Drive me to drink, indeed.

So, there's a big ol' storm ragin'.  Specifically, central Ohio is expected to get 8-10 inches (...heh) of snow overnight, and a total closer to 14-18 inches (..heh, again) by lunchtime Sunday. 

I'm fine with it.  I'm from northeast Ohio, damn it:  the buckle of the Snow Belt!  We love this shit!  I went to Target the other night in a hoodie sweatshirt and a pair of running shorts and got that look from the other shoppers.  

Oh yeah, other shoppers?  It's 40 degrees out, not 15 below, and it's not currently snowing/sleeting/wintry-mixing (note to Sarah, "wintry mix" is proof that God wants to test humanity), and anyway it takes 92 seconds to walk from the car into the store, so relax. 

 

But it's not the shoppers that get under my skin.

It's the drivers.  

Or, as I am about to experience again, the drivers who live in perpetual fear of winter weather. 

For some illogical, unexplainable reason, the good people of Columbus, Ohio, just cannot seem to get their heads around winter driving.  We're stationed close to the center of a Midwestern state, and yet, judging by the reaction of 90% of the driving population in the area, you would think this was Key West.  

Hey, folks?  We do this every year.  That crazy white stuff you see falling from the sky is just really cold water.  You know what this month is?  That's right, February.  It's part of winter.  You may have heard of winter; it's the stretch of the year from around Halloween to Easter-ish (or Passover, for our token Jewish friends. Shalom).  You know how we're always touting Midwestern living, saying how we couldn't move anywhere else because we'd miss the change of all four seasons?  Yeah.  Winter is one of those.   

The silver lining to the impending city-wide freakout is that the university I work for has decided to close at 3 p.m.  T-minus 13 minutes to the weekend, y'all!

(I figure if we're going to act like this is the Deep South, I'm gonna play my southern family ties card and drop a y'all here and there.)

Now, THIS is worth a freakout of epic proportions.