Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Snow joke!


I can't remember the last time we had heavy snow before Christmas!

On Tuesday morning the snow caused havoc, roads were gridlocked, schools closed (including mine) cars abandoned, motorways like car parks!

In this digital society we simply cannot cope with something as simple as SNOW. Even the most advanced digital technology cannot cope with it. Mobile phones used to 'text' parents to tell them that the school is shut. Weather forecasting is so accurate that it will give advance warning of snow, the MET Office has the most powerful computer in the world!

Trouble is...we rely on the technology, but not ourselves without it.

What did we do in the 1960's when snow was something that we accepted and simply adjusted to it. I can't remember my school ever shutting because of snow, people just got on with their life and got to school or work the best way they could.
Tonight on the news I saw the latest digitally controlled snow plough fitted to the front of a gritter! Fine...but will it solve the problem with snow?

Back in the 60's we would wake up and scrape the ice from the window so that we could see the snow. My Mum would put the oven on to heat up the kitchen and wrap us all up ready for the walk to school. When we stepped outside icicles hung from the gutters and window sills and we loved to pick them and suck them on the way to school. Snow drifts sometimes came to my waist and we made 'slides' in the playgrounds.

In those days Winter meant just that, these days it is rare that it snows, especially before Christmas. (Global Warming?)
We need to cope with it!

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