Holy Snow!

It has been snowing here for three days, with a little break last night and a little break today. Yesterday it took four attempts of driving, and lots of digging and swearing before I finally got out of my driveway. Ours has a neat little uphill at the top where my car kept getting stuck. Finally got through and I was only a few minutes late to work. Heck, at least I showed up!

My husband met our very nice neighbor across the street. He offered to plow our driveway to make it easier to get in and out. Such a nice guy!

Today it was snowing heavy. Not big fat flakes, just gazillions of little dry dots that piled up quick. The snow is up to Bruno's chest. I had today off, but I was asked to come in to work when two other employees had called out. Since I have tomorrow off, I went. Our driveway was getting thick again, but I got out on the first try.

The roads were scarier than my driveway. I almost thought I'd get stuck going around one tight corner. Another car was already sitting off the side of the road in a drift. But I made it through with a little fishtailing.

When I got to work, I realized I hadn't brought my clothes, shoes, music, and so on for teaching my class later, so I told one of the managers that I would leave when the next employee came in. It was pretty slow due to the weather, so that was okay. That would give me some extra time to get my stuff and eat before my class. The trip home was uneventful.

I was getting ready to leave for class, collecting my things. I had decided to leave early since it was getting dark and I wanted to take my time driving. During this time, I could hear the sound of a truck outside, and the beeping sound it makes when it backs up. I thought, "Oh, I guess the plow is out there."

I got into my car after letting it warm up a bit. I got a good running start -

- and ran straight into a hill of snow at the top of my driveway. It was almost as high as the hood of my car.

The plow had left a big berm of snow blocking my driveway when it came through. We are near the end of the road, with only one other house next to us. That house is a retreat for someone who lives in Anchorage, so the road is not well traveled past our driveway.

Did they realize what they had done? I don't know. Could they have prevented it, or done something to help us out a little bit? I don't know. But they did it at the worst possible time. I backed the car down the driveway and left the lights on so I could see to start digging. I dug until it was too late to get to class on time, and I still hadn't gotten it clear enough. I chucked the shovel and stomped inside to thaw my hands and call the club.

My cell phone kept giving me the same message over and over: "Emergency calls only." WTF?! I'd never seen that before. It would not let me call the club and have them put up a canceled class sign. Everyone was going to think either I was a total flake or something terrible had happened to me. I finally managed to get through (after my big screaming hissy fit tantrum.)

I think we need to get our land line fixed.

After that I called Logan and told him what happened. Then I went out to finish digging so that Logan could get in without a problem.

When Logan got home in his Landcruiser, he took one look at the snow piled up next to the driveway and said even his Landcruiser would not have gotten over that berm.

This is the first time the snow has really ticked me off. And it's not even the snow's fault. I'd like to tweak the nose of the plow guy. And then say thank you for plowing the road.

At least I have tomorrow off.

Nanowrimo Fail, but Christmas A-Ok!

Yes, it's true. I failed to reach the 50k mark in last month's Nanowrimo experience. But the defeat is not so crushing as I thought it would feel. Truth be told, November kind of ended without me. There has been lots of drama regarding employment on the home front, among other things, so I kind of forgot that November has to end some time.

But what I got from the experience was worth its weight in gold. I finally tackled a story that has been bugging me to be written for a long time, but I avoided it from my own fears. So I plunged in and tried to use those fears to my advantage. I got lots of great ideas from my fellow writers and even from friends who are thousands of miles away from me at the moment. I learned more about how the story wants to be written, so much that I know I'll have to start over from scratch. (I wrote it in third person, but the story desperately wants to be told from the main character's POV. So when I get to rewriting it, that's what I'll do!)

In the meantime, I'll be going back to my very first novel, Sparkless. My new year's resolution last year was to finish that one and move on to some others that have been sadly neglected. Well, I have not yet reached that goal, so I want to achieve that one very soon. Summerland's Savior will be next on the list. It still needs to be finished, and then revised. It has been waiting patiently for, um, several years.

I finished all my Christmas shopping early and sent everything off last week. I hope the boxes reach their destinations with all due speed and alacrity. Now if I could only find the time between teaching and work to clean the house and set up the Christmas tree. I think I'll try to accomplish that today!

Things are changing for Logan on the job front. He put in for the Store Manager position, but it was filled by a corporate employee. There are more changes afoot, but I'll leave those for later when things are more solidly settled.

As for me, my jobs remain the same. I'm sure in January I'll find myself with more time on my hands. After all, retail dies after Christmas and I'm the part timer in my department, so I fully expect it and I'm not bothered by it. I've seen it from the management point of view, too.

Guess that's all for now. Gotta get to cleaning! And watching the snow fall outside.