The Connector - Spring 2008 - (Page 7)

RWAU Spring 2008 Executive Director’s Comments Dale Pierson, Executive Director Is it over yet? I hate winter. The older I get, the more I hate winter. When I was younger, winter was fun. Snowball fights, sledding, skiing and snow days off from school were all enjoyable. But I don’t do many of those things anymore, and I certainly don’t get any “snow days” off. Winter is OK up through Christmas, then we have what in my estimation is the dumbest of all holidays— New Years—and it just goes downhill from there. (If you are a skier, that’s a pun. If you’re not, its just reality.) This year hasn’t changed my mind a bit, and two experiences have actually made it clear that my dislike of winter is well founded. The first was on a Monday afternoon at the Utah Capitol. I was there working on a bill for the legislative session. and the snow it was really cold. Before I had progressed 25 yards, the left side of my face had turned the color of that head coach for the New York Giants’ face when they were playing Green Bay in sub-zero weather (if you didn’t watch that game, it’s kind of a sick purple-red-frozen color). I made it up the stairs to the upper parking lot and then realized I had a real problem. There were hundreds of cars parked in that lot—including mine— and I couldn’t see any of them! Now my face was in serious pain and I was beginning to panic. I began to realize how people die in blizzards—they stumble around blindly, fall down and don’t want to get up. But I really didn’t want to do that in a parking lot in the Utah Capitol. About the time I began to review my days on earth, I stumbled into I began to realize how people die in blizzards—they stumble around blindly, fall down and don’t want to get up. But I really didn’t want to do that in a parking lot in the Utah Capitol. When I had arrived, the temperature was a sunny 40 degrees. Looking out the window of the meeting room I was in, I suddenly noticed that the lovely morning had somehow turned into a blizzard of epic proportions. Now, I mentioned that I don’t get “snow days” off, and with a Conference coming up, a trip to Washington DC scheduled, and the Legislature in full swing, I simply had to get back to the office. I knew that if I kept my glasses on in a 50 MPH wind and horizontal snow that I wasn’t going to be able to see regardless of the conditions. So, I took them off, turned up my coat collar and ventured out to get to my vehicle. I quickly realized that, glasses or no glasses, I still couldn’t see and that between the wind my vehicle; it had never looked so good. I stayed in the Dodge with the motor running for 15 minutes until every bit of ice and snow on its exterior had melted. No way was I getting back out into that mess—I didn’t care how big a carbon footprint I was leaving! I was now a firm believer in doing everything in my power to encourage global warming. My second winter-hating experience occurred on a Wednesday afternoon when I was in our Alpine office. Again it had been a lovely morning, and again the afternoon suddenly turned into a blizzard. Having been to this rodeo before, I knew that discretion was the better part of valor and decided to make an early exit to get home. Unfortunately, 4:00 PM wasn’t early enough. 7 My first clue that things weren’t going to go well should have come when the road from our office to the Alpine Highway was closed. I didn’t pick up the clue, however, and blindly detoured off onto streets I had never seen on a clear day and certainly couldn’t see now. I had a vague idea of where the Alpine Highway should be, and so when I hit a likely cross street I turned in that direction. Through a break in the blowing snow, I spotted the gas station/carwash complex that sits where I turn off the highway to the office and guessed that I needed to go right—now I’m on the road back to the office and it’s closed at this end too. A quick u-turn solved that problem, and back to the Alpine Highway I went. Now things got really interesting. The snow was blowing so hard that I literally could not see the end of my hood—even though I was only going 1 MPH. If anything stopped in front of me, I was going to hit it. As soon as I got a break in the blizzard, I made another u-turn and headed for American Fork and Lehi and I-15. At this point things started looking up. The snow wasn’t blowing so hard in American Fork; you could actually see patches of pavement on the road and also two cars ahead of you. This wasn’t going to be so bad after all. And then I got onto I-15…. As soon as I was committed to freeway travel, I realized that the normal 80 MPH bumper car course had now turned The Connector

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Connector - Spring 2008

The Connector - Spring 2008 Table of Contents President's Message Executive Director's Comments Letters From Readers Legislative Update RWAU Board and Staff Rural Water News Bees on the Pipeline, Jim Watts How Important are our Public Works People? Curtis Ludvigson A "What" Protection Plan? Erin Borger Meter Reading by Radio Communication, Terry Smith Advanced Distribution, Chuck Jeffs Where in Utah?

The Connector - Spring 2008

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