Winter in Iowa

I've been in Iowa for 28 years, man that makes you feel old considering I lived in 3 other states for a minimum of 4 years each, which makes me, crap, old. Getting past that, I've learned a few things about Iowa that might be helpful if you ever decided to move here, if you don't all ready live here. If you live here, this isn't news to you. First, it can be cold. For this week, that is an under statement. We haven't been in double digits for over a week. In fact, the only day this week that is going to be in double digits, has what number two is all about, snow. Second, holy crap it can snow. Now we aren't a great lake city that gets dumped on regularly due to lake effect snow, so we never know if we are going to get buried or not. For the past several years, we have had minimal snow, for Iowa standards, but this winter, damn. I don't know what the actual total is, but I know near the end of December, we were at 27 inches, and it snowed again. Now here we are in the first week in January and there is a prediction anywhere from 4 to 9 inches. Every time I see the news, it's different, so I have no idea what to expect. Third, Chicago has nothing on Iowa when it comes to wind. Main reason I don't buy a toupee? It would never stay on in the Iowa wind. (OK, that has nothing to do with me buying a toupee, but still) I heard once that Iowa beats Chicago on the wind scale by a huge margin, but they get the Windy City name from the wind whipping between the buildings. Hey, we have buildings, wind blows between them, I think it's time to strip Chicago of the title they don't rightfully have. Fourth, ice. We have so much ice it looks like we decided to flood the whole state, let it ice over and just skate everywhere. There are parking lots that didn't get cleared properly and the snow has been compacted and polished into a lawsuit inspiring shine. Some lots that have a definite traffic pattern have ruts for tires that is down to the pavement, but an ice mound in the middle that is almost scraping the bottom of my car. Good luck trying NOT to drive on that path. If you try to go anywhere else, the ice throws you back into the rut. Fifth, dumbass drivers. These people, combined with the above mentioned natural hazards, makes driving in Iowa during the winter a "take your life into your own hands" kind of season. People drive too fast, tailgate, conduct business on the cell phone and consume an entire buffet, all at the same time. Put that trick on ice, and it ain't no Disney on Ice show, it's a piss your pants scary show in your rear view mirror. I noticed something the other day while sitting at a stop light. The number of cars that run this particular light is astounding. If my city gets some of the stop light cameras like they have in other towns nearby, we will be able to get our city out of debt and build it up like Dubai. If you don't know anything about Dubai, Google it and read about what this city has built, amazing. They are on the verge of financial collapse, so maybe they should get some of those traffic light cameras as well. Back to my light, I decided to start counting cars that run the light, and I don't mean run a yellow and are still in the intersection when it turns red. I mean run an obviously red light. First day, 6 cars ran the red, not shitting you. This is a double lane light, so that means 3 cars in each lane ran the light. I thought that was excessive, until the next day, 5 more ran it. The next couple of days were a bit more reasonable, going anywhere from 1 to 3 cars each time. I only hit this light on work days around 4:30 or 5:00, so I'm not sure what the rest of the day brings, but I'm tempted to spend a summer day sitting at the intersection with a counter and a Coke, for science. I will say that I hadn't seen a zero until yesterday, so maybe things are getting better:)