Sunday 4 March 2018

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN MARCH

Already! well February's gone out like a lion and March has come in like one! Not what we usually expect! The poor old daff's that were happily showing their golden yellow blooms to the winter sun are now drooping above the chill of the snow covering the ground.


after a week of  it trying to snow and with freezing cold winds and temperatures It finally managed to cover the ground overnight on Thursday and then Friday afternoon it started snowing and carried on late into the evening. Closing some of the local main roads , one with around a 100 cars etc on it. They finally managed to get it open a few hours later, so they could continue their journeys.

I find it strange that companies say we have our staff's well being upper most but then expect their employees to still dice with snow and ice to get to work and once there stay the full day! On Thursday afternoon people where coming in saying they had been told to close up the shops and go home , yet we still stayed until it was closing time, spending the last half an hour with no customers because they's gone off home.
Personally I believe that companies should announce that in the interests of their staff's safety the company will be opening later and shutting earlier to enable the staff to travel safely to and from work! Not just wait to see how the weather will go ! Severe weather can sweep in before anyone has a chance to react and that's when you want to send the staff home not  once it's arrived!

Luckily for me I was not working Friday or Saturday so I did not have to make the decision whether it was safe to try and get down my snow and ice covered road onto the better maintained main roads. But I do know if I had been working my journey home would have been a nightmare due to all the snow that fell here Friday afternoon.


My front drive . I'll find out on Monday if my colleagues were given the chance to shut up and go early but I'm not banking on it. I remember an area manager who was parked in the company car park when I drove in a few years back after driving down snowy slippery roads seeing cars slipping and spinning  on ice as I passed by , wishing I'd never started out but not daring to try and turn round to go home, he was waiting to see if enough people arrived to open and when they did he drove off and as it continued to snow all day we were informed that we be working all day as the main roads were fine!! Which they were but these people , who 'care' about their staff seem to forget that we don't actually live on main roads, we live on the roads, streets and lanes that don't see a gritting lorry and in some cases don't see any sun , so it's those we drive on to get home, the ones covered with snow and ice.
I'd also like to mention that the people making these decisions are probably working from home due to the weather!

Now I'll step off my soap box and move on.

I'm so pleased little Clara decided to arrive early or my daughter could have been trying to get to hospital to give birth in this awful weather, I knew she was clever our Clara.

My stories appear through planning of an idea or opportunity ! Like Friday's and Saturday's. On Wednesday Paul found the boiler was dripping and water had covered the worktop under the boiler and also soaked part of the curtain to the side. I came home to this , he'd move part of the Sasha's living room out the way.Expecting that a repairman would be needed to solve the problem , I moved the rest of the furniture.

Paul worked out that the pipes outside, that takes away the condensation from the boiler ,were frozen by the time I returned home on Thursday night, so he defrosted them and problem solved.
So then there was this empty space... on Friday I took Christy outside for a very quick and small photo shoot in the falling snow and when I returned I saw the empty space and the idea popped into my head. So Christy did her part and Saturday Percy did his.

Today I will use it to take some shelf photos and then replace the furniture.. maybe giving it a change about ready for the next photos needed.

So today's weather looks like this..


It's gone almost as quick as it came, which hopefully means going to work this coming week will be fine.

Now here's a question ! Do you find that if the weather turns bad, so there is nowhere you can go, you feel the need to get on with all the jobs or things that require you to go somewhere or be outside?

Whenever the weather stops me from venturing out I always suddenly want to get on with all the things I've been ignoring that require me to be outside or drive somewhere! Strange because as soon as the weather improves I'm normally back to ignoring them again!


So tomorrow is Doll shelf day, so if you have a photo or two you'd like to share please send them in.

I wish you all a good week ahead free from bad weather but full of good health.

Dee



6 comments:

  1. We get some snow each ear, and the roads are usually cleared quickly, but as we are not an area of regular snowfall, people get scared, drive over carefully and cause accidents by this - or they ignore the weather completely, which also results in accidents. Plus, with the first snowflake, trains will be delayed or even cancelled. So winter often means chaos on the streets. But do our employers care? No; if you are late because of traffic issues, you'll have to stay longer on another day. It seems it's the same everywhere!
    How clever you saw the opportunity of an unplanned, very funny story! So the boiler problem was good for something!

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    1. Exactly the snow we come, we don't get it this bad very often, but when it does why not just reduce everyone's working day to ensure everyone gets to work and back safely!
      That's the way my mind works, see something and use it, so yes the frozen pipes and cleared worktop came in useful ;)

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  2. I agree with you, plus the police and other emergency services usually say that only 'essential journeys' should be made in these conditions. I t can make matters much worse if people are stressed about getting where they're going and we've all seen horrendous accidents caused by people not observing the weather conditions properly.
    With these days of internet banking, I'm sure if the branch were open for shorter hours in such awful snowy conditions, it wouldn't be the end of the world, would it?
    I'm glad to see you have a bit of a thaw now though. And yes, in answer to your question, I'm just the same. With all the heavy rain we've had recently I didn't get behind the sewing machine, which would have been the ideal bad weather pursuit, no, I suddenly wanted to dig up two plants that have decided to overtake our decking!!! Fortunately I saw sense and didn't do anything about them in the end, because I'm sure I'd have been like a drowned rat had I done so!!!! Now today, when for the afternoon it's been dry and sunny, I decided it was the perfect time to go for a nice walk with the dog and ignore the two plants!!!!
    xxx

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    1. They say only essential journeys but employers take no notice and people will travel because they cannot afford to lose a days pay or have to make the time up. I feel sorry for the emergency services having to go out to the idiots that travel when they really don't need to! I read in the paper of them taking over ten hours to get to some people who were stranded in their car in a snow drift and one was in the pajamas!I ask you who in their right mind allows someone to get into their car in freezing snow weather wearing pj's? Then of course they had to go off to hospital with hypothermia !

      glad to know I'm not the only one who suddenly wants to do all the outside stuff when it's really not the time or the weather! lol xxx

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  3. It's always going to be a major decision as to whether to try to attempt to get into work or take the safer option and stay indoors... but in my 25 years of teaching I never really had that option...ONE had to turn OUT in spite of having to travel on mostly non-main un-salted rural roads and with my school being situated down a very steep slope at the top of a very steep hill already on high ground, with cars etc. having already been abandoned on the both sides all the way up, I never missed a day (and the school never CLOSED)...although having to often leave my car at the bottom of the hill and walk the rest of the way up.
    (During any Snow forecasted months my car boot was always filled with emergency supplies. A wooden sledge, a gallon (as it was measured in those days) of water in our plastic caravan water container, a little camping gas stove to make hot drinks, heat up a tin of soup or fill the hot water bottle, a variety of food snacks, a snow shovel, a couple of small carpet samples if needed to help the tires grip, two warm blankets, a bag of road salt and Wellington Boots. (These were also in case I had to go and rescue my young daughter from her school, which was another five kilometres on from mine.)
    (...plus I actually heard on the news that someone the other day had gone out driving wearing their pyjamas!!!)
    What happened to that old saying 'Always be prepared for the worst!'

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  4. I couldn’t agree with you more about letting employees out early during severe weather. It used to be a point of pride with my company that they never closed early, no matter what - just plain stupid, if you ask me. They’re always so afraid of one less penny in the coffer. People’s safety is far more important, to say nothing of their mental health trying to cope with a treacherous commute.
    Steve

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