I have been talking about the cold, snow and ice – maybe because it’s more than we’ve had for awhile and maybe because it held on for a week. Today it warmed up and the salt on the roads worked and I can see the pavement. Tonight that is not necessarily a good thing. The roads are black and shiny with rain, but they are narrower because the snow mounds remain, encroaching on lanes.

Someone on North Riley parked on the street, but because his black car reached out way farther than usual; I was lucky to see the reflection of the taillights when my lights hit them, instead of me hitting the car.

My driveway is a disaster, water on top of compacted snow with big ruts and that blasted curve around the spruce. Get up enough momentum to not get stuck and you might just slide into another car or the fence.

I feel irritable; I don’t really know why, but at least I have the dark and rainy night to focus on. It’s going to rain tomorrow as well, so I can still zero in on that and not need to hunt up someone to tell to SHUT UP or whatever. Or, there is the chance my mood might lighten; not likely, but possible.

I walked into a chair with my bare foot, hitting the fourth toe really hard. Then I hopped around for some time, making noises of distress. For two days now I have been wearing my Emus (uggs) because they are big and flat and if I walk with my foot perfectly flat, it doesn’t hurt too much. Actually, I think I avoided breaking a toe (again) because putting pressure on my heel, causing the tendons to tug, does not cause immediate bad pain.  I’ve been that route before and I can tell you, it ain’t fun.

My main concern now is not dropping anything on my foot, which I almost did today.  And I do tend to yell when someone gets close to me, “Don’t step on my foot!!!”

I know this is boring, petty information, but the toe thing had consequences. I figured I’d sit by the fire and watch an old VHS movie I’d found – Brainwaves.  It was about transplanting brain processes and Tony Curtis was the evil-looking doctor, although it took me a long time to realize it. His main scenes focused on his eyebrows doing a sinister slant toward his nose and his mouth frowning. Either he was desperate for money or he took the role as a joke.

Now I’ve thought about Dana Andrews moving from films such as Laura and The Best Years of Our Lives to the one about the mad scientist who tried to shoot a rocket into the earth. Kind of a bummer of a thought.

I have been reading a lot lately, not necessarily good books, but ones that are not bad, if you invoke the “let’s pretend this could happen” rule so often used in movies. The last book involved very rich people, famous paintings, a quaint hotel in Amsterdam and a Ukrainian Genie in a Bottle (my interpretation). The foreward to the next book I have just begun ends with a reference to one of the characters being based on a lady of great intelligence and beauty. Of course.  I am not complaining; really, I’m not. I guess I’m just bracing myself for it.

(I find it ironic that the spell checker insists I am misspelling foreward.  The little dictionary on my macbook dashboard says it does not exist.)

Yesterday when the TV, internet and other things failed, I picked up my trusty shovel and decided to “experiment” around with the snow. My garage is in back; the driveway circles around a tall blue spruce and goes farther to reach the well-travelled road in front. Do you know that that snow got to be thigh deep by the spruce and knee deep everywhere else? I did it in little bits here, inventing new ways to move the snow with the least effort. Well, for awhile every time I came in, I would get antsy to get back out there. And then I got to the thigh high stuff. When I finally got through it, I thought, “I bet I can back out, turn and muscle my way out.” I backed out and started to turn, then I would dig at wheels, then turn, then dig at wheels. Finally I made it almost to the sidewalk and that’s when the wind started to come up A LOT and I realized the snow plow had pushed it up so that there was an extra four feet past the parkway to reach the entrance to the road and when I paused to gape, I got stuck.

I did get out; I drove around the block; I got back in – part way. I dug at wheels and finally made it in the garage and turned off the engine.

This morning I went out and the engine would not start. Oh, my mood was low. Maybe one of the reasons referring to the car is  Shane can’t get out the porch door and has to go out through the garage, so is afraid the backyard is no longer there.  I opened the door to the yard from the garage. AND I FORGOT TO CLOSE IT.

About an hour ago, the car started. Good. No school tomorrow. Agh. Shane wants people out of his fur and his backyard back. I’d like another Aleve and an afghan.

So here’s the update I tried to publish yesterday morning:

UPDATE:   Well, this worked out well. The hospital called and asked if Alison needed a ride; I told them to put her on the list and we’d call if I made it out. I made it out – one foot from the garage. The snow is up above the middle of the wheels  to the bumper – and, gee, I have to go check the tailpipe before we do anything else – and I couldn’t even get back into the garage.

Fortunately, the snow has supposedly stopped, but the temperature is going to plunge really, really low. Maybe, with daylight, we can shovel in front of the front wheels and Cameron and push from behind and I’ll make it partway into the garage, at least.

Oh, guess who came to get her? The CEO of the hospital.

Of course, with the storm with blowing snow and sub-zero temperatures, Alison works today and tomorrow. I am at this moment starting to prepare for this outing to deliver her to the hospital. Trapper’s hat and big mittens time. You know, holding car keys with mittens is not too easy.

I may or may not update.

FROM A LOCAL WEATHER BROADCAST:

The intensity really begins to pick up this afternoon and evening, with snowfall rates of 1-2″+ per hour possible. This will bring dangerous travel conditions. Additionally, winds will pick up and cause some blowing/drifting snow late this afternoon and into this evening.

While this storm will move off to our east late tonight, our snow chances continue thanks to the potential for some lake effect snow, especially northwest of Fort Wayne. Some additional accumulations may be possible. Total snow accumulations for much of our area through Monday morning are forecast to be in the 10″-12″ range with isolated higher amounts u

Oh, and the temps tonight – below zero and windchill around -26. 

It is 31 degrees outside, not bad at all, except that it makes the snow wet and heavy. Our driveway entry is a pain in the neck when we have snow. For some reason between the ruts made by our car wheels turning in and the snowplows pushing snow mounds across the wide mouth of the drive, it is a good place to get stuck. (A lot of other car also use our drive to turn around in and so the accumulated muck gets pushed up a lot.)

With just this morning’s snow, I turned into the driveway and my Buick said, “Oh, I don’t think so.” But it wasn’t hard-headed about it and I managed to back a little and then move forward. However, I felt a line had been crossed. Why today would be different, I don’t know, but I grabbed a snow shovel and slowly cleared the ruts forming, although the snow is still coming down.

It was kind of satisfying and since it was warmish I thought I’d just do the path to the front door. So I did. Slow pace, use your legs. It was a Sarah Grismore morning (Mother)

We completely reorganized all of the Christmas stuff, taking pictures of what was going in each box and numbering and labeling it. Then I finished reading my book about spies . . . and am wondering if I should have labeled the boxes in code.

Cries of sorrow are coming from the other room because the Colts are losing. I had a strong psychic feeling that they would . . . and now I am a pariah. Sometimes it is better to let my gut feelings not burp up into my mouth.

UPDATE: Oh, thank heavens, with the Colts Win (45-44) I escape the glares of people thinking “JINX!”

I opened up the notification about the Kindle Daily Deal and saw a group of books, so I clicked on LEARN MORE and  . . . Oh no, it’s inspiring books again for $2.99 or less. But it wasn’t; you had to click on a small new Kindle book deals link to get there. I didn’t see that immediately, obviously.

I scrolled down the page of inspiring books and found The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing – like I’m not a master of that already. Then, two rows down was The Procrastinator’s Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now. They want $7.39 for it; I think I can put that off. The former one was priced at $9.39, which is obviously an inside joke between the author and procrastinators.

The prices were what tipped me off to the fact that maybe this wasn’t the daily deal. Here, look at the page yourself:

Don’t you think it’s misleading? Well, I’m inspired to be more alert when deals are offerred. (And, yes, 2 r’s in offerred – take that, modernized computer spelling guides.