Good Bye and Good Riddance-Winter

I don’t know about you, but I for one am ready to oust winter from my vocabulary. Now, I appreciate that winters here in sunny Virginia don’t last as long, nor are felt as deeply as they are in the northeast, where I grew up, but I still would rather have some nice down to Virginia Spring weather.

How about you?

My wife, who actually drove to work Monday because Richmond was working on a two-hour delay, arrived in time to find she had the day off. No question the weather and roads were in dire straits. Taking the day off was probably the right thing to do.

Yet, it would have been worth it to me to have a nice warm day, even one in the mid-50s would have been good. I suppose we can blame it on the PA (Pennsylvania) Rodent -- no not the Philly Fanatic -- who ran from his shadow last month and promised six more weeks of this winter wonderland. Yeah, right. Well, it has now been more than his six months. Perhaps we should just dump Phil in the Schuylkill River and get it over with.

Still, the global warming we are experiencing here in the Tri City area has had its share of frustrations. Local schools are trying to figure out how to make up time lost, and some have gone to the extent of adding an extra week at the end of the year. What do you think the school system will accomplish in that week? My bet is nothing, and I never even took an SOL test.

In fact, I’m thinking that a lot of students won’t even be in the classroom for that last week. Take for instance the 2014 Senior Class. Historically around here, the week after school lets out the seniors, and some juniors and precocious sophomores with liberal parents, head for the beaches. Beach Week isn’t going to change. The houses and places are rented a year in advance. I don’t see anyone calling and telling their respective short-term landlords that, well, heck you can keep my deposit ‘cause we just aren’t going to make it there next week.

Yeah, right.

The foul weather also brings on other problems. For instance, the VA State Police reported nearly 300 accidents in the greater Richmond area Tuesday morning, and they were working 28 different crashes at the same time. On the way into work, I noticed a wreck on Temple at the access point for South-bound I- 95. And, while I realize that that in itself is not unusual, the follow up accident where 460 N enters I 95 north was a bit more unusual.

The state police had cars all over with their blue lights whirling and heavy equipment, dump trucks and such, blocking off the entrance to I-95 and forcing everyone to take the Washington-Wythe Street exits.

For the second day in a row, I was forced to scrape ice off my windshield and assorted other windows, just so I could see and try to steer clear of other vehicles. Sorry, but that’s not what I signed up from when I moved to this area 27 years ago.

So, I guess, for me, it’s time to make that trip to Punxsutawney, PA and see what I can do about that raggedy rodent. It’s time to put the blame right where it belongs. That rascal better start getting the weather right or I will replace him with a weather rock. At least that is infallible—if it’s wet, it’s raining; if it’s under a pile of white stuff, it’s snowing, and if it’s dry, it’s not raining. What more do you really need to know anyway?

Pardon my rant, but it’s time to put up the ice scraper and get back to good old Virginia weather.