Baby, It's Cold Outside

Well, so much for posting every day in November. I got super-busy finishing up my audit and making up work after I got sick, then I got super-busy learning and singing songs for my chorus as we prepare for our holiday concert. Oh yeah, and then there was the five days I spent at my parents' house over Thanksgiving. Last night was the first night in quite some time when I was actually able to sit down and just relax. Part of that was because we got off of work early in anticipation of our first big winter storm, and even though it took me two hours to drive home last night when it normally takes 15 minutes, I still got home at a decent time.

We've been busy doing our big annual planning meeting at work for the past two days, so working from home was not an option. Yesterday we got freezing rain and sleet all day long after it rained all night the night before. When all of that water freezes it can make for some slippery roads, hence the two hour drive home last night. I knew I was going to have to get up early this morning to scrape off my car and get to work on time. What I didn't know was all of the other problems I was going to have.

Problem No. 1 - This morning, I woke up with a start because my alarm didn't go off. I looked over at the clock and there was no time showing because the power had gone off in the middle of the night. Luckily it was only 6:30 and I still had an hour and a half before I had to be at work. I skipped the shower due to lack of time and lack of electricity and I was out the door by 7:00 with my snow boots on because it had snowed about four inches overnight on top of the sleet.

Problem No. 2 - Unfortunately I couldn't get my stupid car door to open because it was frozen shut. I pounded on the car for about 15 minutes and ultimately gave up and used some hot water to open the door (I know, you're not supposed to do that, but what else was I going to do?). I started the car and the process of scraping the layers of ice and snow. At this point the guys from the electric company showed up and asked me if my building was without power. They said there was a limb down on the lines behind my building and while they hoped they could fix it there may be another problem keeping the power off somewhere else. I thanked them for their hard work and finished scraping off my car.

Problem No. 3 - I started backing the car out of my parking spot but I wasn't moving. My tires were spinning on the thick layer of ice that I parked on last night after the freezing rain and sleet. I did every trick I could think of to get out of that spot but I wasn't budging. Plus, I was hesitant to do anything too crazy because I had another car parked right next to me. The guys from the electrical company we coming back to their truck from behind my building so I flagged them down. "Do you think you guys could give me a push?" I asked in my best damsel-in-distress voice. Luckily the guys were nice enough to give me a hand and after quite a bit of pushing I was out of my spot and on my way. The side streets were still pretty slick so I drove very carefully.

Problem No. 4 - Damn the stoplights though, because as I was getting ready to turn onto the main road I started spinning my tires again. The one car in front of me made it through the light without much of a problem but I was just barely moving. Luckily I was not rolling backwards as there was a car right behind me. The light turned yellow and then red but I wasn't about to stop as I actually had some momentum going in my favor. It took me another light cycle to get through the intersection but I finally made it through without hitting anyone and without anyone hitting me. Once I got on the highway I was fine and I only ended up being a few minutes late to work (and wasn't the last one there by a long shot). It stopped snowing around 10:00 and I could see the roads were being cleared nicely. I made it home in really good time.

Problem No. 5 - Wouldn't you freaking know it, though, that no one had come to plow the condo's parking lot? I had no choice but to park in the same slick spot I got stuck in this morning. I nearly got stuck halfway in to the spot, but I was able to back up and pull in again. So unless it melts tomorrow there's a good chance I won't be going anywhere this weekend.

Don't you just love winter weather?