Sunday, March 1, 2009

Cabin Fever

Wow, six posts in February. I've outdone myself

So in honor of nearly a year of blogging (and to get myself back into the swing of things) I'm planning on posting once a day until my "blog-o-versary" on March 26th.

Why are you laughing?

Stop it!

I can do this... really.


Anyway. It snowed today. It's still snowing as a matter of fact.

I knew there was supposed to be some kind of inclimate weather, but this time of year you really can't count on anything. With spring right around the corner you never really know what's going to happen. So when I woke up this morning to a dusting of the white stuff on the grass and not much else, I wasn't so surprised.

I have spent the last two days cleaning my apartment. Which hasn't been this clean ever. Including when we moved in. No kidding. To treat myself I planned on taking a little trip to town this afternoon and picking up a few things. Not really necessities, but things we could use none the less. I decided to wait to leave until lunch time to give all the stores a chance to open since it's Sunday. At around 12 I sat down to use the computer and the weather was the same as it had been hours ago; soggy with a mixture of precipitation.

Thirty minutes later I get up to leave and look out the window. Sometime in the past half hour it snowed at least half an inch and there were no signs of stopping. But I'd been locked in my apartment with Comet and rubber gloves for two days and no amount of snow was going to stop me from getting to town. I briefly went over various family member's reactions to my resolve.

My step dad: "Oh no you're not going out in this."
Andy: (knowing me better, but hoping to discourage me anyway) "I really don't think it's a good idea."
My mom: "OK, will you bring me (insert product) back from Walmart?"
My grandmother: (who thinks I'm capable of doing anything) "Well, be real careful and call me when you get back."

I decided to go with my grandmother's imagined seal of approval and set out on my journey. Now, by "town" I mean the nearest place hosting more than a grocery store and a Riteaid. At least a 15 mile hike. I knew it was going to be slow moving, as I live in a tourist town and it's the weekend. Lot's of out-of-towners who don't know how to drive in snow. Not that I'm all that adept myself, but I'm not as chicken as I used to be.

On the way to town

My trip there was relatively uneventful. I made it without incident. The people behind me didn't tailgate and I kept a wide berth from the people ahead. I made it to my destination. No one had what I was looking for, but I made a few purchases and used a coupon, picked up some lunch and got back in my car to make the trek home. My cabin fever was satisfied.

This is where things get tricky. Remember when I told you my alternator was acting up again? Turns out there was just a bad connection that was easily fixed with a saudering iron. My car has been doing well ever since then. Doing well until today that is. I guess Andy didn't make the connection quite as strong as it needed to be so when I got back in my car to start it up my check engine light was on. Fabulous. All I need is a broken down car in a snow storm. But it was running so I stiffened my resolve to make it as far home as possible before I was stuck.

Driving back home

I won't go into all the details of my trip. I'll just say there was only one incident where I was sideways in the road, but luckily there was a car in the other lane that had run off the road so there was no oncoming traffic. It's not lucky that they ran off the road, but it's lucky that they were stopped and I managed to do the same and not collide with them. Then some idiot decided to pass everyone in my lane, nearly causing a multiple care pile up. People like that deserve to have accidents. And if you are one of those people I'm not sorry I wrote that.

My car did make it home, barely. I'll be surprised if it starts next time I go out. We'll probably have to put the battery in Andy's Jeep to charge it up and he'll have to revisit that faulty connection. But I'm pretty happy with the outcome of my trip. Mostly I'm happy to be home again in one piece.

That needle should be up around the 14
Next time it snows like this and I want to go out in it please remind me to come back here and read this.

Also, could someone bring me some hot chocolate? Like, right now?