and more snow. I’m a seeing a theme. We got another almost 7 inches last night. Kids are out of school again. Jordan’s school district has never had as many snow days as we’ve had this year the whole time he’s been in school. Heck, I don’t remember having this many snow days when I went to school there. Actually, back then we had a lot of snow days because we were considered rural and there were a lot more gravel roads to go down back then (you know back when you had to walk 10 miles uphill both ways through 6 feet of snow just to find your way home pal!) It’s become more urban there, the population sky rocketed, and the people with money who all flocked to that town wanted to live in the “country” but didn’t tolerate gravel roads.
In 17 years they’ve gone from the 1 elementary, 1 middle school, and 1 high school that I attended to 7 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and the high school which is new and 3 times the size of the one I attended, which is now one of the middle schools.
They don’t worry so much about snow days the last few years. There wasn’t a lot of snow and the majority of the roads are paved. Then last year we hit record snow levels and this year we’ve followed the same pattern. Heck, last month we got 14 inches of snow in 24 hours. They got to miss 2 days for that.
I read an article this morning that was linked to my PageFlakes home page. (which if anyone knows how to add an RSS feed to that when someone doesn’t have a PageFlakes button on their blog, and you’d tell me how to do it, I’d love you forever!) Anyways, what it said was that heavy snow is depleting Des Moines snow removal budget. Deja Vu. I remember them saying the same thing last year. If we had record snowfalls last year, wouldn’t you plan ahead and budget more money into the snow removal budget? Or were you hoping that global warming would take care of it and we’d just get an inch or 2 this year?
Roughly $2.25 million of the Public Works department’s $3 million snow and ice control budget has already been spent with a couple months of winter weather ahead.
We still have most of January, all of February, and some of March for snow, plus sometimes we get freak snowstorms in April.
Sorry for my rant, I just get tired of government. I have faith in them, have faith in them, have some more faith in them, and they do nothing but screw around with our money, when I read stuff like this, it just makes me mad.
And can I give props to the snowplow drivers out there? Yep, I’m sure you’re thinking what a strange group of people to give props to. I don’t know if you know anyone who works for the city and has to plow, but my brother does. When it starts to snow, he knows he is in for some nasty hours.
He got off work yesterday at 5 PM, then went home, ate supper, spent some time with his kids, and went to bed so that he could be back at work at 2 in the morning. He’ll probably be working at least a 12 hour shift today, which means until 2 in the afternoon. So, if there is a snowplow in front of, driving slowly to clear the roads, don’t get irritated at them, maybe wave at them and offer a smile as you pass them. Those guys don’t get a lot of appreciation and they work there butts off during the winter, getting hardly any sleep to keep the roads safe for us.
And off of my complaining about trivial matters.
(Before I go to a very serious subject, I posted Project 365 Day 7, a review for an awesome teething tool that works, and enter my giveaway to win a copy of Ben Sherwood’s The Survivors Club. Plus, there is still time to leave a comment to win the HP Mini 110-1100.)
Now to something serious for a bit –
I’ve started posting a tweet from Ricky Martin everyday. I’ve been a fan of his for years, but it’s been since I heard about a trip he took to India years ago when I realized he was a celeb to look up to. He is someone who uses his power for good.
Here’s the tweet for today –
Here are the links that he links too –
First one
Second one
Take the time to watch them. And I don’t think it would hurt anything to take the time to write your congressmen. Keep the issue of child trafficking front and center, in their faces. If we don’t protect the children in whatever we can, who will? And if nobody does, what becomes of our future?
Popularity: 1% [?]
Link to this page
My mom always calls the city and tells someone what a good job the drivers are doing. I always feel bad for the plow drivers.
Your kids are lucky, we have only missed one day of school, parents usually complian because then they need to find daycare so the schools just stay open regardless. Sad.
.-= Laura´s last blog ..We’ve Come a Long Way from Rob and Amber =-.