Wednesday 6 January 2010

I Am Now Officially Sick Of This Weather

People we like:

C, for coming four miles through Durham to help me dig the car out of the snow;
My neighbour, for getting in on the action.

People we hate:

The woman who walked past whilst we were doing it, and mockingly told me I needed the handbrake off (the handbrake, needless to say, was off already);
Whomever decided the best way to deal with four men digging out cars was to sit in their house and take pictures of us;
People who don't realise slippy roads make stopping and quick maneuvering very difficult. Special mention within this group go to drivers who indicate right before going straight on, forcing me to stop on a hill for no reason, and people who don't realise that just because a road is slightly less slippery than the pavement, it doesn't give them carte blanche to walk along busy roads in conditions where wheel-slippage is a constant possibility. At the very least, you'd think they'd move aside when a car descends upon them. Even if it is a Corsa.

People we are mainly just confused by:

My other neighbour, who helped out as we dug my car out of the road, and then stepped out in front of me as I tried to drive up the hill and onto the main road, forcing me to stop, slip back down the hill, and get stuck again.

I mean, the guy was a real help and all, but WTF?

At any rate, the whole procedure took a mere 95 minutes, and at last I'm in work, all ready to start putting together a program for a meeting with my boss tomorrow, which he has now cancelled, due to snow.

One more thing, too; my home internet is down again. Hopefully we can get it fixed in under two months this time, but we'll have to see.

6 comments:

Raggy Paints said...

If you've had to dodge pedestrians down claypath, I might we'll've been one. The council f***ers aren't griting the sidewalks at all and it is more than just risky to use them.

SpaceSquid said...

I wasn't on Claypath today, so you're safe.

I can follow the logic of it being necessary to be on the road at some points; but not so much the refusal to move closer in when the Squidmobile approaches. It just seems like asking for trouble.

In any event, I was in a foul mood when I wrote that, so I apologise if I was focussing too much on my side of the driver/pedestrian balance.

Pause said...

Not that we've had anywhere near as much snow as you (or meaning to rub it in), but I quite enjoyed it today. And this morning I walked into an office meant for > 100 with about 10 people in it; nice and quiet.

Then again, yesterday we were all warned in advance what it'd be like today and told to take work home/not bother coming in if it wasn't safe or worth the journey. And today we were all told if necessary we could leave early due to the impending icy roads. Comes with the job, I s'pose.

Anyway, I hope things are getting easier there now.

SpaceSquid said...

"Then again, yesterday we were all warned in advance what it'd be like today and told to take work home/not bother coming in if it wasn't safe or worth the journey."

We got told to get our arses in come hell or high water, and if that was literally impossible we had to phone up and tell the Uni we were taking one of our vacaction days.

Still, that beats the message Ibb got at her shop, which pretty much said "If you live within two hours walk of the shop, you will make that walk, and you will be on time." I pointed out that I suspected there are laws against demanding two-hour death marches through snow storms, but apparently the store already has a "no uggos" hiring policy, so it's unlikely they particularly care.

Pause said...

I've heard similar stories from other unis today.

Whereas when I was in London they caved in practically without putting up a fight (admittedly in part because the students fucked off home - or rather never came in - at the first opportunity).

[Insert north/south divide joke here]

Can't beat Ibb's lovely workplace though. Delightful.

SpaceSquid said...

In fairness, we did get a gairly amusing response email from a union rep, who took the original note apart pretty comprehensively. That was worth a grin.