Most of you…OK all of you…probably know we got socked with snow and then the “polar vortex” cold this week.  It’s made just about everything difficult.

See the bird resting in the feeder?

The official amount of snow that fell in the town nearest to us is 15 inches (38.1 cm) but we measured 19 inches (48.2 cm) in our yard.  The majority of it arrived on Sunday which was lucky because we didn’t have to try to get to work while it was falling.

I figured I’d just leave for work extra early Monday morning.  I knew that over a foot of snow would snarl traffic no matter what work the county had done to get roads cleaned up.  The roads in our subdivision hadn’t been touched by anyone other than the residents who used their snow blowers to clean out the road directly in front of our driveways.  And the snow fell all night.  Then the wind began to blow near midnight.

Not selling cars at the dealership.

Very early Monday Katie and I slogged through the snow in our driveway out to the road to look.  No one had driven on it yet.  I couldn’t tell how deep the snow was…but it looked deep in the dark.  I was apprehensive and decided I needed to drive the truck because it had 4 wheel drive.  Of course it wasn’t in the garage and was covered in snow.  So I started scrapping snow and ice off it…warming it up while planning which route I’d take.  I wanted the route that had fewer hills and curves on my way out to a main road.

About 6:15 in the morning I backed out of the driveway and headed up the road.  I got as far as the next door neighbor’s house and got stuck in a huge drift.  Panicking I managed to back out of the drift, back into the neighbor’s driveway, then turn around and head back home.  I decided I wasn’t going to try that again, and called in to work at 6:30.

Bird bath.

My husband emerged from the bedroom about 7:15 and asked me if I had tried to go to work.  I told him I did and got stuck and I wasn’t going to work.  He said we should be able to make it out of the sub.  I said no way.  He said let’s try.  So we did.  We went the other way and plowed through smaller drifts, eventually making it out to a main road, then to the freeway.  I arrived at work on time at 8:30…after all that, and before just about anyone else in my department.  Many people couldn’t get in at all.

Tuesday the Polar Vortex arrived.  Husband drove me to work again because it was -17 F  (-27.22 C)and the roads were still bad.  I was wearing many layers, including my running tights under my dress pants to stay warm in the building that is essentially glass.  It was a long day, though more people made it to work.

Tracks of something hungry.

When husband picked me up from work that evening we stopped at a restaurant across the street from the office for a quick dinner.  It turned out to be very quick because just after our food was served the power went out.  We ate in the relatively romantic light of overhead emergency lights, and they comped us the meal because their credit card readers didn’t work.  The commute home was long because the wind was making the roads slippery again.

Wednesday morning the temperatures were more reasonable, still negative…but not so terrible.  We actually made it to double digit temperatures in the afternoon…on the positive side!  I drove myself to work, but the roads were still slippery and it took me an hour and a half to get there, and an hour and a half to get home that evening.

The stress of bad commutes and understaffed work days is wearing me out.  And to top it all off we have to work five whole days this week!

By the end of this week we’re supposed to get rain.  That never makes the commute any easier…but I’ll take it over more snow.

The bird seed is stored in here.

Katie says she wants to go to the park and I have to remind her that the snow is deeper than she is tall.   There’s a cartoon on Facebook that says something like “I’m tired of winter, next season please.”

It’s early in the winter, but that’s exactly how I feel.

Layers.