The Interview

So, I had my interview scheduled for the first week of April this year; the 5^th to be exact. We thought we’d take advantage of the long weekend (Good Friday) and see the area. In Ohio, we have a superstition that says if it rains on Easter, the next seven Sundays will rain. Our superstition says nothing about snow. On Tuesday of that week, the Engineering manager of the new company called me at work. “Troy, I’m really sorry to call you at work. I know it’s not real appropriate to do, but we’re expecting a blizzard up here on Thursday and wanted to know if you would like to re-schedule your interview.” Silence….Me: “You realize this is April, correct?” Eric: “Yeah; we’re usually good for one good snow storm every spring.” More silence…Me: “Let me call you back.”

I talked it over with my wife and we decided to take the trip. We ended up leaving that night instead of the next morning like originally planned. We ran into snow about an hour from Marquette. It was just a heavy snow and no blowing. We finally got into Marquette at about 3:30 a.m. so we pulled into a rest area to sleep in the van for a bit. We couldn’t sleep so we moved the van to a hotel parking lot in town and went to sleep. When we woke up about an hour later, the van was rocking because the wind was blowing so hard. We found our way to the company to pick up the keys to the company’s apartment. Finally, we were settled in. We spent the day in the apartment watching the snow and wind blow up to 50 mph. We were staying in an apartment about two blocks off the south shore of Lake Superior and the wind was tearing off the lake.

I made it to the interview the next morning. I was completely amazed to see that a blizzard up here doesn’t slow people down…at all. The interview went well. And I made it back to the apartment where my wife sent me out to Fazoli’s to get supper. The roads were terrible and the drivers were scary. We had a tour lined up for Friday morning, so my son and I went to meet the tour guide. It was still snowing and blowing quite a bit. This guy’s driving a full size Ford van like it’s a sports car in the snow. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. We made it back to the apartment that afternoon, and after consulting the weather channel, decided to head for home. It looked like the wind had let up a bit and the snow dwindled to a flurry, but they were calling for another 18 inches overnight. By that time, we should be safe into the lower peninsula, if not at home. The main highway we take home was closed due to snow coverage so we had to take an alternate route. I think we ended up making it home at about 1 or 1:30 a.m., safe and sound. It felt great to be home.

I kept hearing from people how well the UP keeps the roads clean. When I went out in the snow, the roads were awful. Then it occurred to me; with all the snow blowing, there’s really not much you can do to keep the roads clean. I was awe struck when the wind finally died down. That’s when they brought out the snow removal equipment. Back home, we call them land-movers. These are huge tractors with buckets and blades. Big equipment used by land excavators. They also had trucks like we used in Ohio, only they used them to throw salt and sand. They were too light-weight to get down to business. They really did do a great job on the snow once it stopped blowing.  It ended up snowing over 50 inches over the few days we were up there. They tried to console me by saying that this was the worst blizzard they’d had in several years. That wasn’t much consolation. We’ll see how this winter pans out. They also tell me that my house is located right in the snow belt….on a hill…on a dirt road…that might get neglected by the county when it comes to snow removal. It’s not uncommon to get 300 inches of snow in a year in this area. Well, God is faithful. We’ll leave it in His hands.

That’s it for now. God bless.

 

Troy