Woes of the Snows

[lydy]

We didn't really get that much snow in South Minneapolis. However, TPTB declared a snow emergency, for reasons best known to themselves. And so I am woe.

Look, I do sympathize with the snow emergency system. In the normal course of events, we get a fuckton of snow over the course of the season. Roads become...entertaining. Something Must Be Done. St. Paul experimented one year with waiting until it melted. This experiment was not well received, and the mayor was voted out of office. Some suburbs simply don't allow on-street parking, which is great if you have a garage, but not so good if you don't. No one with even a tenuous grasp on reality thinks that all the cars in Minneapolis have garages to park in, so the system here involves a three-pronged attack. First they plow the snow emergency routes, then the even side of the other streets, then the odd side of the other streets. It is probably not the best system in the universe, but it does get the streets reasonably well plowed. Being in the way of the snow plows costs upwards of $200 if they decide to tag and tow.

So, onward to my tale of woe.

We live on a snow emergency route. That means that from 9:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m., there is no parking day one of the emergency. There's a caveat that if the street is fully plowed, you can then park there even if it's before the time. So, I'm sitting around at two-thirty in the morning, about to fall over. I know that my car is parked on the south side of a non-snow emergency route, as is my sweetie David's. I look at the app on my phone to check on the status of the snow emergency, and it seems to suggest that the south side of the street is, in fact, the even side of the street, not the odd side. Quelle horreur. (However that's spelled.) It being practically three in the mother fucking morning, no way am I going to be up at eight a.m., and I assume that the street outside our house has been fully plowed. So, I gather many car keys, and move, first David's car, and then my own. In the process of doing so, I determine that the app was misleading, and that the cars were, in fact, parked on the odd side of the street, which is to say, if I hadn't moved them, they would have been fine come eight a.m. when the next round of plowing occurs. Sigh.

I did mention that we didn't get much snow, didn't I? When I get out my my car, I notice that, you know, it doesn't really look like the plows have made it all the way to the curb. I mean, the center of the street has been plowed, but there's still a couple of inches of accumulation in the parking lane. There's just not a lot of snow, so little that in the normal course of things Minneapolis often doesn't even bother plowing. I go inside. It's fucking cold (11 degrees fondly Fahrenheit) and try to talk myself into believing that they won't really tow our cars. I fail to convince myself. Roughly $500 of towing fees is remarkably conducive to doubt.

So, out I trek, into the cold, and move the cars again, back to where they were.

Woe is me.

Comments

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Oh snowy crap. I was under the impression that all the houses in that part of town had garages.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Most do, but there is no requirement that every house have a garage. And even if you have a garage, that doesn't mean there is room in it for all the cars in your household. Or even one car if the garage is full of other stuff. We park on the street and always have. Even if our garage wasn't full of junk, it opens directly onto a Snow Emergency Route, which makes it impossible to use in an actual Snow Emergency. The plows trundle up and down 40th St all night long, constantly renewing the ridge of snow 6 feet from our garage door. Last year that ridge was chest high. What we really need is a driveway, but sadly we don't have one.

[guppiecat]

I was really expecting this story to end with both cars getting smashed with a snowplow and then towed.

You need to work on your woe.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Thank you, but I think that was a sufficient amount of woe. While I admit that there is vastly more woe available on offer, I am quite content with my ration.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is safe to park on Snow Emergency Routes at all on the first night, because they NEVER STOP PLOWING THEM. We live on a SER also (40th St) and the plows just keep grinding past all night long. You might get away with parking there after the plow goes by the first time, but we never try it. But, as you said, there really wasn't all that much snow so they may have quit after one pass. You were wise to move the cars back where they were.

I think we got about 4", which is right at the tipping point for calling a Snow Emergency in Minneapolis. If they think it's just going to melt in the next few days they don't bother. But it doesn't look like anything is going to melt in the next few days.

[pameladean]

You should trust your car-mover, who checks these things out.

P.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

But it was three in the morning, and I couldn't call him. Also, it was three in the morning and I wasn't thinking as clearly as might be. Also, I thought, what harm in moving the car early? Also, I wasn't really thinking.

[pameladean]

Three in the morning really covers it, doesn't it? They were quite late beginning to plow the street and they always do the empty side first; you were probably right that they hadn't done our side yet.

P.

[carbonel]

Am I correct in understanding that in fact no car actually got towed? As a person who had to pay to get her car out of durance vile at least three times under similar circumstances, I call that a win. I do sympathize with the lost sleep, though.

Also, if you ever want to say the hell with it and not cope overnight, you're welcome to crash at my place, where I have an extra space in my garage and plenty of driveway.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

No cars were towed in this tale of woe. Sleep was disrupted, and Lydys were made very cold, but the cars are fine.

I will remember your kind offer. Thank you.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I sympathize with your tale of woe, but calling a snow emergency between Christmas and New year was a win for my part of town, as (based upon the number of cars parked on the street) most people appear to be out of town, and clearing out the streets rather than letting it accumulate will pay dividends next year (there have been year when our street has been barely wide enough for one car, even with parking restricted to one side of the street).