[caption id="attachment_749" align="alignright" width="300" caption="I-285 is just, well, stopped."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/slideshow_1002038939_ice.0112-13js.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-749" title="slideshow_1002038939_ice.0112-13js" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/slideshow_1002038939_ice.0112-13js-300x250.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="250" /></a>[/caption]

I remember when I lived in Colorado for two winters in the 1980s, I used to be amused by some of the storm reports we would get.

I lived about an hour north of Denver, and we would hear on the Denver stations that Interstate 70 was closed from "Gun Club Road to the Kansas border." If I remember correctly, that's more than 100 miles of interstate highway on relatively flat land that was just, well, closed.

That made sense to me, because the amount of snow involved might be 12 inches, 24 inches or even more.

I saw a little of the same thing when I lived in Reno for two years, especially when it meant climbing into the mountains on I-80 and crossing the Sierra Nevadas at Truckee. The cool thing about Truckee, Calif., was that it was the same general area where the Donner party had been trapped during the winter of 1846-47.

But you expect snow to be a factor when you live at altitude, and those four winters for me were spent about 4,500 feet above sea level.

You don't expect a tiny little snowstorm -- 4-7 inches up in Atlanta and maybe 1-2 inches here in Griffin -- to bring everything to a standstill. Jeez, we haven't even had mail delivery the last two days. UPS and Fed Ex aren't getting through either.

It isn't so much the snow. It's that most of the streets and roads that aren't main highways are completely covered with ice. You see, as far south as Georgia, cities and towns don't invest all that much money in snow plows. I remember reading online today that the city of Atlanta has eight.

With temperatures not expected to get much above freezing until Friday, we could be in for a couple more really slow days.

I really don't mind.

I'm just glad this won't be happening every winter.