Counterpoint: DC does have it figured out - well, at least snow
Picture this -you're rudely awakened very early one morning from your wife's cell phone ringing with the message that she gets to sleep in and enjoy a day off work, and yet you look outside and there is not even a hint of bad weather. You still have to wake up (again) in an hour and go to work. Okay, so Rob perhaps has a little snow day envy. I don't blame him. But I still feel compelled to counter what he wrote in his previous post (read below), because it does not properly pay respect to the beauty of the way people here know how to work a snow day. He accuses Washingtonians of being "out of touch with reality" on the basis that schools all over the place were canceled because of the threat of snow that day. I see it as just the opposite. The truth is, no one could be more in touch with reality than those very people who have figured out that they can cancel school, and more importantly, their own work day, on the basis that they are looking out for the safety of the community. Somehow, the community around DC has collectively discovered a genius way of creating surprise holidays and half days of work - while doing it in the name of safety. What other place in the U.S. could pull this off better than a place crawling with government workers? The way I see, it was too difficult to get congress to add any more national holidays to the calendar, and this is our underhanded way of evening the score with other nations that get hoards of holidays.
I can't blame Rob for feeling a little ripped off that I have gotten as much time off of school due to snow in the last couple months than he got his entire life growing up in Salt Lake - where our big storms would barely make the evening news - but I still can't help but revel in the beauty of snow days here. It's like the universe's way of making up for the fact that I don't get to live in southern California anymore. It gives me a reason to take enjoy the beauty of snow, instead of just being annoyed that I'm stuck to riding my bike indoors for the next week until it all melts off. I mean, if I get a day and a half off from work from a few hours of snow, I'll gladly take that as adequate payment for the inconvenience. Thanks D.C. - at least you have ONE thing figured out!