Lest anyone criticize the city for their efforts to remove the immense snow we've had lately, this Yankee transport is actually proud of their accomplishments this year. That's a first. Seriously, our average snowfall for a YEAR is 9.1 inches. We've gotten approximately 25 inches in the last month! In the past, I've gone off on the city for their usual "do very little about it and wait for it to melt" approach. This year, I think they've done as good a job as a semi-southern state can do at removing two friggin' feet of snow from an entire city.

The whiny butts who are crying that they still can't get out of their driveways need to stop and think for a minute. Forty-seventh largest city in the United States plus 30-some-odd snowplows (I've also heard 50ish. Either way...) .... really? You expect them to plow out your neighborhood streets?? Come on. Think that one through. While their idea of priority areas in an entire city and your idea of them may differ, your little cul-de-sac does NOT belong on either list. Be reasonable. That's a LOT of mileage if they drove down every neighborhood street in the city... twice if we wanted both lanes/directions cleared... Give me a break.

Okay. Venting over. Now then. Some cool pictures....

Brad works at the Port of Catoosa, and we took him to work yesterday and got to see the trucks load up on salt while we were there. I've always seen the big mountains of salt before, I've known what they were, etc.. But I'd never really paid attention to their massive size, the sheer amount required to salt an entire city, the small dent a whole semi truck's load would make in the pile... no wonder we still use barges and the like to transport things!

I mean, look at that truck!!! How many truckloads of that stuff makes a mountain that size???

Check out all the trucks waiting in line for salt. Brad says that they were lined up by the dozens the other day, early one morning, probably sleeping in their cabs (I always wanted to do that. How is it that I have a trucker for an uncle and I've never ridden along with him and slept in the little bed in the cab??) while they waited for their turns.

Then it's hauled away to wherever we keep our salt in each city or town, and later it's used on the streets.

Thank you, city, county, and state workers, who have worked 12 hour shifts for two weeks now to make our streets safer. And don't forget that this Ohio girl is actually impressed this time around. Keep up the good work!