<p>^^^It never rains, it pours. You’ll be glad when this weekend is over.</p>
<p>Very true, VeryHappy. </p>
<p>A friend from my high school posted a video of the flooded school. (It’s an outdoor school). I let out a maniacal laugh. All the walkways were flooded. The areas of grass were turned into lakes. @-) </p>
<p>I remember having to deal with walking between classes and having the water reach the bottom of your ankles because the rain would come down so fast. </p>
<p>Always, VH, always. </p>
<p>Turns out the doctors think it’s his blood pressure medication. We went through the same thing several months ago and they cut his dosage, but apparently not enough as the doctor at this hospital thinks he shouldn’t be on it at all. They are still running some tests but it’s likely he’ll be released tomorrow. I’m still going down since reservations are already made and my mom can use the company anyway. She has an aide who comes every day from 9-6 as my dad is mid stage Alzheimer (had good days and bad) which allows her to get out of the house without worrying about him being left alone, so I don’t have to do much of anything but keep her company…At least the weather report shows every day in the 80’s and no rain, and now that I won’t have to be sitting in a hospital room all day I threw bathing suit into my bag. </p>
<p>Decided to catch up on this thread. Can’t wait until this beta version of CC is fixed. Sure would have made it easier to have location identifiers, easier to read poster names and a “view first unread” search. </p>
<p>Here are my comments. Waay back in January there were the Florida comments. My locater used to say Wis to FL. It was cooler in Florida the summer (2012) we moved here- 100’s versus 90’s. Of course I’m sure with the up north drought the humidity must have been low. It is a lot easier to handle the heat and rain than the cold and snow. Florida summers- stay indoors, in shade when possible outdoors, use air conditioner (set at 78), Wisconsin winters, stay indoors, use furnace, bundle up. Getting used to the reversal of good/bad seasons. Crazy to plant some cold tolerant shrubs last week- in JANUARY. We just had a 3 1/2 day stretch of cold (50’s) rainy days- reminded me of why we chose Tampa over Seattle- drizzly cold is no fun.</p>
<p>It has been strange to see people in real winter coats with 50+ temps. My general rule of thumb was to wear a short sleeved top and usually shorts if the high would be above 60, adding a long sleeved sweater/jacket as needed. My old FL native neighbor put her Lhasa in a coat in that weather! Fine to keep clean/dry in rain- but, that dog already has a fur coat. In Wis our Shih Tzu hated the rain but loved to rub his face in the snow- he wore a coat to keep his tummy fur clean- from all of the dirty slush.</p>
<p>As I told my Dad in Wis- I don’t miss the snow and cold, more than 50 years were enough for me. I have more than enough stories to bore people with. We may be some of the few people here who have real snow shovels (the kiddie ones are great for using as outdoor dustpans- no bending), good winter boots, jackets, hats, gloves, mittens. They would be hard to replace if we ever had to go north in this weather. Oh- and up north car packages include heated seats.</p>
<p>While it was fun to laugh/shake our heads at Atlanta and the 2" of snow problems it wasn’t as benign as just snow. They had ICE- no car or person can mange that well. Lack of winter weather experience and means to handle it made for many poor judgements. Reminds me of how many people got caught a few years ago on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago- they never expected it to be so bad so quickly…</p>
<p>February has arrived, a short month followed by March and spring. The end of winter is in sight.</p>
<p>44 degrees here and the living’s easy!</p>
<p>
I was miffed to the nth degree on Thursday when I ran across an acquaintance who drives a school bus. I asked her if she felt lucky to not be an Atlanta bus driver, and she kind of shrugged it off, saying, “It was just a measly two inches of snow.” I quickly corrected her, and she didn’t seem to want to believe me about the ice. I asked her how she’d feel if she was stuck on a bus with a bunch of little kids who needed to go to the bathroom, with no way to do that since you’re stuck in gridlock, and she did seem to start to grasp the severity of the problem down there. Then, I was listening to one of our local radio stations who also started to whine about how the people in Atlanta overreacted. I wanted to call that radio station so bad and correct him, but I was driving in the car. I also heard the Syracuse football coach made a snotty reference to Atlantans for being soft-nosed regarding the snow on his twitter, which came down pretty quickly; but he has taken a lot of heat for the comments, and has since apologized. </p>
<p>S. M. H. </p>
<p>I don’t appreciate when people discount the severity of weather for an unaccustomed region just because their region gets it’s all the time. </p>
<p>The weather situation in the south was worse…largely BECAUSE they don’t have this type of weather very often. Driving in snow is not easy when you don’t normally do so (and might not have snow tires, AWD, decent tread, etc). Driving on ice is impossible regardless of what you are driving. All that AWD gives you is AW slip. </p>
<p>Here in the northeast, we have snow removal equipment, road brine, plenty of plows, sand salt trucks…and we are very prudent (usually) with regard to bad weather forecasts. </p>
<p>I think the south did the best they could do given the bad weather they experienced. Thank goodness it has warmed up there…and things are thawing out.</p>
<p>I just ventured outside. Definitely much warmer but looks like five ish inches of snow and it’s currently icy rain. I’m just over this. </p>
<p>January was officially our snowiest January on record. </p>
<p>As “over it” as I am–and I really am–it is so pretty outside right now. It’s sunny and everything is coated with fresh powder. I’m expecting a beautiful sky as it starts to get dark. Also, the days are noticeably longer and I have been hearing birds chirping in the morning. So there’s that.</p>
<p>It’s been dark and cloudy all day here. It’s been such a depressing winter.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago there was a thread asking whether weather should be a consideration in choosing colleges. Whoo, boy, I’d bet the answers would be a bit different if that thread was running this winter. In that old thread I wrote about how miserable it was crossing my northern Wisconsin campus in January in the late 70’s/early 80’s. Those were a couple of bitterly cold, snowy winters, and even for a native Wisconsin girl it was no fun. I was roundly flamed by some posters who doubted it had been as bad as all that.</p>
<p>^ There have been a couple threads that have popped up the past few weeks about considering the weather of schools. </p>
<p>One thing I don’t like about the north (or any other region that experiences seasons) is that it is so ugly in the winter time. The grass is brown. The sky is grey. The trees are barren. Bleh. It only looks pretty when the snow comes. </p>
<p>PS. Florida’s trees have officially entered “fall”. We’ve got some leaves a changin! </p>
<p>Everybody has a different prediction about our Tuesday/Wednesday snow. With any luck, it will go south of us completely! Today was icky. Snowed in the morning, rained in the afternoon. Everything’s going to freeze tonight so I’ll have to go out and toss some salt around. </p>
<p>The one really cool thing about these bad winters is how much we truly appreciate Spring when it arrives. When you feel that warmth from the sun and one day, suddenly, everything is green again. The flowers are blooming and the birds are singing and life feels SO great. Yes, I’m looking forward to that for sure this year. </p>
<p>I have noticed the days are longer again. Even when it took me an hour and a half to get home from work, the sun was just setting as I got home. For a while there, it was setting when I left work. There’s hope 
</p>
<p>Thank you for defending the Atlanta bus drivers, teri. YOur friend truly has no concept of what happened down here. The news shows videos of kids playing ice hockey in the streets. Thats how icy it waas. Ant its hilly here. And people are unfamiliar wit how to drive in this, which is neer impossible anyway when its a sheet of ice. People pulled together in amazing ways. Not sure that would happen as effectively elsewhere. Would like to thinks so, but dont know.</p>
<p>Here’s a good article on how the politicians should have responded <a href=“The Only 3 Things Atlanta Mayor and Georgia Gov. Should Have Said, And 5 Things They Should Have Done | HuffPost Latest News”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>Well, the latest forecast looks like the storm is going to stay almost completely under Michigan. We’re getting a few inches but nothing like they were originally predicting. Not that I wish more snow on anyone but I’m glad that it’s not coming here (for now). </p>
<p>I’ve seen all kinds of different predictions for that storm. Fingers crossed that it stays under Michigan. Then again, I’m in the southern part here and when things hit closer to the Ohio border is when we usually get included in that. </p>
<p>Sure wish you could send some of that winter weather to the West Coast! We awoke to the glorious sound of RAIN! Woo Hoo! First time since December 7! And, while I realize many of you hate the little bugger right now, we’re so hoping that Puxatawney Phil is correct! We’ll gladly take six more weeks of winter (since it has eluded us so far this year)…</p>
<p>It’s a nice sunny 81 degree day here in Florida. </p>
<p>Winter better be over. I hope Florida turned in it’s Groundhog Winter Waiver in time this year…</p>