Snow And The South

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I've lived in WNC for nearly 12 years after living in the Land of Snow and Ice (aka Michigan) for my whole life. And it still boggles my mind how people act when there is just snow in the forecast!

I do admit that when it start snowing, I stay off the roads. Last year, we got snowed in for several days because there are simply not enough plows / salt trucks to clear all the roads in a quick fashion. A little bit of snow can shut things down.

But it's not suppose to start snowing until this afternoon at the earliest. Last forecast I saw had it starting at 8 pm tonight. Right now, it's cloudy and grey, but nothing falling from the sky.

Yesterday, I went to Walmart. My main goal was to pick up a prescription, but the line for the pharmacy was super long and I knew that I wouldn't make it to the front in time because I had to be home before Emily got home from school.

So I ended up just buying bread and milk. It was stuff I needed but it was funny because when there is snow a-coming, people in the South stock up on bread and milk.

The parking lot at Walmart was crazy. People seemed to have forgotten normal parking lot behavior. I ended up pulling forward into a spot and I thought a lady was going to shank me because she had wanted that spot.

Trying to get out was just as tricky. People were going way too fast and not paying attention to where they were going. It was just crazy and that was yesterday - at least 24 hours before it was even maybe suppose to snow.

For everyone in the South who might get hit by frozen water coming out of the sky, remember be calm. Snow can't hurt you but slamming your car into someone in a parking lot might!

Southern SnowApocalypse of 2014

Snow is something I’m very familiar with. I grew up in Holland, Michigan which is right off the coast of Lake Michigan. Every winter we would get dumped on, snow-wise, because of the lake effect. It wasn’t odd to not see grass from November until March. I dislike snow a lot and was happy when we moved down to NC. We still get winter but it’s usually much milder and not as long.

Not this year though. Thanks to the polar vortexes we’ve gotten a ton of snow and zero degree temperatures. A couple of days ago, Atlanta was gridlocked because of the snow. We got a couple of inches here. My husband is great driver in snow but when he left for work on Tuesday, he didn’t get very far before he decided the roads were too bad and came home.

We have a unique perspective because of growing up in Michigan. Things are different down here because they just aren’t prepared for snow. Todd said the roads were so bad because the plow trucks weren’t plowing they were just salting. So it made it very dangerous.

I saw tons of posts on Facebook and Twitter of friends stranded, running out of gas and having to walk home. It’s crazy to think a few inches of snow could cause so much chaos but living down here we just don’t have as many winter resources down here.

Emily didn’t have school for three days because of the snow and cold this week. While I wish she could go to school I do feel better safe than sorry. A bus overturned not far from here on Tuesday when it was snowing so much. There were just minor injuries but it was very scary to even think about all those kids on that bus.

It’s supposed to be 40 today so the snow will be melting, ending the SnowApocalypse of 2014. Hopefully this will be the last of the horrible winter weather down here but I’m not holding my breath.