Pen-Elayne on the Web

Well, That Wasn't a Fun Commute

We're moving in a couple of months, and it's becoming clearer every day that we will no longer look for a place situated on a hill. It's bad enough clambering down and climbing up on the best of days; on a morning after it's been snowing on and off all night, and the consistency of the snow (due, I guess, to frigid temperatures) is such that even booted feet can find no purchase, and you can't even walk in the road because it hasn't been plowed and you're watching SUVs spin out right in front of you... well, it took me about 10 minutes of slipping and sliding the one block downhill and across an equally slippery intersection just to get to the bus stop. From where, on normal days, I'd be able to walk the five or so short blocks to the subway, but those blocks are mildly hilly as well and, again, nothing's been plowed or shoveled and it's tricky enough finding solidity on level ground! So I waited at the bus kiosk (which is never plowed even when everything around it is) with people who'd been there almost a half hour before the bus chugged up, and of course the metal steps leading up to the elevated subway station weren't shoveled either so I'm there gripping the railing with both hands like a friggin' mountain climber, and although Seventh Avenue across from Macy's was mostly slushy and solid and navigable the second you turn the corner onto 35th it's like being right back in Riverdale with the slippey and the slidey and the lack of shoveling and the HEY LADY! Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, only 20 minutes late to work. And heck with this, I'm taking a car service back home tonight and an extra day of vacation tomorrow and venturing absolutely nowhere until All This is over. Oh yeah, and I'm also feeling slightly chagrined and depressed because in my last post I said it didn't sound like Moseley-Braun was dropping out of the race and now just about everyone is reporting that she is.