Winter woes

Thursday, 12/13/07, was a bad day. We had 5 to 6 inches of snow forecasted, snow was supposed to start coming down midday and would eventually become a mixture of rain & sleet towards the evening.

The worst part of yesterday was that out of all the days in December, we had to pick that one day to go into NYC for a client-demonstration (this meeting got arranged a month ago). So by 12:30, I was already outside, trying to hail a cab. It was raining - a combination of rain & sleet actually - there was no sign of light fluffy snow at all.

Eventually, I got myself a cab and asked to be driven to the Port Authority so I could catch a bus to NJ. I stood in line at the bus gates for more than an hour (buses were supposed to run every 30 minutes) until eventually, a Port Authority staff came and told us that buses were running late due to the bad weather & road conditions.

*sigh* My first thought on hearing that announcement: "whew, was I glad that I peed before I ran to the gate". I actually had to think twice about going to the restroom because I was afraid I'd miss the bus and would have to wait for the next one.

The rain / sleet / snow combination went on till evening and by 10pm, we heard the snowplow contractor outside, they had started clearing up the walkways & parking slots around our (condo) building. Good, I thought. We could probably go out an hour later and move our car back into our already-cleared-up parking slot in front.

11pm, we went out, the guy was still driving around in his snow plow and our space is only plowed halfway (no idea why he didn't finish). We decided to go out on a "date" (either for coffee or get some groceries at a local shop that closes late) and hopefully, by the time we get back, our spot would've been plowed already.

We wound up getting some groceries and when we got back half an hour later, the snowplow men were gone and he had left our parking slot as is. We drove around the building and found a few more spots that were haphazardly plowed. Grabe, tamad talaga.

We ended up shoveling the ICE (yes, it had turned & hardened into ice by now) by ourselves. Ang hirap!

I took pictures and I'm filing a complaint with the building association. This guy is a new contractor and yesterday was his first day, the rest of the season isn't looking so good.

Check these pictures out, see how the plow had already pushed back part of the snow ? Why not push it all back ? Normally, the snowplow should push the snow all the way in till the spots are cleared. This is really shoddy work.