief deputy, said the amount of attention made people aware of how serious the storm would, or could, be. Id like to think that in our own small way, The Monroe Times contributed to that awareness.
