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February 28, 2005
Snow Emergency
Snow emergencies are the worst thing ever. Now, you may be surprised because you associate me with loving snow - and I do - but a snow emergency is something completely different.
Why is it so awful? Well, when they call a snow emergency in the city of Boston, I literally have to stop whatever I'm doing, wherever I am, and hotfoot it to my car. Since my apartment building offers no parking, I park on the street - and most often I must park in 'Designated Snow Arteries'. In normal weather, the worst this gets me usually is just a dirty car... But in a snow emergency, this means potential ticketing and/or towing if my car remains parked on a snow artery after the emergency parking ban is in place.
I get an email and a phone call warning me about the snow emergency. Then, I have to make a quick judgement call - how long will it take me to get there? Can I afford to skip whatever I was doing or going to do? If I delay, my chances for finding a parking spot close by diminish rapidly. In fact, like tonight, sometimes my chances are already miniscule because of people returning from work.
So, I quickly jump on the train and make the 45 minute trip, then drive around frantically searching for that one safe spot, then take the train back for another 45 minutes. Tonight, I left MIT at 5:45 and I'll be lucky to return by 7:30.
This weekend's a whole lot worse because I have my recruit here... In fact, if he hadn't been here I would have been fine because I had to move my car from my last snow-emergency-safe parking spot in order to pick him up at the airport. Fortunately, I found a safe spot pretty close to my apartment... But if I hadn't, it would have meant an extra 30 minutes or more tomorrow as I would have had to trek to my car and drive back to pick him up to take him back to the airport.
Of course, if he doesn't go to the airport tomorrow because of delays, then my whole plan will be foiled because I parked in a metered spot which will become trouble after 7:30am or so. Then it's back to the beginning all over again as I rush around to find a safe parking spot.
What a pain. This must get fixed someday.
Sent from: Karl Gutwin
Posted by kgutwin at February 28, 2005 07:15 PM
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Comments
So, how's that whole snow thing going, anyway? My issue over here is slightly less complicated: "Do I wear pants, or shorts?" I picked pants today. Now I am rather warm. Hmm, that was a mistake.
Posted by: Rebecca at March 1, 2005 07:28 AM
Needless to say, I still really really like snow. This morning I dropped off my recruit and I could just feel my stress level plummet... and I did get to enjoy the 7 or so inches we got last night. There's nothing else quite like it.
Posted by: Karl at March 1, 2005 08:16 AM
Yes, I am somewhat upset that I'm missing most of the snow this year. But since I can't ski in it and there are no people at my school who want to play in it with me, a full year of summer won't be too bad...
Posted by: Rebecca at March 1, 2005 08:46 AM