Winter Wonderland

Here in southeast Michigan, Mother Nature has blessed us with over 35 inches of snow since last month. Local city, township, and county road commissions, on the other hand, have deprived us of any snow removal services during this time. Apparently, due to "budget concerns," the plow and salt truck drivers are not being offered any overtime pay this year. However, they never even seem to be out plowing or salting the roads during regular hours, either. And, of course, there are the alleged salt shortages that all the nearby counties have been whining about. Seriously, there is no shortage of salt. The counties just don't want to purchase any more because they did not put that into their budgets due to the fact that some nitwits hoped and prayed that there would be below-average snowfall this winter. To get to my point, the roads around here have been just terrible - always snow covered and icy, with vehicles careening into each other and/or sliding off the highways in alarming numbers. People are getting stuck in piles of snow, much like they did before the era of SUVs and front-wheel drive cars. Driving anywhere takes double or triple the time. There is simply too much traffic, and there are too many novice drivers in the metro area, to justify cutting the road-clearing expenses so drastically. You'd think they could spare a little sand or something, anyway.

It has also been unbelievably cold around here the past few days! Last night, Adam's weather station thermometer read 11 degrees below zero. Willow Run Airport reported a low of -9. Brrr! I do enjoy all of the snow we've been receiving, but the sub-zero temperatures feel rather bracing. This will make it a lot easier to tolerate 30 degree temps when they return next week, though. Now, that'll seem downright balmy!