relativity .

A lot of people in the south break out their parkas the minute the temperature dips below 60 degrees. I, being from lovely little New Jersey, find this extremely silly and ridiculous, since I used to wear shorts at those sorts of temperatures (of course, when I actually used to wear shorts). But of course, everything is relative.


Growing up in the north, we're used to cold weather. We're used to snow, we're used to a ton of ice and cold. So when Clemson gets hit with a whopping 3 inches of snow, and everything shuts down and closes, New Jersey laughs. Sorry guys, it's just funny. Regardless, it's understandable that towns in the south don't have salters, plows, or any sot of real snow clearing vehicle. Thus, when and if it snows, it really ends up being that the roads aren't clear until the sun melts it and the temperature is warm enough to wash it away.

Granted, Jersey certainly got blasted over break, and it was awesome! I loved it. I like driving in the snow, it presents a challenge and kinda keeps you on edge. I look forward to this summer, because I am most likely buying a four wheel drive jeep, and driving in snow or wet conditions will simply be fun. But even with all the plows that we had, and the guys salting the roads, we simply weren't prepared for what happened.

My brother and I went to church in the early morning on Sunday and upon arrival at home, there were a few small flurries that morning. From that point on, it didn't stop snowing until 6 or 7am on Monday morning. And yes, the 36" or so that we got from that storm was most certainly a lot, even relatively. We didn't have enough plows, and the roads just got so bad that the state couldn't keep up. It was literally snowing more than an inch an hour, which is just totally unreal.

But of course, we were up and running in a few days, and even before then conditions were drivable, as the plows started with just clearing enough for 2 lanes, one for each direction, on all roads around. The state roads took an extra day as roads like route 18 and route 34 were just terrible and literally had about 4" of snow left on the roads even after they plowed it once, because there was so much to be done.

Even with the conditions, we are prepared. Front end loaders work with dump trucks to clear bridges and roads and get the highways ready for the morning commute. There are plows running nonstop around to clear roads, and make conditions safe for driving.

But in Carolina, that doesn't really happen. Plows don't exist and the roads are whatever falls on the road. You just deal with it.

It's kinda the same with the gas prices, or tuition prices.

In Germany, the taxes are through the roof, but schooling is practically free for a college education. They just tripled the tuition for schools in Britain, upon which there was a large uprising from the angry students that were in school. The tripled amount for them is way less than we pay for school, but of course it's all relative. There would be an uproar if our tuition was tripled as well.

Naturally, gas prices also fall into this category. People in England complain when we complain about our gas prices, but it's all what we're used to. Any drastic change from the norm can bring about complaints.

I'm not really sure why I wrote about this and to be honest I think it's kind of a stupid blog, but I guess with potential upcoming inclement weather for Carolina, it was in my head. Sorry for a boring post.


**Also, just wanted to let you know, I'm staying at a friend's house for the next few days and there is no wireless internet, so if the posts are a bit late, forgive me. Thanks.