So It Turns Out Everything's Fine

It didn't start off well: I think the bus driver stopped one stop too late, so I had to backtrack to my street.  (The last time I used the bus, which was when I dropped off my car for a thudding sound that turned out to be missing and loose lug nuts, I requested one stop too soon and had to walk more than I should have.  Goldilocks will get this right.)  And that stop has not been shoveled at all; I stepped into a snowback at least up to the top of my Doc Martens.  Ick.  Welcome back to Minnesota, I guess (even though it has been hanging above freezing ever since I touched down yesterday/Wednesday).

Some parts of my street were slushy, but others were clear, so whenever there wasn't traffic (and afternoon rush was petering out when I started walking up around 6) I walked on the street.  I finally came upon my house, and yes, there was snow.  And the snow at the end of the driveway has had two weeks of thawing and freezing to cake and ice over and turn into an unmovable abomination -- even though the melting has put the snow on my driveway at above three inches; I think a pair of eight-inch snowstorms came while I was in Hawai'i.

So I high-step it up the driveway and up to my front door.  I turn the key, take a deep breath ... and hear the alarm.  OK, so I set the alarm and the alarm still works.  I then hear the central heat on; I go upstairs to check the thermostat and, yes indeed, I in fact did not turn the heat off.  Phew!

Then went downstairs and checked the boiler room for water leaks -- none, thank Buddha.  I turned on the water heater to "HOT" again and opened up what I think is the water main.  Finally, I went to the master bathroom to see if there were any signs of freezing pipes, and then to see if water is flowing through the sink and the shower.  I think the water pipes in the master bathroom are most vulnerable to freezing shut because I think they're closer to the exterior.  I not only kept the bathroom door open while I was gone but the shower door, too.  So I turned on both the faucet and the shower and, after gurgling up the air because the main water was shut off, it flowed naturally and unfrozen.

Oh, and the plants?  The ones with flowers are drooping, but other than that, I can't really see how affected they were going without water for two weeks.  I really, really believed that all the plants would be dead, the leaves a sickly brown and leaves just everywhere on the floor.  There's a chance I could revive them with water I will give them in the morning.

And I eventually plowed the driveway, too!  The snowblower started off fine; the reason it conked off last time, I guess, was only because it ran out of gas.  The end-of-driveway snow was extremely hard to plow, but after working at it, I did.  I needed to move the cars around to clear the whole driveway, and both cars started up just fine; helps that it was above 32 degrees.

The only downside is that I fell while pulling the snowblower up the driveway.  May have cranked my neck.  I'm drinking knockoff NyQuil now to finish off this cough I still have, once and for all, but I could use a pain reliever right now, sheesh. ...