I am ready to be snowed in this weekend. The Sable is safely parked, and the cabinets are full. I am set. My castle is stocked up. Bring it on, nature.
Otherwise, today I discovered that adults can be just as bad as children when it comes to getting revved up about a potential snow day. All I heard today was, “Do you think we’re going to get tomorrow off?” I was all, noooooooo, since I think that the Feds have already decided on their course of action. They’re operating under an unscheduled leave policy for Friday, which for us basically means show up. Now whether they close early once the snow starts coming down is another story.
Meanwhile, speaking of snow days, when I was in school, I always just wanted to strangle those teachers that acted like it was our fault for missing school due to bad winter weather when we grumbled about having to go to school on Memorial Day for make-up days. These teachers that would say, “You had your Memorial Day back in January!” Big help. Like it’s my fault that it snowed. I remember my seventh grade year was hell for that kind of thing. We had something like 16 snow days that year. Thus we had no days off of any kind except for weekends from the last snow day in March through to like June 16 plus one Saturday (yes, we had one make-up day on a Saturday). And when you couple that with the fact that my homeroom teacher was a real d—–bag, it made for a very rough year. This particular teacher even made fun of me (in a mean way) in front of the whole class when he presented me my perfect attendance certificate at the end of the year. I had better attendance than he did that year, and he made fun of me…
Then this evening, I went grocery shopping. That place was remarkably busy for 9:30 at night. But when people are planning on getting snowed in, it makes sense. Lines were snaking way back towards the frozen section, and many areas were picked clean. But I am now snowstorm-resistant. I have food, and I have beverages. I am set. I commented on the phone to Katie that you’d think the world was coming to an end or something the way people were cleaning out the store.
And finally, on my way home from work today, I spotted this little gem on the northbound yard platform at Brentwood:
Image: Mr. Safety
It’s on the back wall of that little platform structure, right where the riders can see it. Presumably, the banner is cheaper than training, and makes them look like they’re doing something to the public. Some of Metro’s recent safety gaffes are just plain inexcusable, and a little banner is not going to help anything, even if it is in a conspicuous place where riders can see it. The whole banner thing kind of reminds me of the “Safety Department of the Month” thing that they used to do at Wal-Mart. Rather than actually promote safety in the store, they just hung a banner from the ceiling to make it look like they’re doing something. As someone who was part of the safety team at Wal-Mart, I can tell you that safety is a joke over there.