Ode to a Blizzard
Seems like years ago we had a lot more blizzards. When a blizzard was forecasted, you stocked-up on supplies and hunkered down until the blizzard passed and the roads were opened. Sometime it took days to get out. Until then, you stayed home and spent time with your family and shoveled when you could. Blizzards use to be fun — at least until I became a manager of a mobile home park.
This week we had 2 winter storms and 1 blizzard. Yes, all that in one week.
People, even the old folks, seemed to have forgotten what it’s like to live through a blizzard. These days everyone expects streets to remain open all the time, and when the blizzard does pass, people expect the streets to be cleared instantly.
Anyway, I wasn’t able to meet the above expectations, so I’m the talk of the coffee shops. The truth is, tenants living in a mobile home park are spoiled.
The blizzard ended Friday night, and by 7am Saturday morning I had plows opening up the streets. The plows then returned later to clear the rest of the snow out.
If my tenants owned a home in town and lived on an east-west city street, they wouldn’t see a plow until sometime Sunday. Plus when we remove the snow, we try to push it entirely out of the way. In town, they push the snow to the side and leave a giant winrow in front of your driveway. In the park, people complain if even a little is left in front of the driveway. Maybe those people need to go live on a city street for awhile, then they’ll know how good they got it living in the park.
Also, people seem to have forgotten how to fend for themselves. If their car is blocked in, they’ll take 2 days off of work, rather than ask for a ride. During the height of the blizzard, one person called screaming because his wife worked at the hospital and couldn’t get out. I said call the hospital, as normally during blizzards, they have people in big Hummers who help employees get to work.
People tend to get in such a panic, that they don’t think. I’ll have to admit that after 2 storms and 1 blizzard in a week, you can’t blame people for getting crabby.
I could vent a lot more, but I also need to put this into perspective. There’s over 200 tenants in the park I manage, and basically its just a dozen or so who don’t understand and causing me grief. I have a lot of good tenants, and I’m sure a whole bunch of them understand that when it blizzards in South Dakota, it takes patience to get through it.
Now that the blizzard is over, we’re expecting almost a week of melting temperatures. So I’ll probably be blogging again as people complain about how the melting snow isn’t draining right. Some people just need to go to Florida or Arizona for the winter (me being one of them!)
Mark