The snow fell. And fell and fell and fell. Feet of it. I live in the South. This amount of snow is not supposed to fall here. Our local municipalities are doing their very best to manage the snow and snow removal crews have been working for days on end. School has been out for over a week.

The main roads are now clear and have been for a few days, but the neighborhoods are still a mess. The road crews have been focusing on clearing school bus routes. There is simply nowhere to put all the snow that they are scooping up. Giant dump trucks line up behind frontloaders and haul it away. I have no idea where it goes but somewhere out there is a mountain of grey slush with more coming all the time.

We are simply not equipped to handle this amount of snow. I was driving home last night after dark on a Sunday evening and saw a Bobcat clearing a street in my neighborhood, one of the streets that school busses come down.
To all of my brethren in Northern Virginia: please remember how very bad it is on your street today when, in late June, you realize that our kids will still be in school on the first of July (Heck, maybe the 4th of July!).

Our regularly scheduled programming will continue soon, but keep in mind that we will all have to be flexible in order to get our kids through the rest of the school year with the requisite number of hours. Dance classes might have to be rescheduled. Sports practices might have to be moved around. The downstream effects of this snow will be far-reaching and pervasive.

Every one of us is going to be inconvenienced and none of us is special. We, all of us, will need to be patient and as flexible as possible for months to come. So close your eyes, take a deep breath and visualize a peaceful place. For me that place is sandy, and warm – next to a warm ocean. You will need to go there often in the coming months.