What if it snowed this much EVERY YEAR??
3 Comments Published by ginny on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 10:04 AM.
So. Things that have happened: we went to Oxford. It snowed.
I'm going to get into a routine soon, and that routine will involve updating this journal almost every day. I am determined! Getting into a routine is about the only way I think I'm going to write the dissertation, and that has to start happening, although as usual I am having persistent fantasies about a nine-to-five job where I am not my own boss. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing I have found out about myself during graduate school is that although I am training for a career most people would find ideal in its large degree of independence, I am not fond of large degrees of independence! I thrive on boundaries, deadlines, and structures of control – which is why I have to get a routine.
In the meantime, though I've been watching it snow nearly every day. Great Britain is in the grip of the worst cold snap in 30 years (and is obsessed with said cold snap), and part of that involves all those days that would normally be rainy being snowy. The good part is that I'm coping all right – I'd always been afraid that I wouldn't be able to handle the British cold, but so far it has been unpleasant but far from unbearable. And no colder than at home. But I have lost my taste for snow. It's still pretty, but no longer fills me with excitement. Part of this is the sheer profusion, a larger part is DisasterMove, but part is also what I consider to be substandard British coping-with-winter skills.
I know I'll immediately start sounding like a winter snob, but these people are not very good at coping with snow! There are, I read yesterday, only 600 snow plows in the entire country. The whole four days we were in Oxford, three of which were very snowy, I only saw two snowplows, and both of those I saw on the last day we were there. They rely on people just driving over the roads to clear them, which means that lots and lots of places just don't get cleared.
To give people credit, I haven't actually seen many people get stuck, but it is inconvenient. It started snowing Tuesday afternoon, and we left Nick's car at the college where his conference was (we were in Oxford because he was attending the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies conference. I was just tagging along), and we didn't get it out until Thursday morning. In the mean time, he took taxis to and from the conference, and I stayed in the motel. Which was boring, but not actually all that different from how I spend most of my days. The actual getting out, I will say, went perfectly, even though he was parked, essentially, on a lawn. I have nothing but praise for the Volkswagen Polo.
I suppose it's just the principle of not plowing roads I object to. Yesterday the BBC website had an article titled "What if it snowed this much EVERY YEAR??" which I think basically encapsulates the attitude towards winter weather. The article pointed out that other, snowier countries, keep snow plows or hire private citizens to do so, and that people have snow tires for their cars. Neither of which is particularly surprising information. But what if?? What if it DID snow this much? Every year????
I'm going to get into a routine soon, and that routine will involve updating this journal almost every day. I am determined! Getting into a routine is about the only way I think I'm going to write the dissertation, and that has to start happening, although as usual I am having persistent fantasies about a nine-to-five job where I am not my own boss. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing I have found out about myself during graduate school is that although I am training for a career most people would find ideal in its large degree of independence, I am not fond of large degrees of independence! I thrive on boundaries, deadlines, and structures of control – which is why I have to get a routine.
In the meantime, though I've been watching it snow nearly every day. Great Britain is in the grip of the worst cold snap in 30 years (and is obsessed with said cold snap), and part of that involves all those days that would normally be rainy being snowy. The good part is that I'm coping all right – I'd always been afraid that I wouldn't be able to handle the British cold, but so far it has been unpleasant but far from unbearable. And no colder than at home. But I have lost my taste for snow. It's still pretty, but no longer fills me with excitement. Part of this is the sheer profusion, a larger part is DisasterMove, but part is also what I consider to be substandard British coping-with-winter skills.
I know I'll immediately start sounding like a winter snob, but these people are not very good at coping with snow! There are, I read yesterday, only 600 snow plows in the entire country. The whole four days we were in Oxford, three of which were very snowy, I only saw two snowplows, and both of those I saw on the last day we were there. They rely on people just driving over the roads to clear them, which means that lots and lots of places just don't get cleared.
To give people credit, I haven't actually seen many people get stuck, but it is inconvenient. It started snowing Tuesday afternoon, and we left Nick's car at the college where his conference was (we were in Oxford because he was attending the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies conference. I was just tagging along), and we didn't get it out until Thursday morning. In the mean time, he took taxis to and from the conference, and I stayed in the motel. Which was boring, but not actually all that different from how I spend most of my days. The actual getting out, I will say, went perfectly, even though he was parked, essentially, on a lawn. I have nothing but praise for the Volkswagen Polo.
I suppose it's just the principle of not plowing roads I object to. Yesterday the BBC website had an article titled "What if it snowed this much EVERY YEAR??" which I think basically encapsulates the attitude towards winter weather. The article pointed out that other, snowier countries, keep snow plows or hire private citizens to do so, and that people have snow tires for their cars. Neither of which is particularly surprising information. But what if?? What if it DID snow this much? Every year????
I'm so glad that you made it safely and the snow-disaster didn't keep you down. We've been getting (as you know) more snow than usual here too. I think it's funny that England didn't seem very prepared for the bad weather as that's how I always feel about the South. =D I think we're supposed to get above freezing today_for the first time in a month_so yippe for us!
Keep posting as I'm intrigued to know how things are going!
Was the capitalization the BBC's or yours?
Do you think snowplowing on cobblestones would hurt the cobblestones? Like uproot them?
Oh, it was my capitalization! They were trying to be all cool about it. Except they weren't. I don't know about the logistics of cobblestones, but they don't plow major roads either.