I Hate the City Of Toronto’s Snow Policy

I left my house before 6 a.m. and more than two hours later, I made it to work – really angry.

The drive down to and on the highway was as expected – slow but moving, with drivers packing their patience and leaving lots of room between cars.

It was as I turned off the highway and onto a six-lane road that I began to curse.

Loudly.

The City of Toronto has a snow policy that won’t have it plowing its expressways until 2.5 cm of snow has fallen; five cm must fall for its main roads to be plowed; and eight or more cm must come down for the city’s side roads are plowed, but in this case removal doesn’t start until the snow has stopped.

I hope each person who gets in an accident in the City of Toronto because the city thinks it’s not its job to plow streets until these magic numbers are reached should sue.

Whenever it snows, that six-lane road is not even track-bare, cars are spinning and it’s hard to break through the snow to turn onto even worse ‘side’ roads.

I don’t think I should have to purchase a truck with four-wheel drive to navigate City of Toronto streets when it decides to snow.

Look! It’s the Vultures

Someone I know calls tow truck drivers ‘vultures.’

Somehow, the name sticks.

Earlier this week, I heard the in-the-air traffic reporter talk about an accident on the highway and ended the conversation with: ‘I can’t believe I am going to say this, but we need a tow truck driver here.’

This morning, I came to a standstill as soon as I got on the highway.

Up a head, I noticed a sea of red brake lights. I also noticed a black tow truck driver heading north, drive across the grassy medium and squeeze himself into the southbound lanes. (I would have liked to do the same but I would have gone in the opposite direction.)

Minutes later, a white tow truck driver whipped by us all travelling on the right-hand shoulder, followed closely by a second white tow truck.

When I finally reached the accident, the black tow truck was nowhere in the sight, but the two white ones were protectively wrapping the crashed vehicles.

They may be vultures, but at least I knew why I was stopped at 6:55 a.m.

Thursday Confessions

I am now scared of driving.

There, I said it.

It is actually quite silly of me.

My recent accident, where a teenager on a cellphone hit my Sunfire head-on, occurred on my street, literally about a minute from home.

While snow-covered, the roads weren’t terrible and the visibility was fine.
But now when it snows, my stress level goes through the roof.

I am a ball of nerves on my street, my body untensing the moment I turn on to the main road.

However, I am still anxious about driving in snow, including the inch or so of white stuff that fell during the morning rush.

I have become one of THOSE drivers.

You know the ones. Those drivers who go the speed limit or under when a flake or two falls; who gripes the steering wheel hard; and who is looking around and talking to those around her – ‘Where are you going? Stay in your lane. If you hit me, I will be really upset.’

I am sure it will get better but in the meantime, my apologizes to those who want to go to fast.

Thank You Very Much

Maybe I need a Wordless Thursday, except my computer crashed so I can’t access any new photos.

I could take a page from Kmama’s book and offer Thank You Very Much Thursdays but … yes, I can do Thank You Thursdays. Visit Kmama’s blog to join in.



* To the twit who hit me two weeks ago, thank you very much. I was feeling better and today I can barely move.
* To the insurance company, which has given me a car rental for about two weeks, thank you very much for not putting me under more pressure than I already am.
* To the Ford dealer, who despite rumours this is the best time to purchase a car but who won’t give me the deal I need on the car he was right when he said I would fall in love with it, giant thank you very much to you as well.

Safety First

Well, I asked for it and I finally got it.

The safety gates are up at my house, helping to prevent our son from falling down the two sets of stairs that are in our house.

Unfortunately, it does give our house that jail-like feeling, which is helped by our son, who grabs hold of the bars and shakes them.

It has also created a hazard for my already-accident-prone stepdaughter. Of course it doesn’t help that she is now trying to climb over the gates rather than opening and closing them.

The reason? She says she has a hard time getting them closed. I do understand. With my benign tremour, I, too, have a hard time closing the stupid things, however, I think it is more difficult to leap over the gates than to take the time to open and close them properly.

It must be hard for AD as well as I hear a lot of “Omphs” and “Ahhhhhs” as her short legs don’t carry her all the way over.

The safety latches have also been troublesome.

You hear a lot of cursing as we yank on the cupboard doors, expecting them to open the whole way only to catch on the latch and open an inch or two.

Oh yes, we are baby proofed, or as much as we can do in our house, and no one is happy.