February 13th, 2014’s big snowstorm in Washington cancelled most things, but not my thing. Out I went.
I was delighted, in a way, to be able to walk along the roads (note the vantage point of the photo below).
I was delighted, in a way, to be able to walk along the roads (note the vantage point of the photo below).
The two human figures above are firefighters. One is using a snowblower. The other is by the door. I heard the snowblower tell the other guy that he could “go back in and watch the [Olympic] hockey”.
I arrived around 8:30 AM and descended into an empty subway station:
Empty Subway Station / Arlington, Va. / Morning / Feb. 13th 2014
The station was almost empty, at a time when the platform is usually teeming with people. I heard the statistic later that AM ridership was at 6% of the normal weekday morning level. There normally are around a hundred people in one subway car during rush hour; on Thursday Feb. 13, mine had eight (I counted). Here was my subway car:
Orange Line Subway Car / Arlington, Va. / Morning / Feb. 13th 2014
By late morning, the temperature got above freezing and the roads looked passable in downtown Washington:
Overlooking Franklin Square / Washington D.C. / Feb. 13th 2014
Only three of the six of us studying for the CELTA certificate made it in on time by 9 AM. One other (J.F.) did make it in, but well past 11 AM. He was stuck in New Carollton after several cars skidded and crashed ahead of him. Those behind (J.F. included), now stranded, spent a long while trying to extricate the stuck cars to open the road again. The other two (M.H. and K.T.) didn’t come at all, despite being told they must. Their vehicles were wedged-in by ice.
The lessons here are two:
(1) It’s a better idea to not rely on a personal automobile in very many cases, and this is one. The three who made it on time [myself included] relied only on their two feet and on the subway (to its credit, the subway ran normally, at least the Orange Line did– however, all local buses were cancelled). The three who didn’t make it all had cars involved in their commutes (all drive to, or are driven to, subway stations) to come downtown.
(2) Things are cancelled for a reason during inclement weather! (Look at what happened to J.F., as described above).
We couldn’t do our afternoon practice teaching, because of the sixteen “practice students”, only the Slovak and two Russians said they would come, an insufficient number. Being unaccustomed to snow, every last one of the many Latin people “threw in the towel” (as well as the Japanese woman). We went home early.
The lessons here are two:
(1) It’s a better idea to not rely on a personal automobile in very many cases, and this is one. The three who made it on time [myself included] relied only on their two feet and on the subway (to its credit, the subway ran normally, at least the Orange Line did– however, all local buses were cancelled). The three who didn’t make it all had cars involved in their commutes (all drive to, or are driven to, subway stations) to come downtown.
(2) Things are cancelled for a reason during inclement weather! (Look at what happened to J.F., as described above).
We couldn’t do our afternoon practice teaching, because of the sixteen “practice students”, only the Slovak and two Russians said they would come, an insufficient number. Being unaccustomed to snow, every last one of the many Latin people “threw in the towel” (as well as the Japanese woman). We went home early.