I'm irrationally annoyed by FB today

[ohyouknow]

The D.C. area got a few inches of snow, it's icy and on the radio traffic report this morning they said stay home because it's very treacherous and dangerous. A lot of schools cancelled school.  I drove from MD through DC to VA for work this morning and it SUCKED. I was watching people spin out and get in accidents.  But my FB feed is blowing up with spouses on base taking pictures from the inside of their house of their patio furniture and saying "Blizzard 2015....they cancelled school for this?!?! STUPID." And all the rest of the spouses cackle and agree how stupid it is that school is cancelled and no one can drive in D.C. and "back where I'M from we get 4 feet of snow and it's 40 degrees below zero and we still don't cancel...." blah blah blah

I want to scream "GET ON THE ROAD AT 0630 AND DRIVE ON ICE IN THE DARK ON THIS SHIT INSTEAD OF TAKING A PICTURE FROM YOUR COUCH AND THEN WE'LL TALK."

My irritability is only exacerbated by the fact that OPM should have been delayed today too, and I want to be hanging out at home with my kids on a snow day. So maybe its the jealousy talking.

[ggirl]

If it makes you feel better, it's not just spouses that do it lol. I see it all the time on my newsfeed, usually when some place other than buffalo is getting hit. Then everyone in buffalo talks shit about the place that can't handle the snow. People don't realize that many southern areas don't have the snow plows and salt trucks that the north have access to.

[ohyouknow]

That is very true - it's not just spouses.

Someone was a voice of reason on the Spouse FB page though and did point out that the reason 3 inches of snow is a problem here and not other places is the volume of people - there are hundreds of thousands of people driving bumper to bumper on the Beltway, and (like you said ggirl), they aren't equipped with major snow equipment.

I'm almost over my bitterness about no snow day. Lol.

[ggirl]

Also. I'm convinced people have selective memories when it comes to this shit. a highway is gonna be absolutely miserable to drive on when the weather is shitty, even when you live in a place that has resources.

I will say snow days are the only thing I miss about the north. Except once I became an adult I never really had them lol. I always had to go to work.

[Dory1988]

I hope it doesn't snow here I couldn't put up with the stupidity. Everything would close down because there are no snow plows here and I'd be reading the same crap you are.

Yesterday I had 5 or 6 of those "I don't give FB permission to use my stuff..." statuses show up on my newsfeed. You signed the terms of use...it's not Mark Zuckerberg's fault you didn't read them. This status does you no good...ugh.

[killercupcake]

[killercupcake]

I will admit that the only thing giving me pause about our long-term plan of moving to the DC area is the ice. We slid off the road because of black ice in NC and it traumatized me. I'm cool with snow. LOVE snow and cold weather. Ice freaks me the eff out.

And then I worry about not only me, but my parents (They've already said they're coming with to VA. lol). BUT my mom and dad grew up in Ohio, so hopefully they retained some of those cold weather driving skills. But they're getting older, and my mom hates driving out here, so we'll see. Ugh. lol

[kpol]

We have that happen here too. I'm from an area that gets quite a bit of snow and ice in the winter but the difference is some damn SALT! They don't prep the roads here, at all. It might look nice and pretty outside but the roads are a mess because there is no salt melting the ice...it's just a never ending cycle of freeze, thaw, freeze again.

We had a 2 hour delay last month and after looking out my window I wondered why. Then I drove to work and quickly realized why. People always like to complain about something!

[amaristella]

Preparation and experience is important. A slurry of two inches in Georgia is going to affect your whole week. In New Hampshire one winter it was like we got 4-6" every single week. But the government and the residents knew how to deal with it. Where I'm from, shit, if it rains for longer than 15 seconds nobody remembers how to drive.

[killercupcake]

Jan 6, 2015 17:53:55 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 6, 2015 17:40:25 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Preparation and experience is important. A slurry of two inches in Georgia is going to affect your whole week. In New Hampshire one winter it was like we got 4-6" every single week. But the government and the residents knew how to deal with it. Where I'm from, shit, if it rains for longer than 15 seconds nobody remembers how to drive.

When it snowed at Benning last year, we lost almost an entire week of training. The saddest part was the chow hall was closed, my darling beloved chow hall. 

When we got that 8 inches in 2008, the city shut down. The airport, the freeways in and out of town, the schools, everything. I've never, ever seen a snow day in Vegas. 

I think we have 2 or 3 plows, but they're all up on the mountain and they tried to get them down to the valley, but it was too dangerous. 

In NC, they had plows, but they didn't know how to use them. lol We were behind a plow on a road and the plow was turned the wrong way, so it was shoving the snow into the other lane AND ripping up all the reflectors. They really just needed some salt. It would've solved so many more issues and saved us an insurance claim. lol

[audette]

I grew up with snow and ice, a goodly amount of it. (I'm Canadian...)

When I moved to TX, at first I thought it was crazy when things shut down over the threat of maybe getting some freezing rain. And then I thought thru it, and remembered the times I had been driving around and had the mental "what the heck do they do with this road when it snows!? oh, wait... it doesn't here". (I had arrived in summer, so those moments were mostly passed by the time cooler weather hit.)

It's not even just the lack of plows and salt/sand trucks. It's from the ground up with the road design - the roads, the intersections, the interchanges, _none_ of them are designed for snow and ice. Add in the mixture of a bunch of folks who maybe see those weather conditions on one or two days a year, and yeah, it gets mighty, might dangerous out...

[Deleted]

I completely agree. 

For a city that is comprised of so many different people from so many different places....not everyone has driven in it. It is a big deal, given that fact! Like here in EL Paso...when it rains, we flood badly due to lack of storm drainage systems. We just can't handle the water. So, all crazy breaks loose. Everyone laughs, and talks crap....I get pissy. LOL! 

These are the same people that would complain if the bus was in an accident due to NOT cancelling school. 

[ohyouknow]

Jan 6, 2015 17:53:55 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 6, 2015 17:40:25 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Preparation and experience is important. A slurry of two inches in Georgia is going to affect your whole week. In New Hampshire one winter it was like we got 4-6" every single week. But the government and the residents knew how to deal with it. Where I'm from, shit, if it rains for longer than 15 seconds nobody remembers how to drive.

When it snowed at Benning last year, we lost almost an entire week of training. The saddest part was the chow hall was closed, my darling beloved chow hall. 

Oh Stan.....I understand. For real, chow halls are my THING. So much food, so many choices, so cheap!

[amaristella]

Jan 6, 2015 17:53:55 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 6, 2015 17:40:25 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Preparation and experience is important. A slurry of two inches in Georgia is going to affect your whole week. In New Hampshire one winter it was like we got 4-6" every single week. But the government and the residents knew how to deal with it. Where I'm from, shit, if it rains for longer than 15 seconds nobody remembers how to drive.

When it snowed at Benning last year, we lost almost an entire week of training. The saddest part was the chow hall was closed, my darling beloved chow hall. 

Don't people need to eat? I thought those were considered an essential service in most institutions.

[ohyouknow]

Jan 7, 2015 14:33:47 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 7, 2015 14:30:58 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Don't people need to eat? I thought those were considered an essential service in most institutions.

Oh Stella. Sweet innocent Stella. We had MREs multiple times a day, for four days. 

Holy crap lady.  The Air Force would never put up with that sort of abuse. ;-)

[Dory1988]

Jan 7, 2015 15:29:57 GMT -5 ohyouknow said:

Jan 7, 2015 14:33:47 GMT -5 Stan said:

Oh Stella. Sweet innocent Stella. We had MREs multiple times a day, for four days. 

Holy crap lady.  The Air Force would never put up with that sort of abuse. ;-)

we're probably the biggest snobs of them all. Even when the galley was closed (which was never for snow) we had bag lunches. If I hadn't eaten an MRE pre-Navy I wouldn't know what was in it.

[amaristella]

Jan 7, 2015 14:33:47 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 7, 2015 14:30:58 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Don't people need to eat? I thought those were considered an essential service in most institutions.

Oh Stella. Sweet innocent Stella. We had MREs multiple times a day, for four days. 

Come over to Navy. We will always feed you. The worse the situation, the better the food (.......usually). DH hates chow halls because food on the submarine was actually quite good.

[amaristella]

Jan 8, 2015 0:07:46 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 8, 2015 0:05:19 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Come over to Navy. We will always feed you. The worse the situation, the better the food (.......usually). DH hates chow halls because food on the submarine was actually quite good.

I love Army chow halls. Even at Basic, and it was, for sure, my favorite part of OCS. I just need a Marine and a Coastie to come in and tell me their food is better! Lol. I will call the jar a liar though.

In all fairness he also has negative associations with the chow hall, especially with regard to the "war spoon". I might too if I had to eat Cornish game hen and a whole apple with a spoon (no hands allowed). That was when he was in OCS. At some point they earned the right to a fork and knife.

[amaristella]

Jan 8, 2015 9:52:38 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 8, 2015 0:34:28 GMT -5 amaristella said:

In all fairness he also has negative associations with the chow hall, especially with regard to the "war spoon". I might too if I had to eat Cornish game hen and a whole apple with a spoon (no hands allowed). That was when he was in OCS. At some point they earned the right to a fork and knife.

Naval officers don't go to Navy Basic, right? Army officers (who aren't direct commission) do, so while our OCS is strenuous and filled with plenty of fuck fuck games, we already got that kind of foolishness at Basic. 

Nope. No basic. They've streamlined as much as possible. But they have enlisted status for the first portion. And I think up until Candio phase. Can't remember.

[amaristella]

Jan 8, 2015 17:34:53 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 8, 2015 17:30:21 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Nope. No basic. They've streamlined as much as possible. But they have enlisted status for the first portion. And I think up until Candio phase. Can't remember.

I tend to think that's the way to do it. But I'm sure the Army has their reasons. Or something.

$$$$ Someone needs to sit them down with a piece of paper with numbers on it and show them how much each additional week of character building exercises actually costs them. I'm pretty sure that's why Navy shortened the process.

[amaristella]

Jan 8, 2015 17:49:49 GMT -5 Stan said:

Jan 8, 2015 17:39:45 GMT -5 amaristella said:

$$$$ Someone needs to sit them down with a piece of paper with numbers on it and show them how much each additional week of character building exercises actually costs them. I'm pretty sure that's why Navy shortened the process.

The Marine Corps has TBS though, which we don't have. We would need some time for basic infantry schooling and BCT is where we get it. Every Army and Marine Corps officer needs to understand squad and platoon level tactics in a way AF and Naval officers don't necessarily. Different missions. I would prefer something like TBS, I think, because they're already officers, but it is what it is.

That makes sense. There's only so much common material that all Naval officers really need to cover. They manage to get it in within 10-12 weeks. Common stuff is like, firefighting, damage control, all the rank and structure stuff.