Its all relative really.  My assumptions about driving in Cleveland in their “deadly storms.”  I grew up in the Northeast.  I delivered newspapers at 5:30 am in snowstorms on a bicycle for years.  I remember temperatures in – 30’s, and I still delivered newspapers.  “Bad” is relative I suppose.  It doesn’t make me wrong to say roads were not bad at all.  I’ve to a few people from Cleveland, that lived elsewhere in the Northeast, came back to Cleveland, and laugh at Cleveland’s “horrible snow storms” and “bad roads.”  Its not just me.

Anyways.  I always like stories of people moving to say Virginia.  And then there is an inch of snow on the ground and everyone in Virginia freaks out and everything closes.  Cleveland however isn’t Virginia, but acts in a similar fashion in some ways.  I wouldn’t call myself “the best driver ever” but I would call myself a self-assured driver, a driver who trusts his instincts, and a driver who knows how to drive in just about all conditions.  I know bad roads.  I grew up in Upstate New York.  It forces you to learn how to drive in all conditions from flooding rains to white out snow storms.  Cleveland has had neither of those.  But maybe, if you’ve never experienced driving conditions other than what is here in Cleveland, you’d think Friday was a horrible driving condition.  Just like someone in Virginia that hasn’t driven anywhere else would think an inch of snow makes for horrible driving conditions (although with after the winter the East Coast has had this year, maybe they’ll freak out at an inch of snow less next year).

And as for the joke about Buffalonians grabbing a beer and hitting the road in a snowstorm; I’ve gotten more than a few comments on how its not a funny joke.  A joke, especially one like that, is meant to be a gross exaggeration.  It is meant to say people from Buffalo are confident driving in snowy conditions.  It is not meant to imply all people from Buffalo grab beers and drive (only their football players…. ha…I kill myself).  I’m sure Buffalo has that same small minority that think its fine driving around with a beer in their hand as any other city in the US or world, but that’s not the majority.  And if I had written the joke any other I would have changed it from how it was told to me.  And lastly, as someone from Buffalo, I did laugh when I heard it, and it was funny.

It has been quite a fattening week.  Really, I haven’t eaten well in a while (a couple weeks at least).  So my goal going grocery shopping today was health.

$30 got me:

• romaine lettuce (I’m more of an iceberg lettuce person myself, but people told it was not only neutral of health, but unhealthy)
• cucumber
• tomatoes (mmm….tomatoes)
• burrito shells (I use them to make wraps, I bought 18 of them, I use them a lot)
• a block of aged cheddar cheese (over 12 months, soo good)
• parmesan cheese (for salads)
• bananas
• 1/2 pound of sliced turkey
• honey mustard dressing for wraps
• milk (skim)
• tomato juice (i like it, plus, its supposed to be super good for you)

See $30 of health.  I even resisted (with help from a phone call to reg) buying a super tastey Shamrock Shake on the way home.

Sarah and I went sledding yesterday.  I pulled out my Niagara University lunch tray and stole one from work with her.  We went to the Metroparks (which I am still discovery, they rock) out near Rocky River.  Lunch tray sledding, still as amazing and fun as it was in college.

After sledding for a bit we got to work on a snowman.  Sarah had never made one before which is just shocking.  Since the snow was perfect for it, we had no trouble making him.  Then after all three balls were assembled, Sarah spent about an hour defining our snow bear (somewhere along the way he became a bear).

We were quite proud of our creation.  We celebrated afterwards by getting pizza and cheesey bread (seems like a good way to celebrate).

Despite multiple people canceling on seeing Wussy with me (including one that turned around halfway driving there – which was just stupid when there was less than 2 miles to go, and the roads weren’t bad at all!!), it was a fucking amazing show.

It was by far the best cheap show I have ever seen.  $8 at the door, Wussy headlining.  Good Morning Valentine and The Fervor opening. Good Morning Valentine was decent, they are a local band, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again (although I kept laughing at the singer’s hair).  The Fervor are from Louieville Kentucky and they impressed the hell out of me.  So much so that I bought an album from them.

Wussy, as they usually are, were amazing.  Everyone likes going to see bands they like.  I love seeing bands I like, enjoying doing what they are doing.  Seeing a band in a small venue like this, being a few feet at most from the band, the stage separated from the crowd by a two in elevation, and just seeing all the band members smiling, laughing and having fun doing the thing is amazing.  It makes the concert going experience all that much more worth it.

I bought a new Wussy cd (well its an older cd, but new for me), a 6 inch vinyl split single (Wussy and the Fervor) and got a business card for a man who recorded the whole show to put on youtube.  It was a great fucking night.

To all who almost came, you missed a fantastic show and a good time.  And by the time I left there (it was almost 2 am) all of the roads had been cleared and it was not snowing out at all.  Nice peaceful easy drive home.

Couple links for you:

• The Fervor
• Good Morning Valentine
• Wussy
• King of the Castle 7 – This is the guy who filmed the show.  He has over 3,000 clips of local Cleveland bands and bands from all over Ohio on his youtube channel.  He said the show should be up by Friday.  If you search his stuff now though you can find a whole Wussy concert from last March up there now.

Someone told me this joke the other day:

When its snowing bad outside 98% of the people stay inside scared to drive.  The other 2% are from Buffalo and say “Give me a beer and lets get going.”

That in turn reminds me of a story one of my college history professors told me (it was Peters for those of you from NU).  He said he was driving cross country in his beat up car and came to the base of some mountains out west.  The police had set up a blockade and were turning away any cars without chains on their tires.  When he got up to the blockade they told him the roads were bad and no one would be able to handle it without chains.  When he told them he was from Buffalo they said “Oh you’ll be fine” and let him through.

I don’t know where people get their perceptions from out here.  Ohio is scared of snow.  I know its all relative, and that I did live in Buffalo for years, but come on.  The storms out here drop less than five inches most of the time, and if it is going to be more than five inches, its predicted over ridiculous amounts of time.  “10 – 12 inches of snow predicted over the next 36 hours!!!” and people freak out.

I know Cleveland has only sixteen plows, but canvassing the city they should be able to reach all streets multiple times in 36 hours.  All the main roads should be fine.  Calm down and think straight.  Drive slower.  Trust your instincts.  Give yourself space between you and the next car.  Enjoy it.

Someone used Snowmageddon.  Cleveland doesn’t know what snowmageddon is.  I don’t know if it ever has.  Its sad how stupid people are with driving out here.  How “bad” it gets here according to everyone.  I’ve never driven in white out conditions in Cleveland, but I certainly have elsewhere.  White Out conditions are bad driving conditions.

Cleveland needs to get over this immense fear of the snow.  2 – 3 inches of snow doesn’t mean “death defying driving”.  I drive a Hyundai Accent.  Its tiny.  I think it weighs less than 900 pounds.  Point being it is not a truck, not an SUV, not even a sedan.  Its a tiny car that by all rights should be worse driving in snow than just about anything else out there.  But I do fine driving it on the Cleveland streets in the “horrible snow storms” we have here.

Anyways, I put this as my Facebook away message Friday night.  I stand by it.

There was probably more to this story than I heard, but currently Cleveland is freaking out about the latest “massive snow storm” we should be getting today.  You know, by massive, five or so inches.

Anyways there was an interview an employee of the Transportation Department for Cleveland and all I heard was “all 16 trucks are ready to go.”  16 Trucks?  As in 16 snow plows I assume.  What the hell!!!  All of Cleveland will be plowed with 16 trucks!!!  Don’t worry though, that’s one snow plow for every 30,000 (approx.) people in Cleveland.

That’s one proud prepared city.