Disaster Pass

Anybody watching the Weather Channel this afternoon may have seen the reporter broadcasting from my town, which got a BUNCH of snow today. Nowhere near the record amount of snow we've received in one day in the past, but still, the weather was terrible.

And now that I work in a hospital, I am expected to report to work.  I actually carry a literal "Disaster Pass", issued by my employer in conjunction with the county, so that if I am pulled over and questioned as to why I am driving if roads are closed, I won't get ticketed. If I am unable to report to work due to weather conditions, the hospital will actually send someone to come pick me up and bring me into work, with the caveat that there may or may not be someone available to take me back home when my shift is over.   hmmm.  So I drove myself into work this morning, on ice- and snow-covered roads, in order to ensure myself a ride back home tonight.  

We normally see between 40 and 60 patients a day in the office where I work. Today, we had a full slate, but only 2 people actually kept their scheduled appointments - the rest either canceled or no-showed, because the weather was awful.   But it's all good - our providers were able to help out on some of the inpatient units who were short on staff, and I'd rather that patients stay home than risk their lives on awful roads  to try and make their appointments.   And by two this afternoon, the county had declared a state of emergency, and non-essential staff, including me, were told we could leave if we wanted.  Yay! 

So I headed home, on roads that were thankfully much, much better than they were on the ride in this morning, shoveled out my driveway, kicked back and got on Facebook.  Where I discovered that everyone was celebrating the fact that yay!  The restaurants and store