All Plowed!!

Woo-hoo, the city came around our little tertiary U-shaped driveway road this morning with both a big-boy-beast and a baby-beast plow, and hit pay dirt! I mean, it hasn't been paved since before we moved in, so it's pretty much all gravel and ruts now, but that's a lot easier for me to navigate on foot than snow and ice! I'm hoping this means the more important roads and intersections are now cleared as well, and was happy to see the sun come out this afternoon and help melt the rooftop snoverhang and the front door canopy. I was able to plow through not only all my partners' expense report entries but a new assignment given to me that I'd been dreading, as it has so many moving parts. But it's essentially all organization, at which I'm good, so I spent about half a day on it and feel like I'm in good shape. My backpack is all ready to take into the big bad city tomorrow!

Still Snowed Under

I have no idea when, if ever, the city will clear our driveway, but there's no way I could get to the main sidewalk to walk to the bus, and the buses weren't running that well anyway. This is the big cleanup day after the worst blizzard in almost a decade, so I'm perfectly fine working from home again. I've cancelled my office workspace for today and tomorrow, and may or may not come in on Thursday but we'll see. It all depends on the weather and how quickly the precip thaws or evaporates. I hope my car will be good to go on Saturday so we can shop and get prescriptions, and that the "snowverhang" on the roof melts gradually instead of falling all at once around the car (which is fine as it's still buried under about a foot of snow). Deep breath while we see what tomorrow brings, as there's more snow in the forecast...

Dodging the Blizzard Bullet

Like just about every other nonessential New Yorker, I stayed home today, which was a work-from-home day anyway, and watched the storm rage then subside. We have a "snoverhang" off our roof now, the second one of the day and this one doesn't appear to be dropping any time soon what with the overnight temps going below freezing, but I know from what the first one did that when it does drop at least it won't be over my car. Which isn't getting cleared until we need it, probably on Friday or Saturday. The plows only came by once last night, and considering we got about 17" of snow we really need them again, but I imagine they're busy clearing snow everywhere else and our little driveway road is tertiary at best. So I'm staying put tomorrow and probably Wednesday as well, as we have plenty of supplies and a fruit bowl full of sugar-free chocolates (well, they were on sale so Rob kinda went nuts with my blessing). Oh, and we didn't lose power! So I'm very grateful that we're warm and safe.

Bye Bye Olympics, Hello Blizzard Prep

I'm still not sure how I feel about the Olympics closing ceremonies. I always like the ceremonial stuff itself, even though the TV commentators don't shut up and the network goes to commercials constantly mid-proceedings. But I didn't much care for the operatic theme of today's event, although I did love the costumes (I bet they probably even outshone Johnny Weir). And the jingoism... my word, it's exhausting! The whole point of the Olympics is supposed to be athletes from all nations getting to know one another amid friendly competition; instead it's increasingly become US Against The World, and I find that highly distasteful. It's as if we deliberately want to perpetuate the stereotype of The Ugly American. Watching the BAFTA awards rebroadcast this evening was a nice antidote. Closer to home, the blizzard has begun and my dearest hope is that our power doesn't go out with the high winds to come.

The Relative Calm Before

As we suspected, the supermarket was madness this morning, as everyone stocked up in preparation for however many inches of snow we're due to get tomorrow. Six? Twelve? Umpteen? Who knows? Anyway, the car behaved enough to get us home before noon, and we settled in for Olympics-watching and (for me) power napping. At this point our biggest fear is whether our electricity will go out in the coming storm, which will feature high winds. Crossing all appropriate digits we'll get through safely.

Winding Down

Another work week done, another scramble to make plans before a big storm. And there was so much I wanted to do now that I thought the snow from the last big blast was finally melting! The car needs an oil change, I need to start making medical appointments, and I've got to get to that bank that isn't open on weekends. But not today. Today was all about Olympics watching and getting my work week wrapped up. Tomorrow will be a mad scramble at the supermarket (thank goodness we don't need much) before another nor'easter wallops us. Let's hope this one melts more quickly!

Ache Replacement

Maybe it's the weather, which has been foggy and dreary with surprisingly meh air quality. Maybe it's watching athletes at the top of their prowess from my comfy chair while "I'm sitting here doing nothing but aging." But dang, these body aches! Most of the fallout from the fall seems to be on its way to healing, but my IT band issues are reasserting themselves, I spent way too much time in the bathroom this afternoon, and I'm more than ready for spring to assert itself inside and out...

Silly Site o' the Day

Listen, I can't be bothered chronicling my life at the moment, I'm too busy watching the Olympics and working. So here, enjoy this video about algospeak:

 

Via Laughing Squid.

All the Celebrations

At last, it's not nearly as cold outside now as it's been. Heck, it's even above freezing into the evenings now, and the enthawening has begun (although I predict the snow will still stick around at least until the end of this month). Plus, it being Mardi Gras and the Lunar New Year and the start of Ramadan and Adar and whatever else I missed (oh yeah, a lot of NYC kids being out of school this week), the commute was a lot faster! Even the buses related to the nurses' strike which have been taking up almost all the lanes on Fifth Avenue alongside Central Park were nowhere to be seen today. And since I got in early I treated myself to an early departure (still suffering from a bit of insomnia, although no longer caused by post-falling pain) and got a seat easily on all the public transit. Happy whatever you celebrate!

Silly Site o' the Day

So you think your day is long? Look at how far you've traveled through space in your lifetime (via BoingBoing).