Long Days

I am sitting, for the second night in a row, in a hotel room a mere 60 miles from home. Over the last 2 weeks, Oklahoma has seen unusually heavy snowfalls. For reference, 2" will generally close most schools here. We've had a couple of rounds of 7-12".

Now, I know some of my neighbors to the north are asking why that amount of snow is so detrimental. Since we don't generally see snowfall that heavy our dept. of transportation just doesn't have the resources to deal with it. Not enough trucks, not enough drivers, not enough salt and sand, and not enough experience.

Back to why I'm in a hotel instead of at home. My employer offered to put volunteers up in a hotel last night so they could be close to the office (which apparently doesn't close for anything short of a nuclear incident) and available to work even if the rest of the city shut down. [as a side note, no lives directly depend on whether or not we're at work] Having taken two leave days last week for weather I just didn't feel I had the leave time to waste so I stayed a mile away instead of driving home 60 miles away.

So, why the second night? Most of the major highways cleared pretty well once the snow stopped so getting around OKC isn't too problematic. The problem is that it snowed heavier and longer between me and home than it did here in the city. The wife said the car in the driveway was surrounded by drifts and it probably wasn't a good idea to come home. Even if I could make it home the record low temps tonight will turn any moisture on the roads into an ice rink and it would be risky at best to try to drive in the pre-dawn like I usually do.


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Location:Oklahoma City,United States