An Unexpected Winter Storm

Well, I shouldn’t really say “unexpected”, for after all it is just the beginning of February and we KNEW that winter wasn’t over. No Sir, but it still was a shocker to see what was happening today. It started with a little bit of windy conditions and a few flurries, really. From there on it progressed rapidly into one of the worst blizzards I have seen in a long time. Visibility was cut down to 2 vehicles up front. It got to be a total “wipe-out”.  My commute, normally taking about 35 minutes, grew to 90 minutes flat, and much of it was a total crawl. Listening to the radio I heard about a multi car accident right ahead in my pathway. So I chose the big Ring Road east called “Anthony Henday”. For the longest time I thought I had made a smart decision! Big mistake! All-of-a-sudden traffic tightened up and pretty soon it became a parking lot. Listening to the radio some more I understood that another accident had happened in my newly-chosen home commute route. I will never be able to understand why Edmonton has so many “people” on the road who seem to have gotten their drivers license on boxing day at Wally World. While I was holding a 35mph speed I was passed several times at 60 and more mph speed. Constant lane changers and trucks roaring through the snow like it was a summer day in August. Most of these guys were driving pickups. Though snow was deep and treacherous I didn’t see one single plow. At least today’s commute gave me plenty opportunity to study the ugly side of the city as I was driving along the stinking “Petroleum Alley”. Not only is this part of the city extremely ugly, but it boasts an incredible air pollution which made me gag inside my vehicle. Imagine to stand right above an open petroleum pit. That’s about how it felt driving the eastern part of the “Anthony Henday”. Over monstrous illuminated steel towers were ghostly flares casting their horror-like fiery shine through the snow showers. Mel Gibson and his post-apocalyptic movie “Mad Max” comes to mind. Edmonton’s petroleum alley is the perfect spot for ANY horror movie location. I just can’t wrap my head around that normal people are actually working there.  Finally coming home, I had to shovel/push snow off the walkway along the house and the curb. Luckily the snow was like soft powder and didn’t resist my efforts. Is there more snow coming? You bet it is. After all we just had February 5. 3 more months to go!   At least.