snow.havoc.means.skating.to.school.

the city of Camden is too poor to plow the streets. i don't think they even own snowplows. maybe we're not the only place in the country where this is true, but wow, it makes a big difference in the way things look and work after a snowstorm. it's basically up to the first brave souls who go out after the blizzard to beat it down as they drive through the drifts. sometimes those few, fortunate neighbors who have possession of a pick-up truck with a plow thing on the front will help clear up a path through part of the neighborhood to make it passable. hmm, what does 'passable' look like to you?

after 2 or so feet (somewhere between 25 and 27 inches) of snow fell this past weekend, 'passable' in our case means that the width of the neighborhood streets has shrunk by about half due to the cars parked on either side with several feet of snow surrounding them. in the remaining space, down the middle of the road, there is a rutted, uneven inch or three of slick packed-down snow/ice blanketing most of the road surface, with a few patches of pure slush and a couple blobs of open pavement peeking out like potholes. so, on my four-block walk from my house to the church/school where i taught ESL on monday morning, it was entirely possible to use my boots like ice-skates and slide almost the whole way on that slick layer of dirty white frozenness. and since sidewalk shoveling is not enforced in front of every house...the most dependable option really is to skate down the middle of the road to get to school and back.

of course, i won't be skating to school today or tomorrow, because everything's closed. we're supposed to get another foot or so today, and then it'll be another day or so before it's safe and 'passable' enough for everybody to come out from our snow-cocoons.

and the snowflakes keep falling...