The Great Escape...

As some of you may have heard, the East Coast was slammed with a pretty powerful winter storm.

As some of you may have also heard, I live on the East Coast...we, of course, didn't get hit with all the snow.  No, we received maybe 2 inches and then received maybe another 3 or 4 inches of pure ice.  That's the one curse of where we are located.  If we were a little further south, it probably would have been mainly rain.  If we were a little further north, it would have definitely been more snow.

Given my druthers, I'd rather deal with pure snow than pure ice.

We woke Friday morning to watch the fluffy snow fall for about an hour and then it switched over to sleet.  All day long.  All night long.  It was coming down so hard we could hear it over the television.  By Saturday morning sometime, the sleet finally stopped as the storm moved up the coast.  Unfortunately, it was a gray and frigid day.

We kept waiting for a plow to come through.  We figured that the property management company would have someone lined up to clear these roads - we knew we weren't even on the city's radar as this is a private community.  But no one came.  We looked out the window in vain, time and time again throughout the day.  By 3:00 pm, it became clear - there was no way we would be getting out that day.

The situation was bleak.  I was suffering from cabin fever in a big way.

Around 6:30 pm, we heard a rumble.  We jumped up and ran to the windows, excited to see the plow come through the road in front of our house.  We felt a great weight lift from our shoulders - the possibility of getting out on Sunday elated us...and then he left.  We assumed that he was doing the circuit through the neighborhood in an attempt to clear the roads.

Oh sure, we were questioning the wisdom of plowing in the dark and during freezing temps...but surely, he knew what he was doing.  Right?

Today dawned sunny and with a forecast that promised temperatures above freezing...eventually.  But when we looked out the window, it became clear that Mr. Plowman DID know what he was doing last night...he was giving up.

Apparently, he did the bit in front of our house and realized that he wasn't making any headway, called it a day and headed home.  Every other road, and most of the road on either side of the little bit he got up the night before was completely encased in ice.

I was broken-hearted as I knew there was NO way we would be able to get out today.  The Husband took one look at my sad face and knew he could not live with my crabbiness for ONE MORE minute would do everything in his power to make me smile.

He went out to the driveway and hacked his way through all the ice, making a clear path to the skating rink street.  When he finished he came in, took a shower and told me to ditch the pajamas I'd been living in for the past couple of days because he was taking me for coffee, lunch and a much-needed grocery/wine run, my hero!

By the time, he'd cleared the driveway, the sun was doing it's best to melt all that ice, but those streets were still really icy.  I had my eyes closed the whole time as we slid through the neighborhood (luckily, we live fairly close to the front of this neighborhood) and when we made it up to the main, city-maintained road we could see that the city had indeed taken care of plowing it.  It was completely clear.  In fact, all the main roads were clear.

Unfortunately, when we stopped for coffee, the parking lot hadn't been cleared.  But once again, he guided us in safely.  As we sipped our coffee we talked about several of the very young and very clueless kids who wandered in - several were severely under dressed for the weather.  One young woman that came in was actually shivering, which made sense since she only wearing a thin t-shirt and leggings.  The Husband wondered what she would do if her car got stuck and she had to walk.  I surmised that she would freeze.

Our next stop was across the street, where we had lunch and hit the grocery.  That parking lot, thankfully, was cleared.  After which, we headed home and The Husband skillfully slid us right into our cleared driveway.  We'd spent no more than and hour and a half out and about; but it certainly re-charged the both of us.

Luckily, as I've been typing, Mr. Plowman has come back and has pretty much cleared all the roads in here - so I should be able to get out without too much trouble tomorrow, once the sun comes up and melts whatever may re-freeze tonight.

One of the things we are really looking forward to with this move is that we won't be so isolated for the next storm (fingers crossed that won't happen for at least three weeks so we can get moved!  Only a little over two weeks to go!) as we will be in walking distance of all of our friends.  The last few winter storms we've had while living here, we've been extremely isolated in that the only people we've met have been the people immediately next door.  And while they are an extremely nice couple, they aren't exactly socializers - so when we are frozen in and can't drive for more than a day or two - it's just the two of us.  Looking at each other and wondering how long it will be before we can escape.

To everyone else who was impacted by the storm, I hope you've made it through safely and that if you are snowed/iced in that you have plenty of wine, dear friends nearby and most of all, that you get out soon!