Now for the weather...

Have you ever noticed people (and not just dads) love talking about the weather? Like, a lot?

While a five-minute Google search did not churn up any concrete data to back this up in the United States, there was a study conducted not too long ago across the pond. Research showed that 94% of Brits who took part in the survey said they had talked about the weather in the past six hours, with 38% talking about it in the past 60 minutes.

Of course, there’s a range of reasons why we are obsessed with the weather, and not just as a tactic to get your Fox News dad off blaming Biden for high gas prices.

That same study in England, for instance, said people use the weather to overcome social inhibitions and serve as an icebreaker. It’s also easy small talk for strangers and warring family members alike. And, weather is ubiquitous – it affects everyone and is fairly objective and neutral. Or at least it used to be (coughcoughclimatechangecoughcough).

All this to say, here’s some stuff about the weather: It’s snowing. Hard. And we love it. But there are some societal responsibilities we all have to take part in to make the difficulties of a storm a little easier.

The City of Durango, for example is requesting we alter our parking patterns for the next few days to facilitate plowing:

• No parking on north and west sides of the streets on even dates;

• No parking on south or east sides of the streets on odd dates.

For those who live downtown, this basically means you can park on even sides on even days and odd sides on odd dates.

The parking restrictions are voluntary, but, just do it. Also, if it snows more than 2 inches, “Snow Routes” will be activated, which means parking on both sides of the routes is prohibited and will result in a ticket/tow.

Also, to get the latest on road/highway conditions, your best bet is www.cotrip.org. Yes there are a ton of Facebook groups about current road conditions, and that may be helpful. But please, don’t pull out your phone while driving to take a photo of dangerous road conditions.

And while we’re at it – remove the snow from your windshield! On Wednesday, we saw TWO cars driving with their windshields entirely covered by snow, with the driver looking out the side window.

Alright phew; rant over. And now, to Chuck with Sports.