It's just ice

You may have noticed the recent weather patterns and their impact on local roads. It brings to mind (my mind, at least) how different people here are from people in naturally colder regions.

People around western Kentucky can probably count on their hands the number of times snow, sleet and ice have made roads impassable. People in, say, Michigan or Minnesota certainly could not - unless they have sprouted many, many extra fingers.

Yet, when even the THREAT of snow and/or ice comes our way, people go nuts. Bread and milk fly off of store shelves. Schools close. Roads are barren.

Not to say there isn't some real danger in driving on icy roads, but let's have some perspective. People up North drive in those conditions throughout the winter, but you don't see them going crazy at the drop of a snowflake.

Being cautious is one thing. Being insanely cautious is another.

Last night, I drove to Murray from Hardin at about 5 p.m. I set the cruise at 55 mph and left it there for almost the entire trip. Traveling south, I passed almost no cars. Not that traffic in south Marshall County/north Calloway County is usually bustling at that point, but still, not much traffic. Heading north was a pretty steady line of vehicles, all being driven very, very slowly. I make no remarks about the people driving those cars - I usually like to sarcastically joke about stereotypes in those situations, but I'll leave it be this time. However, I can only imagine they were all worried about ice. Ice, mind you, that was not there. Even in the western Kentucky twilight, it was easy to see the roads were clean and, for the most part, dry.

I'm sure everyone got safely to where they were going, and that's the most important thing, I suppose. I just find it interesting how people overreact to weather sometimes.