"Day off" Monday

Digging out. If your work follows the federal schedule, you'll have Monday off. That would include this here blogger. The DC government is being very flinty, and will be opening an hour late. Originally the DC schools were going to be open, however they quickly changed their minds. WMATA has announced that Metro will open at 7 am with underground service only. Metrobus will resume on only a couple dozen routes, on snow routes only.

The DC Circulator will be operating, though with longer than 10 minute headways. The service will be free, however.

Kwame Brown (D-At Large) was quick to criticize Fenty's decision to open the government and the schools. Brown lobbied to close the government on Monday, noting the poor conditions of roads and the lack of public transportation.

He put out a couple of interesting things on Twitter, including:

@KwameBrownDC: Never count the underdog out! The people's choice always win.

Now this could be referring to the New Orleans Saints, or his own run for mayor. Has the Mayor's handling of the snow pushed him further towards running? Hmmmm...

Also from Brown, "How nice of the DC Circulator to be free. Well at least the residents of Virginia coming into DC benifet (sic), but its not offered to DC resident (sic)." This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as the Circulator doesn't actually go to Virginia yet. He followed up with an explanation "But not for residnets (sic) in ward 5 7 or 8 who need the service (cheaper by the way) then those coming in visiting (tourist) get a free ride."

Not sure how many tourists will be coming in tomorrow, considering the Metro won't be servicing a lot of Virginia. But hey, yes, reliable $1 transit for all residents in DC would be awesome. However, this should be more of an emphasis on improving Metrobus, rather than lobbying for more Circulators.

Kwame Brown's political career aside, it's getting very cold out tonight and most anything that melted will be icing over. Tomorrow morning will prove a very difficult commute for anyone who needs to get to work. For those still without power, this is not a good situation. Weather models are showing we might be getting another 6" tomorrow.

On Sunday night, during halftime, we went to the Diner for dinner. Our server mentioned how a dog had been tied up out front for a while. Yes, it was a big dog, but he was tied up to the cigarette ashtray thing. This isn't exactly the most secure thing to tie a dog to. I guess I don't understand why someone would decide to have dinner and tie their dog up outside in the snow, slush and salt for ~ 45 minutes. The dog isn't going to freeze, but even with a thick coat it doesn't seem like the most pleasant place in the world to be. I saw the guys leave and retrieve the dog, and I was very tempted to tell them off. I just hope they didn't decide to go to another bar in Adams Morgan and tie him up again, the wind is picking up and it's getting very cold.

I'm aiming to have a round-up of all the snow-related nonsense that happened this weekend. I might also plug a few more snow photos during the day tomorrow. If you have the day off and you don't need to shovel your sidewalk or dig out your car, enjoy the day off. Please don't drive down uncleared side streets in your non all-wheel-drive vehicles. I've seen too many people get stuck outside my apartment window. As far as I know, in the history of cars, flooring your vehicle while it's stuck has never been successful. And even if you manage to push the car out, it will only then speed out of control and strike the people trying to help you (saw this happen as well).