The first winter storm

Today marks the start of winter here in Hampton Roads. Weather turned a little nasty last night as Virginia Beach was dusted with a whopping ½" of snow late last night and early this morning.
I grew up in the Northeast so the occasional snow storm is not new to me. I also spent a winter living on a golf course in Syracuse, NY. The course was white almost the entire time I lived on it. It doesn't matter how much snow they get in Syracuse, nothing EVER stops up there! But down here it's a different story. In '96 we had a snow storm here. 5" fell one night and my kids didn't go to school for 5 days! Virginia, or at least this part of Virginia, is not prepared for any amount of accumulation.
I heard Rick Rumble, one of our local morning radio personalities, say this morning that 4 wheel drive doesn't mean 4 wheel stop. It looked like there weren't enough people listening to my radio station this morning! This is pretty standard around here though.
It seems like the snow has only accumulated in the intersections. At least that's the only place it seems to be sticking to the roads and man, people just don't seem to care. They go flying down the road like it's a nice spring day and then they go sliding through the intersections. There are accidents all over the place!
But to me, the most entertaining thing that happens around here is due to the way the drainage systems are built. On many of the roads around Tidewater there are drainage ditches along the sides of the roads and I mean right along the side of the road. At least that's what they claim they're there for. They do fill up with water when we get the torrential rains that we get around here sometimes but they do seem to work extremely well at keeping cars and trucks out of your living room when we get this occasional winter storm. So, instead of some dumb ass driving through your living room they end up down in the ditch!
Anyway, the sun is out and most of the snow should be gone by the end of the day. The beauty that snow brings, turning everything white for a while will melt away and luckily, it's supposed to warm up so there should be no black ice problems tonight. That's one thing we don't need around here is ice. The snow is bad, but people with 4 wheel drive really think they got something going on when there's ice on the ground!
To all you poor bastards that live in real snow country, watch out for the folks that live in my neck of the woods. They don't have a clue how to handle these "treacherous" conditions!