What Winter Really Means
What’s that up there, you ask? Oh, well that is a picture of our weather right now. You aren’t seeing things… which is precisely right. That’s a picture of a blizzard. Right now we’re having a fairly decent one- much better than the one we had approximately a year ago that was more a windstorm than anything.
Living in Boston for the past 5 years, I’ve learned a thing or two about winters here. Some folks will have you think that it is quaint and picturesque, but that is only when it snows, and only until a snow plow inevitably comes by and dumps some dirt on the roads and then sprays it all onto the sidewalks.
Lots of people are also unaware about how snow works in a city… it usually doesn’t. All that pavement conducts a lot of heat, and while Boston has a chill factor, it’s due to wind more than anything else. Yup- snow usually turns to slush here if the temperature hovers somewhere around the freezing point and doesn’t go arctic.
So now we’re talking about dirty, muddy, mush and slush- but that’s not all. The crime of all crimes I’ve learned of in this city of dog lovers is that, at least in East Cambridge, snow means you don’t have to pick up after your dog. I am not sure why this is, but apparently I don’t need to- I just need to dodge the landmines underneath a pristine snow-covered surface.
Now, I’ve nothing against dog owners- I’d even like to become one myself one day when I have the desire to wake up at 6am and pick up warm, steaming poop, with only a thin layer of plastic between it and my hand (my hand that I type with, shake hands with, and eat with). But beyond that and the extended financial strain a doggy would create, I at least recognize that it’s part of owning a dog and being a responsible human being. I don’t dump my cat boxes out the window and onto the sidewalk, but I might need if I keep finding petrified poops under snow mounds or worse yet, the kind that start melting and trickling across the sidewalk with the snow.
For the love of cheese and all that is holy- pick. up. your. dogpoop.
