Virtuous employee?

OK. The snow last night wasn't as bad as they were predicting. We had a little over an inch of crunchy heavy snow. We might get some more today, but it doesn't sound horrendous.

I got up at my usual 5 a.m. and, instead of getting on the exercise bike, I bundled up and went out to clean off my car (still a bit of a workout). I started the car up to thaw off its snow crust (the stuff that wouldn't easily come off with my large heavy squeegy-thing). Then, I went back in the house to shower and dress. I left the house at 6:10. The roads weren't that bad but traffic was excrutiatingly slow just the same. But, since I left early, I was able to make up some of that time on my normal backroad route. I arrived at work at 7:10.

Off to be a super productive employee! :D

Really, it's not the snow!

I've had a cold for the last few days. It came on very very slowly. I called in sick on Wednesday, but went in on Thursday and Friday though I felt worse. Now the dratted thing has sucked the life out of my weekend. I haven't left the house today, and don't plan to. I seriously doubt that I am miraculously going to feel well enough tomorrow morning to go to work. I have a few work-related things that I really want to accomplish tomorrow, which I can probably do from here. But mostly, I think I'll be doing a lot of resting.

That said, it is supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow. We're due for about eight inches I think. Since I live over thirty miles away from my office, when I call in sick tomorrow, everyone is going to assume it's because of the snow. I am a noted 'snow wuss'. Tough cookies. I really am miserably ill.

Hubby is out of town for the weekend. He's supposed to be flying into Boston tomorrow afternoon. Won't that be fun ... not.

Everyone take your vitamins and drive safely!

Happy New Year, and wake me when it's spring

Tonight we attended our annual family event: The Manchester Monarchs (AHL) home game and indoor fireworks show. This year's Monarchs team kind of stink, but they made it close before thy lost it in the last 10 seconds of the game. The post-game show was well wroth the wait, and the price of admission.

I heard this evening that there is a good chance of snow tomorrow evening. We're supposed to get another 2-4 inches. This is on top of the 4-6 inches that we got last night, and the 2+ FEET we've already gotten in the month of December.

We moved to New England to escape the heat of the mid-Atlantic. I have been a pretty good sport about the cold and snow. However, this year's snow is just totally out of scope.

I would like to lodge a protest, please. Maybe there is an Office of Weather Management, that needs to be audited by the GAO for poor performance. Ask Colorado.

Snow wuss: the day after

I left work just before 7:30 p.m. last night. The roads were frightening, and my insane/stupid fellow drivers just made it more so. With at least an inch of snow covering the road in most places, a prudent driver would keep their speed down and give themselves a huge buffer zone around their vehicle.

My top speed hit about 40, on a portion of the road where I occasionally saw pavement interspersed with white stuff. Mostly, I was going about 25. I made sure to keep at least six car lengths between myself and the rare driver in front of me. If I miraculously found myself going faster than someone else on the highway, I made sure that we had at least twenty or so feet between us when I passed them. This must epitomize my "snow wuss" mentality.

I encountered dozens of drivers who were going over 40 (some over 50). Folks who thought it was fine to get as close as two car lengths behind me. And, folks who passed me with less than five feet of space between me and them.

Lesson learned. The next time there's a threat of snow, I am not leaving my house. People are supreme jerks.

On the bright side, it took me just over an hour and a half to get home. My poor coworkers (with similar distance commutes) who left at 1:15 didn't see their houses for four and a half hours.

The snow wuss

This morning, I considered taking a mental health day. I haven't been sleeping very well and I've been under a lot of stress regarding my 'big project'. But, I have this silly work ethic thing, so I came in.

I planned on leaving around 2pm, because I had an appointment after work and I had heard that we were supposed to get some snow this afternoon. Then, at 12:30, the word went out that we were closing at 2pm because of the coming storm. I managed to leave at 1:15, but almost immediately regretted it. It took me twenty minutes to get out of the parking garage. It then took me another twenty to resign myself to the fact that it would take me at least another hour to get to the actual road. I spent another twenty minutes getting to a place where I could pull into one of our parking lots.

Many of my coworkers never bothered trying to leave. They knew how horrible it could be trying to get anywhere when Boston declared a snow emergency during the workday. Most of those with reasonable sense started leaving around 4pm. It's after 5pm, and I'm still sitting here in the office.

The problem is: my back. I can take about 60 minutes in the car before my back starts to seize up on me. Current estimates for highway traffic from my location to the NH state line are about 120 minutes (a 30 minute trip during non-rush hour, a 50 minute trip during 'normal' rush hour). Plus, it'd probably take me at least 20 minutes to get to the highway right now.

I typically take alternate routes anyway, which normally costs me about 30 minutes during rush hour. If the multiplier is the same for the alternate routes as the highways, it's probably a 75-90 minute trip on the alternate roads ... if they are safe and passable.

Once I hit the state line, it's usually another 20 minutes to my house. I'm guessing that it's 35-45 minutes from the state line to my house from the traffic reports I am reading for the highway conditions at the state line.

So, optimistically, if I leave right now and take the alternate route, it's at least 110 minutes. (Assuming the back roads are in fair condition.) For the highway route, it's probably about 160 minutes.

Therefore, I sit here and wait. My back is already stressed and spasming slightly. No need to rush into a situation that I can't dive out of easily (very few places to pull over to and take a break on either route).

I think less than 1% of our staff are still in the building right now. Minorities rule!?!?!