Winter Has Come

• Looking around websites, I saw one forecast 2-6", another 5-9", another "up to" 10", and another 6-12".  Checking just now, the National Weather Service announces that my city received 5.3" -- could have been a lot worse, but it was still pretty bad, especially since this was the first really bad snowstorm I've suffered through.
• Service was slow at the restaurant we ate at (although I can't complain about the rest of the service, or the food), but after four hours I had to drive home, and I was determined to take the long, slow way.  It turned out to be longer and slower than I thought, because the train got stuck on the tracks crossing my way home.  Instead of waiting, I decided to see how far I had to drive before I could cut around it.  I soon found myself at a residential street I was unfamiliar with, on a curve that increased in grade, slightly.  Remember that we were still in the thick of the snowstorm, and no plow had gone through this area yet.  Also remember that I have a subcompact ... and when I tried to climb this street, through the dirty snow that had already fallen, I slooooooooowly ground to a halt.  I tried stepping on the gas until I was worried I would burn my transmission, and I still couldn't move.  That's when I thought, "My God, I'm going to die here."  And then, "My God, this car is no good in the winter."  So I turned around and tried to find another, less hilly way home, and at that point I was close to the point where the train was and it had moved on and so I got home at close to 1.
• I wanted to get up at 6 and head to work at 7; there's overtime to be had.  But this goddamn snowstorm gave me tremendous pause.  I have never hit the snooze button as much as the, oh, six or seven times I did this morning.  It had to do with the snow I needed to shovel in order to get out of the driveway.  I was more than content with shoveling the bottom half of the driveway, the one where the plow kicked up the snow off of the road in order to clear our street, and then the tracks up to my car.  I wondered, though, if my parents would have minded that I didn't use the snowblower, the one I think didn't work.  So that's why I stayed in bed till 7 and then got up a bit before 7:30.
• By that time my parents were up, so any attempt at surreptitious shoveling was gone.  However, My Father, quite pleasantly, suggested that I use the snowblower as I got dressed up to go outside.  And then, as I was waiting for it to warm up (not having any intention of using it because I thought it didn't work), Father came out to help me.  And I don't know how, but he had the magic touch and the snowplow was working.  So, as I was using the shovel to clear the pathway up to the stoop and other nooks and crannies, Father, all 70+ years of him, guided our black beauty up and down the driveway, making the 5.3" of snow his bitch.  I don't know why or how he wasn't so crusty this morning, but it may have to do with Mother, after not seeing her for two days presumably because she was ill, up and about; I saw the two of them together eating breakfast.  As a kicker, they asked few questions as I left.  I told them the truth; I was working, then I planned to shop for my niece.  And they said be careful, and I left.