Today, I was talking to someone originally from NYC and we were saying we did not agree with the schools closing 2 hours early today. We were mentioning that where we are from, they would never even delay schools for things that Maryland schools close for. And they wouldn’t close stuff before it actually happened. They wouldn’t shut down for something that might occur.
Someone (who has obviously lived in MD all her life) overhead us talking and was getting so defensive and saying that Maryland does not have barely any resources and that people’s and schools’ vehicles are much more well-equipped to handle the snow in Ohio (where I used to live). They are?! Do people in other states have cars with heated tires that melt the snow as they drive? Do the school buses there have magical wings that appear when flakes come down from the sky? I was not aware of this.
When I pointed out to her that people drive the same vehicles, she then said “Well, but we don’t have as many people working on the roads compared to where you’re from”. Actually, I think it’s the opposite. In Maryland, there are trucks that wait on the side of the road for hours before it snows. And not only do the majority of the roads get treated, but they usually get treated pretty quickly after the weather starts. In Ohio, there were a lot of roads that never got treated. I’m not just talking about dinky little country roads, either. But people just dealt.
Then she said since we are not used to the snow in Maryland, it’s natural that we act this way. Okay, it does snow less than what I’m used to but it’s definitely not a rare occurrence. People should not freak out with light snow.
I’m not saying that schools never close in other parts of the country. It just takes a lot more. And I’m not saying not to be careful. That’s actually totally what I’m saying. Don’t stay inside and avoid the outside world. Just live your life normally but slow down a little and be a little cautious. Don’t freak. That’s what causes more accidents. And people who know me realize I have some anxiety issues so for me to say to calm down and stop panicking, you know that those people have to be pretty bad, haha. I think freaking out makes it worse because I get stuck behind these people who keep slamming on their brakes for no good reason, which causes me to have to avoid hitting them and the person behind me has to the same. And this could cause accidents that wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t overreact.
And what is up with the milk and toilet tissue thing? I still don’t understand it to this day. I remember one day I went to the store and it was a madhouse in there. I didn’t know why. The refrigerator had almost no milk left. I didn’t know what was going on. Then I found out that it was supposed to snow the next day, which it didn’t. And the forecast only called for a “light dusting”, yet these people were still freaking. I think people should all buy booze before a “snow storm”. I mean, if you’re going to be “trapped inside”, you might as well get drunk.
Oddly enough, a lot of people in Maryland seem to be too chill when it comes to freezing rain. Freezing rain is something I will not drive in because I can’t. And no, sleet is not the same thing as freezing rain. Freezing rain leaves a coat of solid ice on the ground. It doesn’t matter what kind of car you drive, you can barely even back out of a parking spot without hitting something. I mean, you can’t even walk. Yet, a lot of Baltimoreans just seem to be like “Eh” when it happens. Then when the roads clear, I’ll see all these cars on bridges that ran into the walls and were stuck there. Seems like people need to reverse their thinking.