Icicles

If you've been keeping up with the insane weather lately, you'll know that we've had two snows and one ice since December, here in the Triangle. As a state employee, when the weather is considered adverse, we are allowed the option to stay out of work if we feel it is unsafe for us to be on the road. When it snows I can usually manage to get in to work, if it's not too bad. When there's ice though, I stay home. I don't like ice unless it's in a glass of water/other drink or in a rink... it does not belong on the road and so when it is, I am not. My dad called me yesterday morning after it had been sleeting/freezing raining all of the night before and told me that the Govenor said to stay off the roads. Naturally when someone in authority tells me to skip work I'm going to listen...nevermind the fact that I wasn't planning to venture out on to the ice in the first place.

When I got to work today I had a variety of people express their annoyance that co-workers were giving them a hard time about not being at work yesterday. This makes me very angry! This anger was heightened by people teasing me about gracing them with my presence today. It is up to each individual to determine if a situation is safe for them or not, no one else can make that call for them. So when someone decides the roads are not navigatable to them, no one else should question it. I had a few choice words for these people but instead I spoke with my supervisor and explained that I don't think it's right or fair that we should be given a difficult time because we chose to be safe in a bad situation. I was assured that it is policy that people have no right to ask you or give you a hard time about your time that you take off from work. Well I'm glad that's settled.

I'm just not a fan of when someone feels that because they were able to navigate bad weather everyone else should be willing/able to do so. It's just not the case. I think too many people tend to forget that everyone's driving situation is very different. One person might live on flat and level roads that connect right up to the main highways while another person might live up a steep hill and have to take 6 backroads to get to any main road. For me, I live right next to a main road, the problem is that I have to be able to get down the hill that is my neighborhood without crashing into the traffic on that busy road. This time I couldn't even get enough traction to get out of my driveway. There were other people that could get out of their parking lot/driveway but then they coldn't get up the road because it was a solid sheet of ice. So, until you've been to someone else's home you really shouldn't try to say that person should have been somewhere just because you were able to get there. It's just not cool. I personally, don't want to end up like any of these people...

*images courtesy of google*

My motto? If you can't handle the roads stay off them.