Beee-ow! The sound of a police siren a block away made its way across the snow-covered rooftops, followed by a muffled announcement from a loud-speaker.

"What was that?" Casey asked from the bedroom in back.

"What, the police siren?" I asked.

"Yeah, and then it sounded like something was being said over the loud-speaker."

"I couldn't tell."

Moments later, it came again, but from our own street below.

Beee-ow! This time we could understand what the officer was saying.

"ATTENTION RESIDENTS! YOU MUST MOVE YOUR CARS FROM THE ROAD OR THEY WILL BE TOWED ..."

I explained what it was to Casey.

"Too bad that's all it is," I continued. "I was kind of hoping they were forbidding us from leaving our houses because of some situation. Like we're in lockdown."

"That would've been cool," she said.

"We would've had to call out 'locked in' to work, at least for a few hours."

Meanwhile, outside, the officer continued his speech.

"Heh," I thought to myself, "suckers."

No, I wasn't being conceited. It's not unusual to see "No Parking When Road Is Snow Covered" signs in residential neighborhoods with street parking. With this being our third significant snowfall of the winter, it's the first time I've been aware of the police enforcing the street parking rules. Not only is it about time, but it's legitimate, too, considering how poorly our street has been plowed this winter when the cars are not moved. The plows simply can't do their job when one side of the street is lined with cars. On my 45-minute trip into work (including a stop at the gas station), I saw two others cruisers with lights flashing stopped next to snow-covered cards at curbside.

Unfortunately, forcing people to move their cars means that there are more drivers on the road, and that's not good when the plows' work is quickly covered over by the still-falling snow (and it continues as I write). I didn't break 25 mph on my way here and stayed below 20 for the majority of the trip. Cars rode my tail, but I didn't worry because at least they weren't honking, flashing or trying to pass. They were a little too close, but that was their damn problem.

But there I was, sitting at a traffic light at a T intersection with the cars turning onto Palisade Ave. from the right. I was in the left lane of the two northbound lanes, sitting at the line waiting for my green. A steady stream of cars crossed in front of me, making left turns into the two southbound lanes beside me. I happened to turn my head slowly and look out my side window just as the grill of an Izuzu Trooper or Nissan Pathfinder or some other large gas-guzzling, terrorist-funding SUV was slowly approaching. The driver was struggling to get his boat under control, and despite his wheels turned to the right, he was still advancing toward me. "Great," I thought to myself, "just what I need now." The prick managed to get his excuse for not buying a minivan under control and missed hitting me by a couple of feet, but I glared at him nonetheless. Had he hit me, it would've been little more than a tap � but it most certainly would've left a noticable dent, however small, on my car while barely scraping his bumper. Of this I am sure. It would've been little more than an inconvenience, but it still would've pissed me off. The rest of the drive in, I kept tabs on all the idiots in their impractical was-of-gas-and-money hunks of metal and how many of them were recklessly speeding. All those ads that give the impression that if you buy an SUV and you won't have trouble in the snow are misleading, to say the least. Drivers still need to use caution in this weather, yet so many of them don't.

So I hope they all crash and hurt no one but themselves.