Will we see you Saturday?

I was thinking about following your hikes with my dog. We have no trouble crossing the river at Pony Pasture up to about 4 feet on the gauge.

[http://saveourschools-getrealrichmond.blogspot.com/2010/01/time-to-bring-on-big-dogs.html#comments]

and the comments following my BackPage in Style Weekly: “Time to Bring on the Bigger Dogs” –http://www.styleweekly.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=1EA87FB760114FC296B560829E65FEB9&AudID=24508F02FEF54113AAE7F37C8AF3D905
http://saveourschools-getrealrichmond.blogspot.com/2010/01/time-to-bring-on-big-dogs.html#comments

Resident sez that was the first he’s ever seen on this street.

Some great snow sculpture… really beautiful snow angel near Forest Hill Park, An Alien Cookbook take off from the Twilight Zone in Woodland Heights.

My sister keyy Catalano went missing on January 15th not far from where Jill went mssing I would like to hear from Jill’s family and friends. My E-mail is judym1957@yahoo.com.

This is a very valuable service that is unavailable anywhere else for folks who get cabin fever.

That’s the way we handle it back home in Minnesota. ;^)

Partial school days count as full school days, so getting the kids in to school even for a couple hours means that the district gets to count the day as part of the 180-day requirement. Not that much learning happens on half days, but that’s apparently not the point.

“Local drivers cannot cope as well as their Northern counterparts in snowy conditions. Simple fact. Why else the crush at local markets for bread and milk in the face of a few flurries?”

Sure, but the problem is that we have what are essentially shop-worn urban myths presented as “truths” without a single shred of hard evidence to back them up.

When is the last time anyone actually SAW a “crush at local markets for bread and milk in the face of a few flurries?”

I was in Ukrop’s last Friday night and no such thing existed.

And national weather coverage on CNN and the Weather Channel long ago put the lie to the alleged expertise of our Northern cousins as they hit the roads in winter.
You see the SAME shots of vehicles in ditches and slipping sliding cars and spinning tires that you do in our local weather coverage.

As has my own experience driving through Penn and Maryland in various ice and snow storms.
It wasn’t my Virginia plates sitting in those ditches.

To continue to bring up spurious arguments that have no basis in fact and present them as absolutes certainly does, in my opinion at least, qualify as “bashing”. Otherwise, what’s the point or repeating these fictions?

The clean-up of Riverside Dr. scheduled for Feb. 6th will be postponed until Saturday, Feb. 13th. 9 a.m. at Pony Pasture.

Obviously I have a very different perspective.

All I have to do is keep a snow shovel on hand and keep about 60′ of sidewalk clear.

The city, in comparison, gets to maintain the fleet of plows, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, street cleaning equipment, tree-trimming equipment, paving rigs, utility equipment, trash collection trucks, buses…and that’s just a smattering of the *vehicles*, and doesn’t include things like gas and water lines, water treatment, and so on, and so forth ad nauseum.

All for a .12% tax on the fair market value of my home.

It’s a world gone mad, I tell you!

Our side streets were finally cleared yesterday. My husband stopped the DPW worker and thanked him. And, then asked why the snow removal was so spotty. The reply was equipment had broke down and there was none available to take up the slack.

I think there were a lesson to be learned this Winter and that is not to discard snow removal equipment or snow shovels during sunny times.

As for citizen involvement, there has been a strenuous effort to shift the discussion from road conditions and snow removal to sidewalk and tree maintenance. Let’s stick to the matter at hand if we’re going to disagree.

Snow removal in Richmond is about on par with other cities. No realistic cause for complaint on that subject.

The city is not responsible for clearing sidewalks. A long-standing, widespread custom written in to the local laws. No cause for complaint there, either.

Local drivers cannot cope as well as their Northern counterparts in snowy conditions. Simple fact. Why else the crush at local markets for bread and milk in the face of a few flurries?