A Valentine's Day message

A year ago tonight, I was holed up in my house across town, cold and sore and tired from digging out one house, walking across town in the snow carrying a jug full of calcium chloride pellets, and then digging out another house.

This year we had a baby-sized variation on the theme: quite a lot of light, fluffy snow, followed by freezing rain - followed, unfortunately, by another good, solid freeze. (Eerily, this Winter's weather is following November's long-range forecast pretty closely.) So both yesterday morning and this morning I had to dump a lot more of my ice melt onto two sets of sidewalks. Four, actually, because I also salted the sidewalks of my elderly neighbors on either side of my house across town.

Driving across town this morning before I headed out to work was interesting. About two blocks before my house there is a STOP sign at an intersection where cross traffic does not have a STOP sign. As I approached this intersection I noticed three things:

1. The road was a sheet of ice. Literally. Very shiny and smooth ice, too.
2. There was no traffic coming from the cross-street.
3. There was an inconveniently-placed fireplug on the other side of the street.

As I began to brake, I realized there was no way in hell I was going to come to a stop. Furthermore, I would very likely lose control of my car if I continued to brake and would almost certainly crash into the fireplug, which would then entomb me in ice. Not wanting to wake up in a future world far beyond my comprehension, I decided that just this once it would be OK to sail through a STOP sign. Which I did.

I survived the trip, and salted half a block's worth of sidewalks. I had to rush a bit to make it to work on time.

Tonight I was smart. I salted everything as soon as I got back from work. I doubt it was necessary, but at least I wont have to worry about surprise sheets of ice in the morning!

Image genenerated using the Hahaform at hetemeel.com.
...and I forgot to add:
Link courtesy of http://www.mhryvnak.net/blog/!