Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Midday Update!

I knew I never should have told my boss about this blog.

Although I've spent most of the morning dutifully working on "work stuff," I'm ready to call it quits for the day and spend more time sledding with the neighborhood kids.



OK, so I haven't spent the entire morning working. I did manage to find a few minutes to clear the driveway of heavy, wet slop. And, of course, I got a few turns in with the snowboard while the "sneet" was still fresh early this morning.



And, I simply had to walk up to the "main" roads to check their conditions.


But these sojourns were all brief and largely didn't affect my productivity. After a quick online staff meeting later this hour, however, the time spent on distractions will surely increase. If that means I have to burn a few hours of leave time, so be it. Snow's a rare thing around here, best to not let it go to waste.

Anyway, in terms of updates, as you can see the roads in Oakland Mills don't look bad, but I heard from someone that US 29 south was (is?) closed near Broken Land Parkway. Can anyone else confirm this?

Also, precipitation has stopped and temperatures will start dropping soon. It's going to get cold, probably cold enough to make ice a real concern. Salt stops working when the mercury gets below the mid-20s, and with forecasts calling for lower teens tonight, conditions tomorrow morning could be just as bad as this morning.

All for now. Maybe more pictures later.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even though the county website claims otherwise, many roads have not been plowed and salted, as of the time of this comment.

Still iffy when traveling around Columbia and areas west. Half of my ride home from work was spent in 4WD. The roads hadn't been touched by plow or salt.

Anonymous said...

My favorite are the rotting cardboard/plastic signs for real estate developments that have decayed or fallen from the snow. Now they are part of the snow drifts.

Can't something be done to clean up the County and rid us of these signs? I don't need turn-by-turn directions to some Columbia Builders McMansion development from I-95!

Can I take these down myself? Calls to the County have gone unreturned.

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, real estate developers have the RIGHT in Howard County to put up AS MANY SIGNS AS THEY WANT.

There is a sign ordinance, but our beloved County Officials sold out to the real estate developers and SPECIFICALLY EXEMPTED THEM from the ordinance.

Free speech for a price.

Another victory for developers, who have the County officials in their pocket.

'Slow Growth' Ulman sure seems hypocritical to allow this.

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, real estate developers have the RIGHT in Howard County to put up AS MANY SIGNS AS THEY WANT.

There is a sign ordinance, but our beloved County Officials sold out to the real estate developers and SPECIFICALLY EXEMPTED THEM from the ordinance.

Free speech for a price.

Another victory for developers, who have the County officials in their pocket.

'Slow Growth' Ulman sure seems hypocritical to allow this.

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, real estate developers have the RIGHT in Howard County to put up AS MANY SIGNS AS THEY WANT.

There is a sign ordinance, but our beloved County Officials sold out to the real estate developers and SPECIFICALLY EXEMPTED THEM from the ordinance.

Free speech for a price.

Another victory for developers, who have the County officials in their pocket.

'Slow Growth' Ulman sure seems hypocritical to allow this.

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, real estate developers have the RIGHT in Howard County to put up AS MANY SIGNS AS THEY WANT.

There is a sign ordinance, but our beloved County Officials sold out to the real estate developers and SPECIFICALLY EXEMPTED THEM from the ordinance.

Free speech for a price.

Another victory for developers, who have the County officials in their pocket.

'Slow Growth' Ulman sure seems hypocritical to allow this.

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, real estate developers have the RIGHT in Howard County to put up AS MANY SIGNS AS THEY WANT.

There is a sign ordinance, but our beloved County Officials sold out to the real estate developers and SPECIFICALLY EXEMPTED THEM from the ordinance.

Free speech for a price.

Another victory for developers, who have the County officials in their pocket.

'Slow Growth' Ulman sure seems hypocritical to allow this.

Anonymous said...

Forgot to mention - if you take down the signs, YOU WILL BE CITED BY THE COUNTY POLICE.

They have the law working for them, rather than for public safety.

Anonymous said...

The sides of the roads are public property and free speech on public property is protected. It may be ugly, but that is the price we pay for freedom.