- These are just beautiful. - Keith Williamson
Project 365 #5: 050110: Snow Joke
I say, I say, I say - how much snow does it take to close 34 schools? I thought I'd show you with a picture, and thanks to having a little more time on my hands and some inspiration from UK Myste's macro set from yesterday, I busted out the tubes.
I'm really narked, as I've got a lot of stuff that I could be doing. An empty school is my ideal scenario, and having made the battle against the snow and got into work on time to be told not just that you 'can' go home but that you 'must' go home is a right bloody pain.
I must be the only person in the world grumbling about what is essentially an extra day off, but it does irk a bit - especially when you've made the effort and you know that you've probably got colleagues who haven't even bothered getting dressed today.
Anyway, as locals will know, we got about two to three inches of snow last night. How can that bring a city to a crawl?
Well...my first clue comes from the fact that I got a pint of milk, but no footsteps from the milkman. That leads me to deduce that the snowfall was intense and recent. If it starts snowing heavily at 5am then there's really nothing that the gritters can do. And that proved to be the case. Roads were abominable. It seems that a decade of no major snowfall has gifted Liverpool with a huge amount of drivers who (and it's not their fault) have no idea how to deal with snow.
Edge Lane was absolutely rammed at 7:20, and by making a few diversions my 20 minute drive to work took me about forty minutes.
If you combine the fact that your journey time is going to double with the fact that teachers seem to have a huge aversion to living within a ten mile radius of where they work then you suddenly find that you're missing a whole bunch of teachers. You can't really use a skeleton staff - you've either got enough teachers or you haven't.
This means that at some point a school is going to have to make the decision to close. Suddenly, even if that's a primary school, you've now got between two and four hundred parents with child care problems. So they ring in to work and say they'll be late or not there at all. So more schools close. And then the whole thing, with no pun intended, snowballs all the way up to about half nine, by which time at least 34 Liverpool schools have made the decision to close for the day. I feel for Laura and all the other essential health workers who don't have the option of closing. My real sympathy today though goes out to the bus drivers who are manfully doing their best to keep the city going. Well done chaps (and chapesses).
Comments and faves
Keith Williamson (41 months ago | reply)
First off a fantastic picture - one I have no chance of getting! IMO, the water droplets really make it something special.
As for the trudge into work, I feel for you. There were several times I remember struggling in to Anfield only to be told that the school was closed and then having the pleasure of trudging back often when the snow had cleared.
PS The advantage of living away from your school is that you don't get children and parents at your doorstep.
Keith Williamson added this photo to his favorites. (41 months ago)
comedy_nose (41 months ago | reply)
Thanks Keith - the drops really are lovely. They've stopped now though. Just as it was melting it's coming down really heavily again. Eek!
I do buy the argument about not not having kids on your doorstep, but if I'm honest I think it's a bit overstated. I do have the advantage of not being a teacher, but I'd see kids from Anfield from time to time, including the two who live in my street, and there was never any hint of a problem.
I guess if I was the person excluding them for stuff it might elicit a different reaction!
underthesun (41 months ago | reply)
Our teachers also believed strongly in living far away from school. Some of them because they thought it was nice not to run into half your kids every time you went outside the front door (I guess they didn't want to be reminded that we existed in the summer holidays!) and some of them because they didn't want to end up teaching their own kids at some point...
comedy_nose (41 months ago | reply)
Well, the day is getting better and better. I'm currently stranded in the City Centre! Sue finished early in the office and rang at half two so that she could be collected. I said I'd come and pick her up. By half three I'd made it to Low Hill and by half four I'd advanced about 250m. At five I binned the car in the multi storey at the Royal and walked into town so she wasn't on her own. The whole City Centre is gridlocked and I've never seen the like before. All buses are cancelled so I think there's going to be a lot of people sleeping at the office tonight :(
sohvimus (41 months ago | reply)
It's ridiculous.
comedy_nose (41 months ago | reply)
It is. My 5.4 mile journey just took six and a half hours.
underthesun (41 months ago | reply)
Impressive. Next time I recommend walking!
Liân Love (41 months ago | reply)
Blimy - that's madness! Hope it gets better for you x
The snow has only just started down here (about 30 mins ago), and its settling fast.
On the school thing - I liked to live away from the school because I prefered not to have a load of students tell me in detail about what I'd been doing all weekend every week! When I taught in Barry I stopped going there to shop even! Having said that, I'd be less bothered about distance in a city, since the chances of bumping into pupils is reduced to something sane (I didn't often see them in Cardiff for example). In Barry 90% of the 11-18 girls that lived in the town knew me at least by sight!
Fantastic photo by the way! I agree with Keith, the water droplets really make it! Stunning :)
Liân Love added this photo to her favorites. (41 months ago)
Vik_O (41 months ago | reply)
What a lovely photo, really beautiful. Much better than my best effort which I shall post in a bit...
Hope that you made it home eventually, and safely, and the same for the rest of the family. I made it home eventually about half an hour ago, having spent two nights in the lab... Yes indeed us essential hospital workers deserve praise, amongst many others...
smerikal and akipta added this photo to their favorites.