(no subject)
i hope you had a nice holiday.
christmas at my mom's house went well. the appetizers i made the night before apparantly were better than i thought they were when i made them. yay cooking.
yesterday wasn't super though. it started out ok. i went to connecticut with my brother, his wife, and their 14-month old son (who is the cutest thing in the world) to visit with our aunt and uncle. the visit was very nice. i taught my nephew how to high-5. but the drive home sucked. the forecast was for snow, and later forecasts called for heavier snow. about 5 minutes after we left for home it started. however, it had been snowing in other parts of connecticut as well as massachusetts and rhode island for hours by then.
living in new england, snow is not uncommon. or at least you'd think. i mean, people still freak out and rush for milk and bread and water and whatever else they think might be necessary, to hunker down without any electricity for a couple weeks, every time the weather man says snow - you know, just in case. but at the same time very few people here have learned to actually drive in snow. they go out and buy an suv and expect that to solve any problems.
so anyway, despite the forecast of snow (at least a couple days in advance), and despite the actual falling snow (for at least a few hours), by the time we reached the major highway, it was quite obvious that the plows had yet to visit. so we joined the masses of idiots on the roads travelling in semi-blizzard conditions. luckily, visibility wasn't too bad. and my brother is an excellent driver (10 minutes to wopner) and has a good car with snow tires. unfortunately he was the rare exception. the number of people speeding by in their suv's and whatever other boats they thought would plow through these conditions was alarming. the number of people trying to speed through the 1/2-foot tracks of snow in their "performance" sports cars would have been amusing, if it weren't for the fact that their driving was also endangering us. there were accidents all over the place. one guy decided (most likely involuntarily, however) to take a sharp left while driving right in front of us on the highway. he managed to spin out into the median, but how he lucked out by not having anyone immediately around him to smash into, i don't know. it was no better on the next highway either. really, with the exception of a few "main" roads near his house, there was little evidence of any plowing or sanding of the roads. but we made it to his house safely. the trip is normally 80-90 minutes. this took over 3 hours. but whatever.
so then i headed for my home - only about 20-30 minutes away. i figured some of the roads would be cleared. i stayed away from the highway (which, as i passed the on-ramp for, i saw the plows all lined up waiting to go on, but not yet actually doing anything). by then, visibility had diminished to about 10-15 feet in front of my car. but i'm also a pretty good driver (pat-pat), and have at least learned how to drive in snow. i spent the next hour negotiating idiots driving all around me, as well as roads in various states of clearing. i had to go around one guy who was sliding back down the hill i was climbing. avoided numerous people going too fast and spinning into my lane or fishtailing all over the road. but eventually i made it home safely. yay me.
this morning i had to dig my car out since it had been semi-plowed in. lovely. then i had to go over to my mom's to shovel her driveway (what a nice boy). anyway, now my **back** hurts.
sorry i missed these yesterday, but happy kwanza and happy boxing day. i'm sure your celebrations are/were meaningful and inspiring.
righty then.
christmas at my mom's house went well. the appetizers i made the night before apparantly were better than i thought they were when i made them. yay cooking.
yesterday wasn't super though. it started out ok. i went to connecticut with my brother, his wife, and their 14-month old son (who is the cutest thing in the world) to visit with our aunt and uncle. the visit was very nice. i taught my nephew how to high-5. but the drive home sucked. the forecast was for snow, and later forecasts called for heavier snow. about 5 minutes after we left for home it started. however, it had been snowing in other parts of connecticut as well as massachusetts and rhode island for hours by then.
living in new england, snow is not uncommon. or at least you'd think. i mean, people still freak out and rush for milk and bread and water and whatever else they think might be necessary, to hunker down without any electricity for a couple weeks, every time the weather man says snow - you know, just in case. but at the same time very few people here have learned to actually drive in snow. they go out and buy an suv and expect that to solve any problems.
so anyway, despite the forecast of snow (at least a couple days in advance), and despite the actual falling snow (for at least a few hours), by the time we reached the major highway, it was quite obvious that the plows had yet to visit. so we joined the masses of idiots on the roads travelling in semi-blizzard conditions. luckily, visibility wasn't too bad. and my brother is an excellent driver (10 minutes to wopner) and has a good car with snow tires. unfortunately he was the rare exception. the number of people speeding by in their suv's and whatever other boats they thought would plow through these conditions was alarming. the number of people trying to speed through the 1/2-foot tracks of snow in their "performance" sports cars would have been amusing, if it weren't for the fact that their driving was also endangering us. there were accidents all over the place. one guy decided (most likely involuntarily, however) to take a sharp left while driving right in front of us on the highway. he managed to spin out into the median, but how he lucked out by not having anyone immediately around him to smash into, i don't know. it was no better on the next highway either. really, with the exception of a few "main" roads near his house, there was little evidence of any plowing or sanding of the roads. but we made it to his house safely. the trip is normally 80-90 minutes. this took over 3 hours. but whatever.
so then i headed for my home - only about 20-30 minutes away. i figured some of the roads would be cleared. i stayed away from the highway (which, as i passed the on-ramp for, i saw the plows all lined up waiting to go on, but not yet actually doing anything). by then, visibility had diminished to about 10-15 feet in front of my car. but i'm also a pretty good driver (pat-pat), and have at least learned how to drive in snow. i spent the next hour negotiating idiots driving all around me, as well as roads in various states of clearing. i had to go around one guy who was sliding back down the hill i was climbing. avoided numerous people going too fast and spinning into my lane or fishtailing all over the road. but eventually i made it home safely. yay me.
this morning i had to dig my car out since it had been semi-plowed in. lovely. then i had to go over to my mom's to shovel her driveway (what a nice boy). anyway, now my **back** hurts.
sorry i missed these yesterday, but happy kwanza and happy boxing day. i'm sure your celebrations are/were meaningful and inspiring.
righty then.