Snowy inconvenience freezes lives of West Texans

by Robert Box, staff writer

I’m all for having a winter wonderland during Christmas and the holidays, but this is seriously getting out of control.

I have lived in this area my entire life, and I can remember it snowing a hand full of times.  This year, it has snowed the same number of times as it had during the previous years of my life combined.  It was fun for a day or two, but now it’s just annoying.  It seemed that for a while I was driving in the snow every day.  I’ve only been driving for four years, and it snows roughly once a year.  That means that before this year, I had driven in the snow a whopping four times. 

Now I can say that I have driven in icy conditions 20 times. Besides having to drive more carefully, I have to leave earlier every time.  I don’t like having to get up 15 minutes earlier just to get to class on time. 

I’m also tired of having to keep up with my jacket every day.  I have already forgotten it in the Newsroom over night.  The weather keeps on tricking me too.  It may be nice for a day or two, then it snows again.  Then I end up wearing shorts on that day and look like a crazy person. 

I have become very familiar with the campus, though.  I can get from my government class to my history class, then to my chemistry class and only walk outside once.  I overheard two teachers talking about the same thing.  They also echoed another one of my sentiments, which is that if I wanted to live in this weather then I would move up north. 

Living in West Texas, you expect certain inconveniences caused by the weather, such as living in tornado alley half of the time.  Usually, it’s not that bad, though.  You get used to the wind, and every now and then, the days are perfect. 

But this year seems to be anything but.  It was 100 degrees every day this past summer.  I know, because I worked outside this summer, and I’ve been freezing for half of the winter. 

I may be looking forward to this spring more than any other before it, just so we can finally get some warm days.  I know that the wind comes along with it, but anything is better than snow.