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wsuffa

wsuffa

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 22, 2005
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Bill S.
The Federal Goverment has declared a "snow day" in DC for tomorrow - workers get the day off. :mad2: (snark on) Guess that work isn't so important, is it? (snark off)

I'll be working from home (VPN and phone, that's all I need) since the office building I'm in is mostly DHS with some private companies like the one I work for. Likely the building won't open (heat down) as the general policy in the DC area is one of "government closed, we'll close too".

so, I'll revise the warning in the other thread: "DRIVERS WATCH OUT! SHOPPERS WILL HEAD FOR THE MALLS ALL DAY! THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORK! STORE EMPLOYEES REPORT IN DROVES AND EXPECT OVERTIME"
 
Maybe this is part of the stimulus plan?

I will have to go to the Mall tomorrow, alas... had planned to do so this wkd.
 
woodstock said:
Maybe this is part of the stimulus plan?
Click to expand...

We think alike.

I will have to go to the Mall tomorrow, alas... had planned to do so this wkd.
Click to expand...

I try to avoid the malls, preferring to shop at smaller botiques and so forth. Exceptions are made for things like LL Bean @ Tyson's and Nordstrom, though REI is pretty good for outdoor stuff.
 
wsuffa said:
The Federal Goverment has declared a "snow day" in DC for tomorrow - workers get the day off. :mad2: (snark on) Guess that work isn't so important, is it? (snark off)

I'll be working from home (VPN and phone, that's all I need) since the office building I'm in is mostly DHS with some private companies like the one I work for. Likely the building won't open (heat down) as the general policy in the DC area is one of "government closed, we'll close too".

so, I'll revise the warning in the other thread: "DRIVERS WATCH OUT! SHOPPERS WILL HEAD FOR THE MALLS ALL DAY! THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORK! STORE EMPLOYEES REPORT IN DROVES AND EXPECT OVERTIME"
Click to expand...

El Presidente also issued a 1/2 day work day for the 24th for all Gov't agencies nation wide. So that's two extra shopping days.. the merchants should be thrilled for the economic recovery plan. :mad2:
 
I don't know why y'all are making fun of this stimulus plan. It should work out great as government employees are about the only ones who can afford normal Christmas shopping.
 
Any day the government isn't doing anything is a good day.
 
RickH said:
Any day the government isn't doing anything is a good day.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. I hope they make a week of it, and then decide to extend it through New Year's. That would be that much less damage they can do.

-Rich
 
Be thankful you don't get all the government you pay for.
and
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while Congress is in session.

I am the emergency manager for my city. This storm is a piker.
I don't even start paying attention unless the snow forecast is 10" or greater.
 
wsuffa said:
The Federal Goverment has declared a "snow day" in DC for tomorrow - workers get the day off. :mad2: (snark on) Guess that work isn't so important, is it? (snark off)

I'll be working from home (VPN and phone, that's all I need) since the office building I'm in is mostly DHS with some private companies like the one I work for. Likely the building won't open (heat down) as the general policy in the DC area is one of "government closed, we'll close too".

so, I'll revise the warning in the other thread: "DRIVERS WATCH OUT! SHOPPERS WILL HEAD FOR THE MALLS ALL DAY! THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORK! STORE EMPLOYEES REPORT IN DROVES AND EXPECT OVERTIME"
Click to expand...

I don't know how it is in your neighborhood but in Anne Arundel County east of DC, they have still not plowed the roads in my community and my wife cannot get out of our driveway. Maybe they will get them plowed tonight but I'm not betting on it. I got 24 inches of snow at my house and until they roads are plowed I just can't get anywhere. I happen to full time telecommute but I know most people don't have that option.
 
PilotAlan said:
Be thankful you don't get all the government you pay for.
and
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while Congress is in session.

I am the emergency manager for my city. This storm is a piker.
I don't even start paying attention unless the snow forecast is 10" or greater.
Click to expand...

In Austin a week or so ago, they were announcing school closures for Austin ISD because they were forecasting a 30% chance of snow FLURRIES! (no accumulation, only flurries!) :yikes: But, having seen how most people around here drive on even slightly slick streets...it doesn't surprise me the city doesn't want people on the streets if a few snow flakes might stick.:rofl:
 
ausrere said:
In Austin a week or so ago, they were announcing school closures for Austin ISD because they were forecasting a 30% chance of snow FLURRIES! (no accumulation, only flurries!) :yikes: But, having seen how most people around here drive on even slightly slick streets...it doesn't surprise me the city doesn't want people on the streets if a few snow flakes might stick.:rofl:
Click to expand...

Given that the cops, paramedics, bus drivers and firemen dont have experience driving on frozen pavement, let alone the general populace.. I could imagine WHY the whole world was shutting down because the sky was falling.

I work in a small hospital with limited staffing resources.. and I had to repeat many times over that I was NOT accepting the weather as a reason to call in, and a doctors note WOULD be required before you could return to work. Half the staff tried to take a snow day. Folks were calling me early in the day for night shift.. :mad2:

I told em you have 10 (or 4 or 3, or whatever time they had left) hours to get to work. Drive slow. be careful. Show up.
 
I assume a lot of this is fear of litigation. My University has closed more times this decade than in the century before, and the wx isn't even as bad as it used to be.

The University of Michigan will not close for snow. They did once and got sued by the students. Rightly so, the students (or their parents) pay a lot of money for University. Someone should sue the government over this. Seriously, we're paying for it, and a lot of those people are bureaucrats handing out grants and subsidies.
 
ausrere said:
In Austin a week or so ago, they were announcing school closures for Austin ISD because they were forecasting a 30% chance of snow FLURRIES! (no accumulation, only flurries!) :yikes: But, having seen how most people around here drive on even slightly slick streets...it doesn't surprise me the city doesn't want people on the streets if a few snow flakes might stick.:rofl:
Click to expand...

When I was a kid, the NYC public schools shut down pretty much any time the snow was more than six inches or so. The Catholic and other private schools pretty much followed the public schools' lead, partly because the school buses stopped running when the public schools closed.

Nowadays, the NYC schools never seem to close. We've had a few storms that dumped well over a foot during the last decade or so, and I don't recall the schools closing on any of those occasions -- much to the dismay of NYC schoolchildren and teachers.

Nowadays, people pretty much assume that the schools will be open unless the buildings themselves are covered in snow. Yesterday we had, I guess, about ten inches of snow where I live, with drifts up to a couple of feet. Not a horrible storm, but certainly enough to guarantee a couple of days off from school when I was a kid.

Not any more.

After I was done shoveling my driveway yesterday, I went and got some hot cocoa for the next-door neighbor's little sons, who had been "helping" me. While they were sipping their cocoa, I asked them if they thought they'd get a snow day out of the storm.

They looked at me with puzzled looks and asked, "What's a snow day?"

-Rich
 
Rich, I was in school in NYC from 1989 through 2002. We had snow days in that time period, generally one or two per year. It was rare, but it happened. Usually it was on the days that weren't as bad as the other days that there should have been snow days.

Maybe things have changed since I left.
 
When I was a kid we would only have a snow day if the school superintendent couldn't make it to work. We were pretty sure he drove snow plow or something similar. The only snow days I can recall were for the giant blizzard of '77 (I think that was when it happened) that buried construction equipment on our street.

I imagine the age of litigation has changed that particular equation markedly.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Rich, I was in school in NYC from 1989 through 2002. We had snow days in that time period, generally one or two per year. It was rare, but it happened. Usually it was on the days that weren't as bad as the other days that there should have been snow days.

Maybe things have changed since I left.
Click to expand...

Oh, it's possible that they shut down a few times in that period. I no longer have school-aged children, so I don't keep that close a tab on school closings. I remember the Blizzard of '03, for example, was really bad. I'd be surprised if the schools were open in that mess. But I don't recall whether they were or not.

My point is that snow days are a very rare thing these days. I regularly see kids trudging back and forth in snow that would have shut the schools down when I was a kid. It's kind of fun to watch, actually, because some of these kids are from places where it never snows, and the look of wonder in their eyes always makes me smile.

Mayor Bloomberg is roundly criticized by parents and the teachers' union after every snowstorm for "endangering" children by keeping the schools open. His response is always pretty much the same: If parents think it's too dangerous to send their kids to school, then keep them home. But for those who can make it, school is in session.

Having lived in Syracuse for a few years back in the early 80's, I rank my snow driving skills as well above average. But since returning to the NYC Metro area, my policy has been to try to reschedule field appointments that had been scheduled for the first day of the first major snowstorm of every year, if the storm occurs on a weekday. Every year brings a new crop of immigrants from countries with warmer climates, and the first snowstorm seems to cause an irresistible temptation for these folks to try driving in snow for the first time. This invariably causes the highways to be littered with fender-benders, with the unmistakable crunch of metal crashing into metal punctuated by colorful curses in many and diverse tongues.

By the second day, they've all gotten it out of their systems, and life goes on.

-Rich
 
steingar said:
When I was a kid we would only have a snow day if the school superintendent couldn't make it to work. We were pretty sure he drove snow plow or something similar.
Click to expand...

Heh... This reminds me of an interview the local paper did with the superintendent of my school district while I was in high school. They asked him how he made the decision, and his answer was something like this:

"I get up very early, check the current and forecast weather, call the bus barn and ask Gary's opinion, and look at what other area districts are doing. Then, I open the door to let my dog outside to pee. If the dog won't go outside, school is cancelled." :rofl:
 
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