Snow Storm

I am told that this year Bulgaria is getting more snow then any winter in the past twenty years.  For the past two days it has been snowing almost non-stop.  I had a hard time driving Sophie to school today, but we made it.  I had an even harder time driving back up the hill to our house.

Things would not be so bad if there were two different factors at play.

First of all, the street cleaning crews are not getting the job done.  I have seen them at work, so I'm not going to blame them.  I don't exactly know where the blame lies, and I don't really care.  I would however really like to see the streets clean.  My guess is that there is just not enough equipment out there to keep up with the volume of snow falling.

We had this same problem in Minnesota in December 2010.  There was a massive snow storm.  One of the worst on record.  The plows could not clear the streets fast enough.  Were the plows of Minnesota in Sofia today, I think the roads would be in much better condition.  However the good folks at the Minnesota Department of Transportation probably have much better and much more equipment to deal with heavy snow falls.  Such equipment is not as necessary in Bulgaria.

Second there are a lot of inexperienced winter drivers.  The snow is coming down, but it is nothing that one might see in the mid-west U.S. in any given winter.  The problem is that folks around here are not used to adjusting their driving to accommodate the laws of physics as they relate to slushy roads.  I saw sedans trying to work their way up a steep hill covered in slush make the big mistake of stopping half way up.  I saw drivers driving at full speed and then wondering why they are fishtailing (yet not slowing down).

In about a half hour I head out again to pick Sophie up from school.  Then we are staying inside for the rest of the day.  Best to play it safe and pray for the snow to stop falling.