Normally by the first week in March, Washington, D.C., and all it represents is buried in humiliation, if not snow.

Folks from beyond the Beltway, which is most Americans, roar with rage or laughter each time they read, hear or see that the metro area is buried under 2 inches of snow. They howl when they learn that federal workers here (14 percent of the total worldwide federal workforce) got a snow day off. Or that a liberal annual leave, or late arrival policy is in place with the ground is barely covered. But this year, not so much.

While D.C. has had more than its share of snow, it is nothing compared to major federal centers both north and south of Washington. Boston is having trouble moving. New York, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul — places where people know how to handle the cold weather — have been slammed. Indianapolis, Atlanta and the Raleigh-Durham-Cary area are up to here, there!

Buffalo and frozen Niagara, forget about it!

Washingtonians have watched in horror and sometimes not, TV footage of mass pileups on northern and Midwestern freeways where people, we have constantly been reminded, “know” how to drive.

Overall, the winter of 2014-15 has been great for snow removal contractors, auto body shops and places that sell batteries. Ski resorts have prospered and people who sell stuff in airports have made a bundle feeding and entertaining people overnighting because of flight cancellations.

For the federal workforce in Washington, it has been a tough winter (no matter where you grew up and came from). But it also been so much worse just about everywhere else that it has taken the heat off of us. For that, we thank you. And don’t worry. We’ll mess up big time sooner rather than later and return to our rightful spot as the place you love to hate!

Colleen Kelley, long-time president of the National Treasury Employees Union is retiring this year. She’s run the smart, aggressive NTEU for 16 years and says she’s loved every minute of it. But … Pittsburgh, her home town, and family want her back. She’s told NTEU members that while it has been fun, she wants to go home and have a different kind of fun while her health is good.

NTEU has a reputation in the union business as picking very smart national officers and keeping them in place. Kelley succeeded Bob Tobias, also one of the best in the business.

So, for a lot of people, in an out of the business, happy trails to Colleen. Just one thing, please. Will she please keep those pesky Pittsburgh Pirates away from our Washington team that hasn’t won a world series since 1924? We sort of feel like we are overdue.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

By Michael O’Connell

The Hula-Hoop was patented on March 5, 1963, by Arthur “Spud” Melin, co- founder of the Wham-O company.

Source: History.com

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