I looked out the window at work about 2:45pm today, and Mitch immediately asked what I was working on and suggested I get on the road, because it was snowing like hell already. Amy & I decided we’d both leave and follow each other but then realized we needed to take different routes because she needed to stop at her parent’s house. So I walk down to the parking lot to find the wilkies brushing all the snow off my car. How nice is that?? Of course, it completely covered it again seconds later, so they were brushing up til the moment I pulled away. Everyone wished me a safe drive as they always do. It’s nice to have so many people care about your welfare.

I only had 2 close calls but I was going slow enough that they weren’t disastrous. Minor fish-tailing as I turned on to 31 and being sucked off the road on Spring Mill. I was stopped at a light for nearly 10 minutes while loads of firetrucks carefully turned in front of us. I was glad I had avoided whatever they were traveling towards. So I thought it’d be pseudo-smooth sailing from there, but no.

I had to keep pulling over to scrape the ice off my wipers and off my windshield. The snow would just hit & freeze, so you could say it was a bit cold. I lost one of my gloves during one of these lil stops. I’m not sure how I never got stuck after pulling over, but I tried to choose my locations wisely. There was one strip w/ nowhere to stop so I was literally driving blind, and it was the scariest moment of my driving life. I basically had to guess where the road turned, as it was angled so my side windows were of no help, even down.

I survived to 52 and that’s where things got really bad. It seems I’d beat the snowplow, so the 2-lane road was pretty much one lane that you kinda made up as you went. I could feel my car resisting the increasingly deeper snow. I was happy for a truck to pass me so I could stay in his tracks. But then people just started getting stupid. The road had drifted in quite a bit, so I was as far right as I could go, speeding along at a solid 35-40, and some geniuses decided to squeeze around me. I could have touched their cars…literally 2” from me. Real smooth move on slick roads, eh? I was sure to thank them for endangering my life. Dumbasses.

And then of course, they pass and blow snow in my windshield that I already can’t see out of. Well, it was a little better as I got in to Lafayette, but then it immediately got much worse as soon as I arrived to the outskirts. It took me 10 minutes for a single mile. 5mph was the max as we went across the bridge and up a hill. The truck in front of me kept spinning up it since we had to keep coming to complete stops. I left plenty of room in front of me because I anticipated it being slick, but the dumbass behind me had their nose up my ass. A part of me wanted to slide back and hit them just to prove a point, since it wouldn’t be my fault anyway. Obviously, you need to leave cushion room in such road conditions.

So 3.5 hours later, I get to my driveway (top picture). I was tired, hungry, and desperately needed to use the facilities, so I decided to force my way up it rather than get out and shovel it. It took 3 tries of just sliding straight backwards but I made it.

I literally wanted to cry. So many moments that I was sure I wasn’t going to get home. I pray I get to avoid driving for a couple days to recoup. The strange thing was as I went back out to retrieve my mail and take the photos, it was eerily calm. It seemed like such hell from the car, but it was just a lovely wonderland as I stood out there.

Oh, and Snippy awoke from her surgery this afternoon. They said everything went wonderfully and her bloodwork looked really good. She gets to come home tomorrow. Apparently, my dad dropped in there this morning to check on her. And he says she’s annoying :)

But anyway, I’m happy to be home and that all the random people & pets having surgery today survived fine and that all my friends seem to have arrived home safely. I think I shall escape to the living room now.

ooh unrelated…check out artists: Caitlin Cary (good track is Please Break My Heart...very patsy cline…and her ex-band, Whiskeytown) & The Perishers (new US album is good)

Weatherman says 7.5” of snow fell today. We killed the record of 4.9”.