pbray

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the purchase of new winter recreational gear will substantially alter locate climate conditions. To wit, the arrival of a snowshoe set and poles on the same day that the weekend weather forecast changed from highs around freezing to be highs near 50 on both days.

Same thing happened twenty years ago when I decided to stop renting XC ski gear and invest in my own set. Went from snow every weekend to a drought and having to head up to Lake Placid to find enough snow to ski on.

Working from home via laptop. Anticipate significant shoveling throughout the day, and looking forward to testing out my new flannel-lined jeans.

Copyedits are en route to Bantam with expected arrival later this morning, and

arcaedia liked the revised proposal I sent her. So all in all, life is good.

ETA: I win at life. Itinerant snow shoveler stopped by just as I was getting ready to pull on my boots. The first half-dozen inches have been taken care of, which will make the next pass significantly easier.

One of the topics I'm not learning about tonight. Grr and argh.

I'd given myself extra time to drive to class because of the earlier snow, but shortly before I left it started to snow again. Hard. The Escape shimmied a bit on the unplowed/unsalted roads, but I had hopes that once I hit the county roads things would be fine.

Not so much. I persevered at a snail's pace, as the wind whipped up the snow until there was little visibility. The newly updated weather forecast was warning of lake effect snow and localized snow squalls. When I reached the turn-off that would take me up over the significant hills--a bad place in even a moderate storm, I turned around.

I hated turning around. It felt like failure, even if it was the right thing to do. In good weather it's a 50 minute drive up to Dryden, almost entirely on country roads, where there's seldom anyone to see if you run off into a ditch. In bad weather, it wasn't a bright idea. Even if I made it there, coming back three hours later was going to be dicey.

As it was, once I turned around I had to navigate around numerous wrecks--it took four tries to find a clear street so I could get through Endicott--cars were spun out, off on the shoulders, or just abandoned midway up a hill when the owners figured they couldn't go up or down. I didn't see any serious injuries, just the general stupidity of the first bad storm, and all the morons trying to remember how to drive in the snow, or figuring out that they really ought to have put on their snow tires before now.

Glad to be safe home, but very bummed. Tonight was the second to last class--next week's just an exam so this was basically it.

Going off to sulk.

Current Mood: cranky

It's never a good thing when your town is mentioned on the Weather Channel--which earlier today was calling out snowfall totals in Binghamton as among the highest in the state from this storm. Still I'm grateful that it's snow, not sleet or freezing rain.

Work at home is going pretty much as I expected. The laptop keyboard drives me crazy--I prefer the full-size keyboard I use at work. But no real harm done, and as a bonus I get to do laundry while on telecons.

Make periodic trips outside to shovel, to try to keep on top of it. Think one more trip before sunset and then a final round early tomorrow after the storm has passed.

Well the snow has started here. Predictions are for about a foot of snow overnight, then really nasty stuff tomorrow--storm totals in the two to three foot range with 40mph wind gusts tomorrow. Depending on the type of snow, the high wind will make shoveling an exercise in futility as whatever you clear off will get filled right back in.

I've stocked up with the key supplies (tuna, nutrigrain bars, salami, cheese, chocolate, milk, water and wine).

Also brought laptop home so I can work from here tomorrow. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned snow day? Back when I started in Corporate America (roughly the Jurassic era), if it wasn't a state of emergency you showed up at the office, on time. If the roads were closed due to a state of emergency you stayed home and somehow the corporation survived. Nowadays as long as DSL is up and the phone lines are working, I'm expected to work.

I hate working from home--my home office is my writing room. When I sit at the desk, I'm in the writing headspace. I don't want to be thinking about the day job while I'm in this place. But since this room is where the DSL connection is, I can cope with it, for the occasional snow day. But I reserve the right to be grumpy.