As the saying goes, elections have consequences.
As I write this diary, I sit safely in my house in Northern Virginia under a blizzard warning. VDOT has pulled the plows off the roads temporarily in the worst of this. Meanwhile my neighbors in my "red" precinct are complaining on our community e-mail list about not being plowed out from the weekend snow, many making specific whines about being overtaxed, so why can't VDOT plow out my side street.
I've lived in Virginia my entire life and my father is a retired meteorologist so I've always keep an eye on the weather following the boy scout motto, Be Prepared. I remember the Nor'easters in 1979, 1983, 1996 and 2003. In each case the cul-de-sac my parents live on was not plowed for 5-7 days and in 1996 not even plowed by then. And in 1996 there were gas shortages and supermarkets with empty shelves as trucks could not get to the stores to restock.
So I after the third e-mail about someone calling our democratic county board member and whining about "all the taxes I pay and VDOT can't plow my street", I'd had enough. I posted that we were under a blizzard warning and had not seen snow close to this since 1996, so we should refrain from whining about being overtaxed. I pointed out that instead VDOT was overtaxed as it simply did not make economic sense to budget for Buffalo, NY snowfalls each winter and raise our taxes in the process to pay for it.
Naturally the head of association zinged back with yet another whine about the amount of taxes he paid. My response was to point out that property taxes in New Jersey were far higher, that we as homeowners took advantage of the mortgage deduction, that capital gains taxes were far lower and we did not pay as much in FICA as I imagine that many of my neighbors are over the cap for that.
Note all these knuckleheads are likely the folks who voted for Gov. Bob McDonnell because he promised to cut taxes but they expect VDOT to gain plowing capacity out of thin air during a blizzard that will break all time snow records. Note too that some streets weren't plowed because the plow trucks got stuck trying to do so.
Alas Thunder my oldest sheltie has dental problems this morning, thank goodness though we had leftover antibiotics in the dog cabinet from a couple of years ago that my vet said we should give him until we both can get to his office.
If you have any tips on dealing with ice damns and a leaky window, I'm all ears. I'll have to call a roofer when this storm passes. SIGH. I wonder if Claude and company are around, maybe they could do a diary on dealing with blizzard damage to your house.
But all is not bleak and whinny, my neighbors have been fantastic, those with gas blowers have helped me clear the driveway and the awful neighbor next to my parents actually helped them clear their driveway on Sunday -- that was a hell freezing over moment, trust me!
Everyone in the blizzard area stay home and keep safe!