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Ice! It's everywhere today. 'Fess up if it caused you to have an ungraceful encounter with the ground on your way in to work this morning.
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To the girls who WORE HEELS and thus had to walk down Connecticut Ave. instead of walking on the sidewalk: You are dumb.
I'm totally with you. I'm a change into heels when I get to work kind of gal, so I usually wear pretty practical shoes for my commute, but today after a block I had to go back home and change into more serious boots, then I get on the bus and there are girls in heels! Are they worried about looking cute while walking from the bus stop to their office?
Dumb or not, I still appreciate it!
who are these people who selected "other" and what happened to you this morning? stayed home? or flew to work using jet pack? those are the only two options.
and is it the same 2 people who always pick "other" on the polls? i'm so curious!!!!!!!!!!!!! tellll meee!!!!!
I voted "other" and I don't even have plans to even step out into the hall today.
"Other" - working from home today. Yay!
I recall some newspaper ran an online poll run after Chandra Levy disappeared. My favorite answer, 'She is alive, but doesn't remember who she is' polled at only 1%. I voted so many times, hoping to for 2% or maybe 3%. I'm not sure I wanted anything so badly in my life.
'She is alive, but doesn't remember who she is'
DCist should include that as the standard "Other" option on all future polls.
I voted "other" because although I neither fell nor slipped, I walked obscenely slowly, like I was 200 years old.
I voted "Other" because, once again, dcist shows it's anti-Creationist stance by blaming falling-on-your-ass on "gravity" instead of "intelligent falling." Next you'll tell us snow is "crystallized moisture" instead of angels' tears for all the sperm that meet their horrible fate on the cold, hard bathroom tiles. WHARRRGARBL! [drinks strychnine, rolls on floor, speaks in tongues]
I know it's the law, at least in DC, to shovel your walk. But seriously, if there's a call for ice on top of snow, don't shovel. It's much easier to gain traction once you break through the ice crust than walking on black ice. Why are people so ignorant? Unless you're going to salt and squeegee away the moisture, you're better off waiting for the high temps to melt this crap.
Why does it got to be black ice? No Puerto Rican ice?
And what about the gay ice, by which I mean The Ice Capades®?
Definitely, don't eat the yellow ice.
i couldn't believe the amount of yellow snow and ice i saw this morning.
it makes it quite clear that a lot of people are reliving themselves right on the streets, even in the cold weather.
I blame all the incontinent dogs headed to their Glamour Shots photo sessions. What a bunch of bitches. Can't be bothered to use a restroom.
you know, you're right, i didn't even think that a lot of that was probably from dogs.
A house in my neighborhood has this "no pooping dogs" sign in their tree box. The sign was surrounded by yellow snow this morning. I can assure you that it wasn't my pooch, but I found it amusing.
I want to thank you for your suggestion. Last night heading home, I nearly slipped and fell several times at houses who hadn't bothered to shovel snow, it became a slushy mess and then iced over again into a ridged icy mess. that is far far the worst thing to walk in.
We shoveled the snow Tuesday night and salted our sidewalk that night. and then salted again the glaze in the morning. It worked.
I didn't slip or fall, and I rode my bicycle to work. Sure, traction was tricky, but it wasn't that bad!
And to anybody who actually shoveled their walks yesterday before the rain moved in, y'all are amateurs! That's a way to guarantee rink-like status for your sidewalk. If it snows before the freezing rain comes in, it's best to leave the snow on the walk to absorb the water and create a surface with some give. Give = traction.
So true. But DC law requires shovelling regardless. And tenants often demand it even though the management company knows better. That's why you see larger apartment buildings with front areas that are now two inch thick sheets of ice.
And when was the last time you saw DC enforce the law on this one? While I realize it's the law (as it is in most municipalities where snow events occur), I'd be willing to use common friggin' sense and disregard the regulations on the books in the name of safety.
DC really needs to revisit this.
You're right, I'm a total amateur. I tried to be nice to my neighbors by clearing my walk when there was just snow, thinking that the rain would turn the snow into a honeycomb-like 2 inch layer of frozen hell that requires a jackhammer for removal, which it so often does in this city. Luckily, winter weather forecasts here in DC are always spot-on, so one always knows how to best deal with the situation. I'm glad that we have experts to tell us how to best handle DC winter weather.
Seriously, there's no beating the weather here. Ice storms are lose-lose, unless you feel like killing your sidewalk with salt.
Can we do a poll on whether or not to help someone who's fallen on the ice while wearing a mini-skirt, platform shoes, talking on her phone while j-walking and making cars stop while driving up an icy road? Okay, she didn't actually fall, but I was hoping she would. She came close - skitter/slide/grab onto air move.
i didn't fall this morning, but i totally fell last night. it was awesome.
Just for IMGoph: last year, my mom slipped on her icy, Tulsa driveway and broke her leg.
I haven't stepped outside and don't plan to.
fedward: for reals? i remember seeing some of the pictures of the ice they had last year, hell of a lot of damage, they lost a ton of trees.
For reals. She'd gone outside to get the paper and slipped on her way back up, landing on her leg and fracturing her femur just above the knee. The really bad part was she didn't go to the emergency room that day because she didn't want them to interfere with her scheduled knee replacement. After I, uh, "encouraged" her to get it looked at she got her orthopedist to squeeze her in.
They're iced in again now, and she made dad get the paper this morning and take his cell phone with him in case he had to call 911.
Thus concludes my Tulsa reference for the day.
Suggestion for the National Park Service--hire a contractor to clear all those triangle parks! Those were the trickiest part of my walk this morning; those, and the gas stations where they appear not to realize that they have deep pockets. I thought about falling on purpose, just so I could sue!
Actually, I don't know much about the World Bank (pro? con?) but they cleared the sidewalk on the triangle park across from their building, so they get a gold star in my book.
Nice, Obamarama just basically called DC a bunch of silly nannies that cant deal with snow.
I have Yak Trax -- it makes it impossible to fall. I know it's a bit snarky, but I don't have a lot of pity for people who wear inappropriate shoes in the snow/ice. Stupid is as stupid does, people.
With this economy, who can ill afford $20 high strength, abrasion resistant steel coils and user friendly elastomer shoe accessories?
Baby's got to eat!
Yak Trax rule, and I learned about them from a DCist thread a couple of years ago. Saved my ass more than once!
Bought those this year. Work great. I might have to buy a larger pair to go over my hiking boots.
Made it all the way to work from Silver Spring to Greenbelt via mass transit just fine... then busted my butt at the front door of my building... just had to fall when people i actually know are watching.
Working from home, but I almost killed myself on my icy front steps taking out the trash. I decided to butt-scoot down them instead. lost dignity and cold butt > broken face.
Shuffled along through the icy parking lot to the equally icy bus stop, managed to get on the bus by clinging to its front panel while gingerly stepping up from the sidewalk. Successfully negotiated Metro, then five blocks down the ice-covered sidewalks of Chinatown. Folks without practical shoes were totally in the street...I have grippy boots on.
Unfortunately, no one has bought it outside our windows which look directly onto the sidewalk. That would have made for some great morning entertainment to go with our coffee.
My genius neighbor is one of the ones who shoveled her sidewalk last night before the freezing rain, and I knew I was going to have to avoid it come morning. So as I was gingerly picking my way around that icy patch, in my super traction-heavy snow boots, I totally wiped out. Bruised my self pretty badly, pulled quite a few muscles, pinched some nerves, and cried like a baby.
wow, that's a lot of votes!
I chose 'other' because I thought I could leave a comment. I saw 2 people fall in the same spot in Mt. Pleasant in a span of 5 minutes. Both seemed okay though they went flying onto their backs. 3 stores in a row didn't have any salt down on their brick sidewalk.
It is a moment when you suddenly realise you're on sheer ice, precariously balanced between upright dignity and flat-ass pain. Frozen in terror, you watch both of your legs begin their inexorable divergent drift, stretching both calves and credibility as you frantically attempt to retrieve first the left, then the right, only to cleave further, as you now cast about for the softest nearby landing. A rush of air briefly caresses your face as you are cruelly reintroduced to earth, staring up into the dark night, feverishly hoping that either no one saw your fall from grace, or that everyone saw it, and is now rushing to your assistance.
In the future, I will rely upon the Marion Barry method of snow removal, which is to allow Mother Nature to take away what Mother Nature put there.