Digging Out

Here are some more pictures from the Great Blizzard of 2007. These were taken this morning around 6:30 with the camera in my cell phone. The quality's not perfect but you get the idea.

This is the front of my house. Yes, all that snow must be moved to get into the driveway. There's about a foot and a half stretch in front of the garage door that does not have one single snowflake, thanks to the way the winds were swirling. Do you see the little blob under the address? That's my snowman who's holding up a sign that says "Let it snow!" Easy for him to say!
This is the view from that clear patch, looking down my street. The sky is pretty with the sun just starting to come up, isn't it? I ended up parking about a block away in that direction.

Speaking of parking, I should elaborate on yesterday's post. I dropped off a coworker who lives on the other side of Duncan, and I actually had to drop her off at the start of her street because I couldn't get in. So I went to my street, and when I turned in there was someone who was stuck and a couple of people who had pulled over and were trying to help. I ended up turning around and going to the other entrance. I was about halfway to my house when I got behind someone who was digging out his minivan, plus there was a Beetle parked a little ways up that was completely plowed in. Once again, I was stuck. Even if I could have gotten past them, there were snow drifts up the way that were too high to get through, and I would have been stuck. So I had no choice but to leave my car and walk the rest of the way.

Once I got home, I changed into some warmer clothes and grabbed my shovel, intending on digging my way through. My next door neighbor was out, and he said that he left his car on Duncan and advised me not to try to get through, that it was too dangerous. So I went back inside.

After worrying for an hour or so about the fact that my car was abandoned, I decided to go out and see if things had improved. Brian was out again (he has a dog), and his car was in his driveway. Someone in the neighborhood had come through with a plow and was attempting to clear the roads, and Brian offered to go with me to see if I could get through. It was really hard to tell with the drifting, since you'd get a patch where you could see the road and then the snow was six inches deep. We got to my car, and the minivan was gone, but I still wasn't able to get through. I was able to turn my car around and go back the way I had originally tried.

This time there were no cars blocking my path until I got about a block away. A Chrysler Sebring was stuck in a drift, and in fact the front passenger wheel was at least an inch off the ground. There were a couple of people trying to get them out, and Brian and I tried to help as well, but no deal. The truck that was plowing the neighborhood was also there facing the opposite direction, so even if the Sebring could have gotten out I still could not have gone past. Since the road was reasonably clear and there was a parking spot, I decided to stop there for the night.

This morning I saw that the city plows had come through and plowed our street. I took the shovel and went to fetch my car, which thankfully wasn't plowed in, although I had to clear a little snow away. The neighborhood plow was gone, but the Sebring was still there. I pulled the car in front of the house, cleared a small path so I could at least get to the door, and then got ready for work.

I left work early today to go home and shovel. My boss understood, she was working from home because she couldn't get out of her garage. I started to do a section just so I could get one of our cars in-Mike's coming home today (hopefully) and I didn't want him to have to worry about shoveling. We have a new neighbor across the way who I haven't even met yet, and he offered to help me shovel since he didn't have too much snow and was done quickly. It didn't take us long to get about half the driveway done, and if I'm feeling ambitious I'll try to do more in a little while (though something tells me that won't happen).

Now, what's going to happen when all this snow starts melting?

Let it Snow?

Isn't winter lovely? They actually closed the bank early today, but not early enough. I had to leave my car several blocks away-I'm not stuck, I just can't go any further, thanks to drifts such as this. The blizzard warning is supposed to last until midnight, so hopefully tomorrow I can start digging out.

World Champions

In Just Over An Hour....

the butt-kicking will commence!!!! Go Colts!!!!

Come on, who deserves a Super Bowl ring more than Peyton Manning? "Sexy Rexy"? Puh-lease!

Black And Blue

No, not me, it's the title of the last book I read. I decided that instead of just dumping the books I like in my "Recently Read and Recommended" section I would actually try to review them for you.

Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen, is the story of a woman, Fran Bendetto, who is beaten by her husband. The book starts out when she leaves her husband Bobby, a New York City police officer, and takes their son Robert with her. Fran has enlisted the help of a woman she met through her job as an emergency room nurse who works to get battered women away from their spouses. Fran doesn't know where she's going or how she's going to survive.

Fran ends up in Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw. She and Robert start forging a new life and making new friends, and at the same time learn some things about themselves and each other. The story of Beth's abuse is told in memories, and we start learning the reasons that she never left before-she liked their house, she didn't want to ruin family vacations, and most telling of all, she loved her husband. Robert knows what his dad did to his mom, but is reluctant to face the truth. He struggles to work through his feelings, while Beth tries to help him through it.

In order to keep themselves safe, Beth and Robert need to keep their real reasons for living in Florida to themselves. Everything about them has changed, from Beth's hair color to Robert's date of birth. Throughout the book is Bobby's shadow. Beth is in constant fear that Bobby will find her, and knows that he will kill her if he does.

When I told a friend that I was reading this book he laughed and told me I could turn on Lifetime any night of the week and see this story. What sets this story apart from others is the attention to detail. Beth is honest with herself-she loved her husband, and she still has feelings for him. Sometimes she even questions whether it was really that bad. She doesn't blame herself for the abuse, but she can't help thinking that Bobby will find someone who "doesn't make him so mad". These kinds of flaws make her character very realistic. There's also a feeling of helplessness. Beth doesn't even learn her phone number until she has been in her apartment for a couple of weeks, and she can't make contact with her family to let them know she's okay.

This was a very good book, and it was easy to see why it was one of Oprah's Book Club selections. If you find it in a library or bookstore, go ahead and pick it up-it's worth the read.