Snow - No Snow?
Thursday when I woke up there was a light dusting of snow on the ground which means that winter is really here. Generally the sight of white stuff (snow, sleet, hail and/or ice) on the ground puts me in a complete tailspin. Since moving here from California in 1986 I have just never managed to come to grips with driving in bad weather. I'm more of a 70 degree, sunny day kind of driver. Stuff falling from the sky does not create the ideal driving circumstances - for me - or those around me!
Jeff offered to drive me to work on Thursday which is our normal arrangement when I see the first flake - but no I was determined to go by myself. I knew it wasn't a lot of snow. I knew that once I made it out of the neighborhood the main streets would be plowed/salted. I knew that I was seeing my shrink in a week and wanted to have something to put in the "good" column of things to talk about! I also knew that I should leave early because weather and the interstate is not a good combination around here. So knowing all those things I gathered up my things and hit the roads around 6:30 am. Driving on snow is freaky for me but there was nobody out in the neighborhood (dah) so I had the road all to myself (except for those pesky cars parked at the curb)! The interstate was, as I predicted, clear and drivers were putting more space between them and the car in front and there wasn't much lane changing or excessive speeding. It was a relatively easy commute.
When I came out to go home on Thursday I hated to see the salt and muck all over the car. I know you're wondering why this even bothers me but I hate a dirty car and cars can get pretty nasty around here in the winter. I sat in the car and when I turned the wipers on was relieved that it was only a light layer of snow and not ice on the windshield. I would have liked to have washed the windshield but I'm always afraid of the consequences of doing so in below freezing temperatures. A block of ice, or a cracked windshield comes to mind!
On Friday the weathermen called for snow in the afternoon and evening. When and how much depended on which news channel you listened to. Weathermen are the only people I know who get to keep their jobs even when they are wrong time and time again. According to one weather website the snow was supposed to start around 11:45 am - well that didn't happen. It did start to get gray around 1:00 and "looked" like snow. And no unfortunately I can't adequately describe to you what "looked like snow" is - it's just something in the air. Boy that sentence makes a lot of sense (not).
My boss knowing that I'm a super Nervous Nell let me leave the office at 2:00 and by the time I got to the car the snow was beginning, but very lightly. I managed to get home in record time because I was ahead of the afternoon rush hour. When I got home Jeff and I did go out because we needed to put gas in my car (and no if you're wondering I don't know how to do that) and get some groceries. By the time we got home in the early evening my car had gone from dirty to downright yucky. The door handles even get dirty - ick. It's too cold to rinse the car off in the driveway - think instant ice and there is no point in washing your car until the salt is off the road which takes a few days. So for now my car, and everybody else's, are all wearing the same coat of salt and frozen slush.
I have already told my boss(es) that Jeff will be out of town the week of February 11th so if it snows that week I'll be staying home. I am physically unable to do the shoveling and so will have to rely on one of the boys to come by and do it for me before I can even leave the house (if it's a lot of snow) and if it's a lot of snow I'm not driving in it, which would make the shoveling unnecessary. See how well that all worked out. If the power goes out I have the "Jenny". I now have a gaslog instead of a wood burning fireplace so I'd be just fine sitting in my house while the snow falls. And who knows being "locked" in the house I would have plenty of time to work on Wilma!
Today's food is Pistachio so you could just eat plain old nuts or even better would be pistachio ice cream! Yum.
Have a great Saturday.
P
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