Don't worry, I was in Washington D.C. back in '92, it snowed no more than a trace, and like some budget impasse, shut DC down. So, living in the Deep South, not demanding or anticipating feet of snow, you have friends in DC that don't know what to do with it either, and they get it regular as clockwork, several times every year. I think living inside the Beltway dissolves their brains; living under the shade of a Live Oak keeps your brains cool and collected.

You want a snow that cuts the town off, not your house. Then you can go down the local bars and see if you can drink them dry. You need challenges in life. Driving in snow is a small challenge; drinking a pub dry is a life long achievement!

Louth, 1987, 3 days of Public House bliss. 18" of snow, 50mph winds, 70ft snow drifts, 5 lost snowploughs, all roads closed. No internet, drat!

I live in this small town, at the top of the hill is a large edifice to modern technology. The town's zipcode is immortalised in "The C Programming Language" book. K&R both used to be seen in the local Friendly's.

Things are different now, though. The huge carparks have been empty for years, some of the multiple entrances are often closed on workdays. I have been in the buildings and they smell of history, but sadly they don't smell of the future. This story is simply the black filling in the final period in a long story. The fact is the place has done little of it's famous research in more than a decade. It's an empty shell of a place. C was created there, Unix too, even C++. Many local businesses have failed or moved out as the Labs have withered away. The gist of this story is long overdue.