travel: January 2005 Archives

is when you have to spend 45 minutes moving your car less than a block, from one unplowed side of the street to the other unplowed side of the street, because if you don't, you'll get a $35 ticket. And you have to do so when:

Temperature: 3
Wind speed 20-30 mph
Wind Chill: -19
Current Snowfall: 4-6 inches
Depth of drift holding door open: 18-20 inches
Signs of snow stopping: 0

The only silver lining I can imagine here is the fact that my apartment building is about a block away from a Rite-Aid. Granted, it's uphill, but then the return trip is downhill. Granted, I have to cross a major thoroughfare to get there, but when it's this bad out, I can move about as fast as the cars.

Yes, I am back. Have been for a couple of days.

I woke up this morning to the sounds of people in my apartment. Yike. Fortunately, I suppose, it was the super and the building inspector, come to see that I was sleeping okay. Well, that, or to check on whatever it is that inspectors check.

The downside of unannounced home invasion is that it doesn't give you time to clean the apartment first, though. And, since I spent so much time away from here in the fall, umm...well...not the tidiest apartment in the building. If the mess in my apartment were a matter of homeland security, my door would be registering an alert level of orange. Actually, after an hour or so, it's probably down to yellow, and I'm hoping to settle down to green today before I take a break for lunch. Yeah. My problem is that I tend to go bananas when I'm getting ready for a trip, and so I always come home to an apartment that's messier than normal, but I rarely have the energy post-trip to do anything about it very quickly. Heck, if I've done laundry recently enough, I'll sometimes live out of my suitcase until it's unpacked.

Okay. Back to work. That is all.

I would guess that this happens on the edges of weather fronts, when it's warm enough above to rain (instead of snow) and cold enough below to freeze (instead of drain). The result? A thin, brittle coating that just about dropped me on my butt when I half-skated down the driveway to retrieve the garbage cans today. But when the wind blows hard enough to move the lighter tree branches, you also get a crackle all around you that's one of the signature sounds of winter.

Very cool if all you're doing is peeking your head outdoors to listen (or moving your car into the garage temporarily).