The White Walkers Are Coming.

In case you didn’t notice, we got an awful lot of snow over the last week.

You know it’s a serious bit of business when Codiac Transit pulled their bus fleet off the road and Champlain Place decided it was going to shutter up its storefronts before business even got started for the day last Tuesday. The ‘storm of the century’ was a pretty wild and wooly affair and to quote Yukon Cornelius from that Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas Special, “It (wasn’t) a fit night out for man or beast!” RCMP urged people to stay off the roads and avoid traveling unless it was completely necessary, so it would have been a perfect time to stay home and enjoy the snow day.

Perfect indeed, unless you’re an employee of an establishment that doesn’t close or someone who thinks it’s necessary to patronize those establishments – regardless of the risk of harm to yourself or the poor folks that are forced to report into work.

We’re not talking life or death situations here, folks. We’re talking people who ‘need’ to be out on the roads to grab a coffee fix, catch the latest Brad Pitt movie, or grab a burger and fries at a local drive-thru.  People who would love nothing more than to be safe at home with their loved ones have to brave the horrible weather to get to destinations that logic would dictate shouldn’t be open in the first place.

Why is this situation the case? It appears it’s because your convenience or need to be entertained is more important than their safety.

What is it that makes people leave the warm confines of their own homes to putter along the snow covered streets of our city when they have absolutely no reason to be out and about? People like hospital staff would probably sacrifice a limb some days to sit at home with their families while a blizzard howls outside their window.  Not the snow nomads, though!  They’re out driving merrily down to the corner store to grab a bag of Doritos or asking some high schooler at the fast food place “enough snow for ya yet?” as though it’s an infinitely clever question that the kid hasn’t heard a dozen times already that day.

Believe me, the people at the businesses that stay open all smile and nod at you when you go and see them in those zero visibility conditions, but the moment you leave they’re all wondering what kind of disorder you suffer from that would compel you to leave your driveway in a blinding snowstorm for something so trivial. I can say this with great certainty because I used to run one of the city’s movie theatres and I would always be floored to see families unloading the minivan – including toddler aged children - in our empty parking lot when we couldn’t even see as far as the bank a few hundred feet away because of the blizzard outside.

“Oh, we just wanted to get out of the house”, they would say. “There’s nothing exciting going on at home!”  You know where there is exciting stuff going on? The emergency room; which is likely filled with people who wrecked their cars because they were out driving in conditions they shouldn’t be.

Here’s a little tip for all you snow nomads: stay home.  When you know a big dump of the white stuff is coming, prepare ahead of time. Get your snacks, pick up a couple of movies, invest in a board game or two, and just plan to spend the day relaxing at home. Your insistence on leaving your home is making businesses force their workers out on treacherous streets to staff their establishments; just in case you wander in on one of your adventures. It’s forcing workers to find child care for their kids because there is no school, instead of spending what is probably some much needed quality time at home with the little guys and gals. The more traffic that’s on the roads, the harder it is for plows to do the job of keeping the streets clean. Emergency responders are busier, accidents are more frequent, and a city that’s not known for having the greatest drivers to begin with suddenly starts to look like a demolition derby.  Are you beginning to see what I’m getting at here?

I understand it’s impossible for everything to shut down because of a foot of snow. There are always services that we’ll need, regardless of how much of the white stuff is falling from the sky and piling up on the ground – and the people who provide those services are infinitely appreciated by everyone.  I guess what I’m saying though is I wish more people would try to take advantage of the few snow days we get every year. 

In a world where we’re always on the go, we should take every chance we can to stop for just a few minutes – and try to make sure that as many other people get the opportunity to do so as well.