Memories of how this area is not prepared for snow

I really enjoy where I live in this world and I am thankful for this often. I think one of the main things that people complain about in this world is being unhappy with where they are and this always seems so strange to me because unless you seriously played your cards wrong in life, if you are American and live in the USA, nothing is really stopping you from moving to basically any climate you can imagine.

here in North Carolina we have all 4 seasons and normally, none of them are too extreme. We have about 3 weeks of oppressive heat in the summer but for the most part it is quite mild. The winter is cold, like you would imagine, but it is never like the absolutely horrid weather I have seen in northern states where friends of mine live like Illinois, Michigan, and I have one friend who lives in Wisconsin and the pictures they send me in winter look like they would all be buried in snow every storm.

Here in North Carolina is almost never snows and when it does it will normally melt quite quickly.

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I never really bothered to look why it doesn't snow here very often because we certainly have the precipitation for it. This is very evident in hurricane season where we get pelted nonstop and normally will have some damage in coastal areas like clockwork every year.

There was one year when I was in college, so that would have been around the year 2000 or so, when we got hit by a rather large storm with what we consider to be a lot of snowfall. It accumulated as well and since we don't normally get much snow, if any, at all, the city basically shut down.

While the city probably has some sort of snowplow machines for the roads they don't have enough of them to handle emergency situations like this and most of the roads where everyone lived just had to deal with having a bunch of snow on them. There is probably a factor of how the snow plow trucks probably rip up the roads as well.

I recall thinking it was kind of funny about how almost everything was shut, including the university that I was attending, yet Waffle House went on 24 hours a day like nothing happened. I don't know how they do it but it seems as though nothing can close that place. I think if there was nuclear war the staff at Waffle House will still be required to come in.

I don't know how they manage to keep their staff, it seems like a pretty hardcore place to work with the drunks coming in there nonstop and how there are fights basically every day in there.

I recall how a lot of my asshole friends that were from places up north, most notably New York State or worse, NYC, were constantly commenting about how North Carolina people can't drive in the snow in a snobby and holier than thou sort of way... But here's something for you to consider... why would they be good at that? There's not reason to get good at that sort of thing when it only happens once every 8 years. I guess the people at Waffle House get picked up by some sort of military transport.

Speaking of military transport: During this snow storm an army buddy of mine came by in an actual Army Humvee and gave me a ride in it. I think he was in breach of a ton of Army rules by taking me on a joyride and he could have gotten into a ton of trouble for that but I have to say, it was pretty damn cool to be in that thing for a little while.

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I don't know if this was the exact model but it was very similar to that. I don't know how you would get this thing stuck but it sure as shit wasn't going to happen in the snow. He took me off road in it as well and honestly, that thing can go over whatever it wants and it had tow cables on the front and back in case it ever did get stuck. Pretty amazing vehicle if you ask me but that is probably why they cost $200,000 and get 4 miles to the gallon or something awful like that.

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This winter was very mild for North Carolina and if we got any snow at all it was just a light brushing and then the next day it would be completely gone. I think the city trucks hit the streets with salt a few times in 4 months but they weren't really busy with that. The roads here can get a bit icy but you normally know it is there by the fact that there is a car in the ditch already. I have a 4x4 so it's not much of an issue for me.

It's the end of March so while it is still cool in the mornings, cold will soon be something we don't have to deal with again for a while. The spring and fall are the best months here anyway but this winter, and all the winters since around the year 2000 have been very bearable here. When the snow does hit though, we really aren't ready for it. Not everyone has a military friend with H-1 after all.