Winter. . .Again. . .

The weather over the past few days has been beautiful. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I was even able to open some of my windows to let in some fresh air. For today, the forecast was that it would start to snow after 3:00 and that we would get about 1-3 inches by the end of the evening. The snow started to fall at about 1:00, and it was falling fast and hard. It was also extremely windy, so the snow was falling sideways or swirling around. Everyone in the office watched the snow falling and it was a pleasant distraction, but no one really took it that seriously. By 4:00 we all started to realize how bad it really was, so most of us packed up our things and decided to go home. I walked out of the office and it seemed like there were already 3 inches on the ground. My car was covered with snow and I tried to brush it all off, but the snow was still falling and it was falling faster than I could clean off my car. It was pretty much pointless.

I began my drive home and assumed that the roads wouldn't be that bad. I assumed that the roads would still be warm from the past few days and that they would be relatively free of ice and slush. I was so wrong! The roads were incredibly slick. Part of my drive home is on a quiet, two-lane road past some farmlands. When it snows, most people take it slow, but the traffic still moves. Today, traffic was bumper to bumper and we moved at 5 mph or less. I was somewhat grateful we were going so slowly, because the road was all ice, slush, and snow. On a few turns and a hill, I felt my car slide and the tires spin a bit, but fortunately we were going so slowly that it was easy to recover from.

After a long drive of clenching my steering wheel until my knuckles probably turned white and holding my breath the entire time until my face turned blue, I finally made it home. It took me a little over 30 minutes to get home, when usually it takes me only about 10 minutes. I was one of the lucky ones, too. Some of my co-workers had a much worse drive. One co-worker who was simply driving across town, had an hour commute. Other co-workers were on the road for two or three hours. It's just horrible out there today.