Snow Storm in New England? How Odd!

My boyfriend decides, after getting some money unexpectedly, to treat us to a night away from the children....by ourselves! How wonderful! He is going to make all the plans and surprise me with the location...all I needed to do was pack. Well, on Friday February 22, 2008 the morning news has forecasts of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain for the day and into the evening. Most of the east coast of the United States in under a Winter Storm warning. Great! Just my luck!

I head off that morning to a Project Management Class that I am taking at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI. The university is about a 30 minute drive usually...not this morning, it was about 1 hour and 15 minutes before I arrived at the class late. On my way, I slipped down my hilly street and almost went through a stop sign. Then, on another side street that was not plowed or sanded (guess they used up the budget on the one big storm we have actually had this winter) so I am slipping and sliding all over the place and finally decide it would be best to back down the hill (no one is behind me - Thank GOD!). This ordeal took 20 minutes.

As my commute is further delayed, the main road is very slow (even though it is down to pavement) because someone up ahead finds the need to go 5 miles an hour. I just love it, people are either passing you at 50 miles an hour on a very snowy and unplowed road or they are crawling on a pavement clear road! Only in New England!! I guess it is like George Carlin said in one of his comedy skits, "anyone going faster than you is a jerk, and anyone going slower than you is an Ahole"

The class was released early due to the weather and I was beginning to think we might not be able to go...as the snow was pretty steady at that point. However, we left Coventry, RI at 4pm and got to Norwich, CT at 5:15....traffic and roads were not bad at all. However, we passed 5 accidents en-route. I could understand this if it was Florida, but come on people! It's not like Rhode Island or New England has never gotten snow before. But every snowstorm that happens, it is like people have to learn how to drive all over again!

Based on forecasts, I was expecting to have a significant amount of snow when I woke up or at least later that night...but there was only 1.4 inches of snow in Providence, RI and about the same in Connecticut. You would have thought it was a blizzard based on the number of accidents in RI...there were 15 accidents on a stretch of Route 4 that included 25 cars in all. One we saw on the news was a car flipped over on its roof! OMG....people just don't know how to drive in this state!