Thursday, January 07, 2010

Taken over by events

Can't quite remember a Christmas and New Year like this.

I do remember hard winters, and snow on the ground for prolonged periods of time. In January 1982 the Oxford Mail had the headline "Moscow -17, Oxford -21" and it stayed cold for a long time. In fact, our first winter in Morecambe has proved to be the longest cold snap for ages, and the most sustained snow certainly for 20-odd years and probably since the winter of '63.

However, it's been the knock-on effects that have made it all so eventful. A broken hip (mum just before Christmas - she's just out of hospital) and an elbow bone cracked (wife yesterday) are evidence of just how slippery it is. It can be deceptive that the traffic is flowing on the main roads, but the pavements [US: sidewalk -ed] are very treacherous.

My proposal is that we all get sumo suits and walk around heavily padded until it all melts.
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2 comments:

LankyAnglican said...

2 suggestions:

Equipment
We could invest more of our money in equipment to deal with this kind of weather; especially if it is going to become a more regular occurrance.

Knowledge
In the UK many people don't know how to drive in the snow. Also, based on observations, a lot of people don't know how to dress for the weather. Sumo suits may help, but I've been amazed at the inappropriate footwear I've seen people wearing.

Emma said...

Oh no :s lots of breakages in your family recently. School has been closed for most of the week, and I know it's frustrating for many (myself included), especially as there hasn't been any snow since Tuesday and so when you look out of the window it doesn't look like enough to keep us all at home. But getting to school is just so difficult. Although the school paths are clear enough to get about once we are in, the roads and especially footpaths around the school are just compacted ice. It simply isn't safe enough to get to school.
We opened today after a group of volunteer parents, governors and staff went down to school yesterday armed with shovels and grit and made a path outside school safe enought to walk on. The path, combined with more staff and children on the walking bus, meant that we were deemed safe enough to open today.

I hope Debbie, and your mum, heal up quickly.