December Snow - 14" of Hell
Prelogue:
For a few days, weather reports were telling a possible white Christmas, a rarity for any part of Oklahoma. Sometimes, the snow will appear before or after the 25th, and quickly disappear. Any snowfall before the holiday is usually gone before the day. But this time, as the start of the storm drew near, predictions of how much snow were climbing, and there were hopes of a white Christmas tempering in the minds of children and the elderly. Everyone in between, had the usual sense of dread building up.
Holidays at work are something of a rarity themselves, and hammering out details (good and bad), take a great deal of work. Getting all to agree on similar points, and getting something firm early, is exasperating. The painful wait and delay almost always derails people's plans when the answer to days closed come to late, and often contrary to other business's plans. To rely on this place for anything, is dubious for one's own self concern.
For Christmas Eve, most, if not all, businesses close early, because they know that people will be spending time with their cherished ones, or family, or might be traveling and customers will have all ready made whatever purchases they need in advance of the next day. Business-to-business enterprises can close early, because of similar reasons; people will need to travel in order to make it to their destinations. Now usually, this almost always pertains exclusively to business owners, presidents, and CEOs, because they can do these things without concern, with no retort from anyone above them, since there is no one. Below them are the belly achers, and those that can sneak out, or conspire with others to do the same.
In our case, it was decided late the week prior, or early that week, that a full days work would be put in by everyone. This caused concern, because it was so contrary. Most concerning was the issuance of the regular payroll, which unfortunately fell on Christmas. Even though getting paid at this job is usually like opening a present on Christmas, no one wanted to get paid on that day, or even after. Yet, from on high, it was told that we would get paid on Thursday, at five o'clock.
Five o'clock.
As the days progressed, from Monday of that week, the chances of snow on Christmas Eve were still looking good (bad). And it was going to be cold, which meant the snowfall, no matter how much it was, was going to stay around. Giving the situation with the checks, we took it in stride, for this was not out of norm. And we knew that we had to be cautious on the 24th, but secure that EVERYONE KNEW that there would be SNOW, and preparations for the STREETS would make travel as SAFE AS POSSIBLE.
On Wednesday the 23rd, the weather forecast called for freezing rain in the morning, followed by heavy snow, and strong winds.
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