Well, THAT was hellish!
So here's how the rest of my day went:
-- left work at 2pm. (Steve let his class out early so he could start the trek back to where he lives, which is way the hell out near 495.)
-- 1 hour later, had gotten as far as Mt. Auburn hospital. That's 1 mile from work, btw.
-- abandoned bus. Walked 40 minutes through 24 degree F weather and increasing snow to get to my car. (I was quite worried because I realized on the drive in that I had forgotten to put my little shovel in the car.)
-- get to car. 3 inches or so of snow on it already. (It's been snowing since 1pm.) Clear car. Am able to drive it out of its parking space (thankfully plows had not been by yet; but I'll have cause to regret lack of plows later). Pull out into gridlocked traffic.
-- inch homeward. That's not really an exaggeration. And can I just say how much I LOVE (for which, read: despise) people who can't figure out how to drive safely in this weather? People who DON'T TURN THEIR LIGHTS ON. People who decide that I'm driving TOO SLOW and pull around me. Die in a fiery wreck, people.
-- get home at 5:15 pm. Yeah. Find that I can't pull into my driveway because a plow HAS been by at some point, leaving a big berm of snow.
-- pull around corner, park car. Walk back to house. Get shovel. Shovel out end of drive so I can at least pull in. Feel charitable, shovel out end of neighbors' drive as well (driveway on my side of house).
-- get back in car. Mini -- which, let me state, up to this point has BEEN A TROOPER, calmly dealing with lack of plowed roads when other cars are spinning wheels -- will not move out of parking space. Won't go forward, won't go back. Nice boys who are shovelling across way come over, shovel out around my wheels, and push car backwards until I can get it moving.
-- go around block back to my house. Pull into drive. Unfortunately, drive has steeper slope in front before it levels out. Can't get up it. Fortunately, Fred my Ex-Landlord is there by now, shovelling rest of front. He senses I'm at the end of my rope, and offers to get in and coax the car up while I stop traffic (so he can back out across street to make a run at the drive). Takes him a good 4 runs to get up to level part, and then a half-dozen starts-stops to use the Mini as a SNOW PLOW to get it all the way back into its parking space (lots of wheel-spinning in by-now 6 inches of powdery snow laid down over a nice foundation of ICE).
-- knowing I won't want to do it in the morning, shovel a path between car and back door.
... So I came in, caked with snow, and did what any person who had lost all perspective and reason would do: I put the harness on Emily and took her out for a walk. (She walked along the path I'd shovelled, inspected the car, and then cold-footed it back for the back door and Inside.)
6pm. And I still feel that it was probably wise to leave work "early". *sigh*
(ETA: I wanted to add that a normal commuting time for me is 40 minutes, on a good day. Just for sake of comparison.)
-- left work at 2pm. (Steve let his class out early so he could start the trek back to where he lives, which is way the hell out near 495.)
-- 1 hour later, had gotten as far as Mt. Auburn hospital. That's 1 mile from work, btw.
-- abandoned bus. Walked 40 minutes through 24 degree F weather and increasing snow to get to my car. (I was quite worried because I realized on the drive in that I had forgotten to put my little shovel in the car.)
-- get to car. 3 inches or so of snow on it already. (It's been snowing since 1pm.) Clear car. Am able to drive it out of its parking space (thankfully plows had not been by yet; but I'll have cause to regret lack of plows later). Pull out into gridlocked traffic.
-- inch homeward. That's not really an exaggeration. And can I just say how much I LOVE (for which, read: despise) people who can't figure out how to drive safely in this weather? People who DON'T TURN THEIR LIGHTS ON. People who decide that I'm driving TOO SLOW and pull around me. Die in a fiery wreck, people.
-- get home at 5:15 pm. Yeah. Find that I can't pull into my driveway because a plow HAS been by at some point, leaving a big berm of snow.
-- pull around corner, park car. Walk back to house. Get shovel. Shovel out end of drive so I can at least pull in. Feel charitable, shovel out end of neighbors' drive as well (driveway on my side of house).
-- get back in car. Mini -- which, let me state, up to this point has BEEN A TROOPER, calmly dealing with lack of plowed roads when other cars are spinning wheels -- will not move out of parking space. Won't go forward, won't go back. Nice boys who are shovelling across way come over, shovel out around my wheels, and push car backwards until I can get it moving.
-- go around block back to my house. Pull into drive. Unfortunately, drive has steeper slope in front before it levels out. Can't get up it. Fortunately, Fred my Ex-Landlord is there by now, shovelling rest of front. He senses I'm at the end of my rope, and offers to get in and coax the car up while I stop traffic (so he can back out across street to make a run at the drive). Takes him a good 4 runs to get up to level part, and then a half-dozen starts-stops to use the Mini as a SNOW PLOW to get it all the way back into its parking space (lots of wheel-spinning in by-now 6 inches of powdery snow laid down over a nice foundation of ICE).
-- knowing I won't want to do it in the morning, shovel a path between car and back door.
... So I came in, caked with snow, and did what any person who had lost all perspective and reason would do: I put the harness on Emily and took her out for a walk. (She walked along the path I'd shovelled, inspected the car, and then cold-footed it back for the back door and Inside.)
6pm. And I still feel that it was probably wise to leave work "early". *sigh*
(ETA: I wanted to add that a normal commuting time for me is 40 minutes, on a good day. Just for sake of comparison.)