But here's the thing: I'm looking outside and it looks ... OK. Maybe even nice? I don't know if the snow has stopped, but we're not being assaulted by it like we were last night or, I assume, overnight. Any clouds in the sky are thin. The sun might be poking out today, if it isn't now. What I haven't done is open my front door. I have looked through my windows at the back deck and the driveway and there is snow. How much? Don't know. Could I drive through it? Maybe, although I'd have to plow my driveway first. What I wonder is how passable the roads beyond my driveway are. Things look nice right now, but there's no use in leaving the house just because I have a snowblower if it's freakin' Hoth out there.
I have to admit, however, that a part of me still feels like I'm playing hooky, that I should be at work. Not only is the weather right now making me feel like outside is drivable, but I also remember what happened just after the New Year. I didn't know it at the time, but the storm we had back then (what I only learned when doomscrolling about this storm that that storm has been dubbed "The Big Mess") dumped 15 inches. I made it to work the four days this system technically was in the area. There was one day I came in 70 minutes late to clear my driveway, but otherwise, everything was normal. I'm sort of bothered that I didn't plow and go into work today, or at least didn't have the attitude that I could have done more, or anything, to come into work today. The difference, the way I see it, is that weather forecasts were warning upwards of a week ago that this storm had the potential to dump an historic amount of snow, much of which would (or should) be blowing around to the point that drivers would be facing blizzard conditions. I don't remember them saying that about "The Big Mess." I don't know if the snow totals or the driving conditions from this snowstorm are as bad as it's been made out to be. But the stay-at-home recommendations were made, and I heeded them, and that's why I'm blogging from home in the early afternoon. Again, I hope my company will understand.
I mean, companies should, right? Our work comes from the South, and at least once a year (at least it seems like it) there isn't a shipment because a storm down there is so bad that no one down there can get to work. I don't live down there, and I don't live their lives, so I try not to wonder whether it was really impossible to drive, or were they just being careful. So then I have to stop and wonder why I'm being so gung ho for work. I like my job, and for the most part I like my company. But what should one risk to get to work on one day in not-ideal conditions? If this were a 24-hour blizzard, and it was snowing heavily in the morning and still is right as I type this, of course I wouldn't go into work. But how about what might be true now, where the worst of the storm is past us and now it might just be a matter of getting the snow out of the way and driving slowly? Shouldn't this still be a case of staying home, just to be safe?
I kind of liken a situation like this to the more, uh, "enlightened" thinking behind staying home that some people have turned to once the pandemic hit. Back in the early days when there was no vaccine for COVID-19, you were told to stay home if you think you got it. Of course, since there was no weapon against which we could fight this virus, you didn't want to spread it if you got it. I think that made many of us reconsider the idea of working while sick, or fighting through what you think may be a cold. You really don't know what you have, and you don't know how sick you truly are, so why would you go into work and possibly infect someone? That seems obvious for something as deadly (at the time) like the coronavirus. But what about the flu, an illness that's been around for centuries and something I and many, many people have fought off but has, all-time at least, killed more people than COVID? If you're sick with the flu, even if you can work while coughing and powering through your aches and pains, shouldn't you stay home?
OK, so maybe people stay home with the flu all the time. I don't, or at least I haven't. But maybe we should revisit the idea that we need to get to work at all costs. In fact, maybe risking life and limb shouldn't be the height of the bar to which we decide not to work. Maybe that bar should be lower -- like, for example, a lot of snow but only flurries now and, maybe, most of the main roads clear.
Or, maybe I'm just trying not to feel guilty about not going into work. Yeah, feeling as though I've done the smart thing here is difficult.
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