Snowstorms in Dallas

If you have never had the chance to see bad driving up close, then it will be hard for you to appreciate, the level of lunacy that I had the chance to witness in Texas, on Friday night after arriving in Dallas for the Super Bowl. It was the beginning of an adventure in comic moments that would last until the flight home.

The taxi driver was a student from Ethiopia who had never witnessed snow in the 4 years that he had been in the United States. The jalopy that he was driving makes a go-kart in New Brunswick appear like a Lincoln Continental. The young fellow was extremely polite and he shared how he had been almost run over earlier in the day when he had got out of his van to help a lady who had slid off the road. I asked him where this had happened and he replied that it was on the freeway going to the airport. Well, I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am not getting out onto the middle of the Trans-Canada during rush hour to push anyone out.

I witnessed 6 car accidents from the airport to the hotel and was never so thankful to see the inside of a building in my life. When supper time arrived, some of the guests that I was going to eat with, were surprised when I said I would walk the 3 blocks in such terrible weather. The city was like a ghost town, even though there were an estimated 100,000 people in town for the game. OK, no more suspense as to where I am going with this. They had a whole 2 inches of snow.

This is an example of what can happen when you are not prepared for the unexpected. We can all be thrown curve balls in life, but it is good to be ready for anything. Being in the business of insurance and finance, I am required to help manage risk for clients and every day of my life is spent trying to protect them from the perils of life. But as we all know, some people neglect to accept the fact, that it might just happen to you someday.

The unexpected came later in the evening when we arrived back at our hotel and were invited to attend a Super Bowl Reception on the Mezzanine at our hotel. Well as they say in Texas, “everything is bigger in Texas” and this was a large reception with one problem. The 4 guys I was traveling with, were as astonished as I was when we were the only white people on the floor. Being a good Miramichi boy, I immediately asked “where are you lads from” and they replied Dallas. I said that I wasn’t and the big grin came across his face and he said: “I figured as much.” I entertained them with stories of winter and snow and pretty soon I had an audience who were laughing their faces off.

The moral of the story is to expect the unexpected and when something happens that you really are not ready for, put a big smile on and embrace the situation. But being prepared is as much about expecting things to happen and putting measures in place before. Do not be so naive to think that “it never snows in Texas.”