Let it snow! Or perhaps not ...

It's official.  The impressive weekend snowfall in the Washington, DC metropolitan area has left its mark.  Schoolchildren are no doubt happy because the list of closures in the area is extensive.  So their worst fears of being snowed in on the weekend -- while still having to go to school today -- have been assuaged.  The area is still digging out.  Snowplows are unable to reach many secondary roads.  It's literally a nightmare if one must travel anywhere.  So most are staying right where they are.  Although some households are still without electricity, most service seems to have returned.  That is a tribute to the many hard-working service people, in both public and private sectors, who literally perform heroic deeds at such times.

HWMBO reports that all is well in his part of Howard County, MD.  He spent time outdoors, with many of the neighbors, trying first to dig paths to their vehicles and then trying to clear snow off those vehicles.  He posted photos of his immediate surroundings and I have borrowed a few to post here.

Believe it or not, those lumps are vehicles!

It's difficult to shovel snow when one can hardly get outside the door.  While this may be a commonplace sight in an alpine ski station, it's hardly typical of low-lying land in Maryland.

Once having dug out to the main sidewalk, HWMBO looked back to see this. I don't believe that the level of the ground water table will be a problem this year.

HWMBO reports that area snow clearing budgets for the entire winter have already been exhausted.  Given that we still have several more weeks of winter, with more snow predicted even this week, it looks as though there will either have to be cuts ahead in other services or people will have to bite the bullet and accept some tax increases.  Frankly, insofar as tax increases can provide benefits to all, I have never seen the problem with them.  Taxes are the price one pays to live in a civilized society.  What I do dislike is that those who can most afford to pay taxes do not seem to pay their fair share.   But what I dislike most is that too many of those who protest tax increases -- or protest paying taxes at all -- never seem to understand that if it were not for those taxes, we would not have roads at all, nor would there be people to clear them.  There is a real disconnect between cause and effect.

Our MSM does little to educate citizens about this cause-and-effect relationship.  Too many of our Senators and Representatives will not deal with the topic honestly.  Instead, we have hopelessly clueless individuals such as the Standard Bearer for the Tea Party (Know-Nothing Party would be a better name for the group, IMO) who actually needs crib notes on her hand to remember what her main talking points should be.  Among those talking points: "cut tax."

Sigh!  How many years did women strive for equality to have such a patently unqualified individual receive such attention?  As we who are here today shudder every time her name is mentioned, the suffragettes must be turning over in their graves.