Snow Day
Having lived all my life in lower Alabama (up until around six months ago), snow remains something of a novelty to me. The most "snow" we ever really received was the occasional slush that accumulated just enough to coat the ground white(ish). Once, last year, several inches managed to fall and stay for several hours. That's the experience I have with snow.
Now that I live in Nashville, snow seems to be a more common (though still relatively rare) occurrence. Granted, earlier this year, I made a work trip up here in the middle of a freak blizzard. Still, when I saw that it was supposed to "snow" yesterday, my expectation was primed for my common snow experience. A bit of white slush, there and gone in a few hours.
Unfortunately, my joy at seeing inches of the white stuff pile up yesterday turned to severe annoyance with it this morning when it remained on the roads, in addition to the "black ice" that had formed on much of the roadwork. I figured with the road crews out in force, if I could just get to the highway on my way to work, I'd be fine.
I still believe I would have been fine, had I been able to reach that point. Unfortunately, my small car (most likely combined with my complete and utter inexperience with driving on ice) wasn't able to make it that far. Instead, I slid and skidded sideways down the hill exiting the apartment complex parking lot, leading to a bit of heart-pounding excitement as the road exiting the the complex dead-ends...into a cliff. I managed to calm the car down and came to a stop at the edge, and started up the other hill, the one that leads to a stop sign and another turn.
Again, my little car proved no match for the ice, as I simply couldn't make it up the hill. I began slipping and sliding back down, coming to rest back where I stopped the car the first time.
At that point, I gave up and opted to simply return to the apartment. That too, however, was outside of my grasp, as the car steadfastly refused to return up the hill that gave it such a scare earlier. So eventually I managed to just park the car on the side of the complex entrance (in front of another poor soul who apparently had the same problem), and carefully hoofed it back to my apartment.
So I spent the rest of the day inside. Despite having copious amounts of work to do. And at this point I found that my work computer, which I keep turned on to allow 24/7 remote access, was unavailable. Apparently some dumbass at the office decided a good course of action would to, in the midst of doing work on the CAT5 wiring, UNPLUG MY FREAKING COMPUTER. Everyone else in the office had internet. Not my computer.
Thanks to some ingenuity on the part of my coworker, I managed to gain access to it for a while (and then the connection waveform collapsed in on itself again, like Schrödinger's internet). I got a bit done, but not nearly as much as I needed/wanted.
Which of course is a problem for me. I'm not quite the type to let work go easily. So, I was stuck at home, with little to nothing to do, but of course me being me, I couldn't enjoy it because I was busy worrying that I couldn't do more.
Also? I'm a fairly quiet guy. I don't really enjoy going out, particularly on a work day, unless it's to grab food because I don't want to take the time to cook. But take away my ability to go somewhere? I'm climbing the freaking walls. Seriously, I don't think I've ever been jonesing for a soda as much as I have today, and there's a Target right across the way. But I can't get to it, because of the damned ice.
I hope (but don't think) tomorrow will be any better...no one comes out this way to clear or salt the roads, and it's not going to be getting above freezing. Wednesday it is, and hopefully we'll have some freedom of movement then.
Frustrating this is. Bed now.
Now that I live in Nashville, snow seems to be a more common (though still relatively rare) occurrence. Granted, earlier this year, I made a work trip up here in the middle of a freak blizzard. Still, when I saw that it was supposed to "snow" yesterday, my expectation was primed for my common snow experience. A bit of white slush, there and gone in a few hours.
Unfortunately, my joy at seeing inches of the white stuff pile up yesterday turned to severe annoyance with it this morning when it remained on the roads, in addition to the "black ice" that had formed on much of the roadwork. I figured with the road crews out in force, if I could just get to the highway on my way to work, I'd be fine.
I still believe I would have been fine, had I been able to reach that point. Unfortunately, my small car (most likely combined with my complete and utter inexperience with driving on ice) wasn't able to make it that far. Instead, I slid and skidded sideways down the hill exiting the apartment complex parking lot, leading to a bit of heart-pounding excitement as the road exiting the the complex dead-ends...into a cliff. I managed to calm the car down and came to a stop at the edge, and started up the other hill, the one that leads to a stop sign and another turn.
Again, my little car proved no match for the ice, as I simply couldn't make it up the hill. I began slipping and sliding back down, coming to rest back where I stopped the car the first time.
At that point, I gave up and opted to simply return to the apartment. That too, however, was outside of my grasp, as the car steadfastly refused to return up the hill that gave it such a scare earlier. So eventually I managed to just park the car on the side of the complex entrance (in front of another poor soul who apparently had the same problem), and carefully hoofed it back to my apartment.
So I spent the rest of the day inside. Despite having copious amounts of work to do. And at this point I found that my work computer, which I keep turned on to allow 24/7 remote access, was unavailable. Apparently some dumbass at the office decided a good course of action would to, in the midst of doing work on the CAT5 wiring, UNPLUG MY FREAKING COMPUTER. Everyone else in the office had internet. Not my computer.
Thanks to some ingenuity on the part of my coworker, I managed to gain access to it for a while (and then the connection waveform collapsed in on itself again, like Schrödinger's internet). I got a bit done, but not nearly as much as I needed/wanted.
Which of course is a problem for me. I'm not quite the type to let work go easily. So, I was stuck at home, with little to nothing to do, but of course me being me, I couldn't enjoy it because I was busy worrying that I couldn't do more.
Also? I'm a fairly quiet guy. I don't really enjoy going out, particularly on a work day, unless it's to grab food because I don't want to take the time to cook. But take away my ability to go somewhere? I'm climbing the freaking walls. Seriously, I don't think I've ever been jonesing for a soda as much as I have today, and there's a Target right across the way. But I can't get to it, because of the damned ice.
I hope (but don't think) tomorrow will be any better...no one comes out this way to clear or salt the roads, and it's not going to be getting above freezing. Wednesday it is, and hopefully we'll have some freedom of movement then.
Frustrating this is. Bed now.