It started yesterday afternoon, with a cloud burst that covered the ground for miles around with perhaps an inch of snow. That inch was then deep frozen, and compacted by the evening traffic.
This morning we awoke to first light, and then increasingly heavy snowfall; resulting in perhaps 8 inches by lunchtime when it finally abated. The weather forefast has been hilariously wrong throughout - usually only accurately portraying what has happened, rather than what is going to happen.
The idiocy of “people” in general amazes me. While cycling home last night the sheen on the road told me I was on sheet ice - and naturally you slow down, don’t turn, don’t use the front brake, and anticipate far further ahead. Or so you would think.
While navigating one of the old victorian streets in town, I overtook a lady on a shopping bike. She had no helmet on, no reflective clothing, and no lights. Perhaps 50 yards further along the road I glided to a stop to allow two cars to navigate past each other at walking pace. While waiting for them, I heard a heavy thud behind me, looked down, and saw all manner of shopping skid past, followed by the lady (on her backside), and her bike.
As she skidded past, she shouted “What they f**g hell did you stop suddenly like that for?”
I couldn’t quite comprehend how to answer - given that I have incredibly bright lights on my bike, reflective clothing, and that I and the car I was waiting behind had been stationary for a while.
Madness.
The idiocy continued this lunchtime when I walked into town past a train of stationary cars, sliding around in the un-salted snow. Why would you even consider attempting to drive in these conditions? While walking along a side road, I saw a car slowly rotating as it span past a T-Junction. I shook my head.
I braved the big supermarket in town, and bought us all manner of snack food for the coming days - we have already bought groceries for the Christmas period (having children pre-conditions you to plan ahead). While queueing half the length of the store to pay, management were having to stand alongside the queues to prevent people from queue jumping… not that it didn’t stop them.
One lady in her 50s walked straight past the queue to a checkout, and whitnessed the wrath of perhaps 10 people. It made no difference; she pretended everybody else didn’t exist, and when questioned by the girl on the checkout, just shouted “NO!” with her hands up in response to every question.
Like I said… idiocy seems to surround me today.
Meanwhile, our children are out in the snow, diving around like lunatics, pulling their sledges, and having a whale of a time.
I think I might join them.