Oh sNOw!

17 inches.

That’s how much snow Mother Nature dumped on us today.

It was the most of any city in the state or region.

… Already yesterday the rumors were flowing that a giant snowstorm was on the way. The morning radio show hosts were placing bets that 8, 10 inches would fall. The TV people were doing their usual reports about driving safety and … blah, blah, blah. I laughed every time somebody mentioned the supposed storm yesterday, because the forecasters do this every year. They predict a huge snowstorm like it’s going to be the end of the world, Armageddon … And then we end up getting like a dusting. It never happens the way they predict it …

Then today arrived.

I was awakened at 5:45 this morning to Kates talking on the phone with a person I quickly figured out was one of her fellow teachers. And the more I listened to their conversation about whether their school would be closed, the more I realized there was likely a whole lotta snow outside our bedroom, and the more I wanted to pull the covers back over my head …

Interestingly, just before I woke, I was dreaming that me and a whole bunch of people I went to high school with were at this huge party inside a glitzy old hotel ballroom. At this party I also was with a whole group of news reporters, and all at once our cell phones and pagers started going off with editors calling to tell us we were under a tornado warning. Just then we looked through a huge, arched picture window in front of us, and there was a thick, dark funnel cloud coming straight for us. And then, like a scene straight out of Titanic, there was this huge rush of people trying to get down an extremely long staircase to the basement for cover. Once I got there, all of these people I hung out with in high school were appearing and our drama teacher was calling us into this special room in the basement which supposedly offered more protection from the tornado then the rest of the basement …

It almost seemed like we were hit by a tornado today …

After listening to Kates talk on the phone a little longer, I finally got the courage to reach for the window and pull back the curtain. Yep. Lots of snow. I let out a groan loud enough for the neighbors to hear …

A few minutes later I was putting on some old jeans, a sweatshirt, my boots and heading out to battle. Shoveling the driveway, that is. As tempted as I was to call in sick and spend the day at home sipping tea and watching movies with Kates, I needed to get my car out and get to work. It‘s the nature of my job … Already several inches had fallen and the forecasters were saying it was falling at a rate of one to two inches an hour … They weren’t lyin’. By the time I finished shoveling our driveway, it was completely covered again.

Then I took like a 30-minute hot shower -- hey, I was going to savor it while I could -- I had a quick bagle and I was out the door by 8 a.m. …

The next battle was actually getting to my office. Our road was nowhere close to being plowed. And, though it was also our garbage day, it was pretty clear that wasn’t happening either. … I nearly got stuck just getting out of our driveway. Then I pushed my car hard all the way down our street, going slowly, and still sliding and weaving most of the way… When I get to the edge of our neighborhood each morning, usually my next move is making a left turn across one of the city’s major arteries, but it was quickly apparent that wasn’t happening today either. The traffic was heavy as usual, albeit slow, but again, no roads had been plowed and I wasn’t about to risk getting my little car stuck in the middle of that road. So instead, I made a right turn and took a long route through the city, trying to make as many more right turns as I could … My typical five minute drive to work took me 20 minutes this morning. And when I finally arrived at our downtown district, it looked like a deserted war zone. There were a couple cars stuck in the middle of streets, white as far as you could see and not a soul in sight … I made one pass on our office parking lot, looking at the driveway and thinking there’s no way I’m going to get in there without getting stuck. When I came around a second time, I noticed a rarely used entry to the lot had a pathway. So I gunned my car once more and rolled into a parking space …I’d made it to work …

I was the second person in our office, after a woman who was one of the oddballs overflowing with glee yesterday at the notion of this approaching snowstorm. “I’m here,” I moaned to the sound of her laughter when I walked in the door …

Soon enough, the rest of our staff began arriving, and almost all of us came in wearing our Saturday best. Getting dressed this morning, I told Kates I was wearing jeans to work and if anybody said anything about it my response was going to be “As least I’m here …” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines. Guys came in sweatshirts, girls were wearing T-shirts. All of us wore jeans. With boots, of course … One girl wore her roommate's Army boots.

… Our morning meeting came and went. The ideas and stories were pouring out. It was clear we had one story to cover today and it was going to be a total team effort … In the meantime, we were parading in and out of the office all day, sprouting from our seats and throwing on our coats to help every time there was another report of someone stuck in their car on the streets below … During my daily jaunt to the police station this morning, I gave in to helping two stuck motorists dig out on my way to the station, and then two more on the way back. During the third of those four rescue missions, I was trying to help a young black woman free her car when a large SUV pulled up behind us and two big guys in fancy, expensive suits step out. Without hesitation, and showing no care for their suits, they got behind the car and helped us push. It was quite amusing and looking for a quick quote, I asked them why they decided to get out and help. “We all gotta do our part,” one of the men said. “If we all help each other out, we can get through this.” I liked his attitude …

Back at the office, our editors had made sure there was pizza for us, ensuring none of us had to drive anywhere to get food, though some poor delivery guy did have to drive to get the pizza to us … All afternoon, the office buzzed with activity as we gathered our information, and fingers tapped out stories … By 4 p.m., my part was done …

My car hadn’t been moved all day, so I was a little leery of getting out of the parking lot as easy as I got in. But I made it …

By now, the main roads had been plowed, but they remained slippery … Our street, however, had yet to be touched and it was more of a mess than when I left it this morning. All the way down, I pushed and pushed, weaving and sliding, and thinking a couple times that I wasn’t going to make it to our driveway. But I did. Approaching our driveway -- which gave no signs that Kates and I had worked so hard to shovel it this morning -- I gunned it once more to get over the snow bank at the edge. And I got within a few feet of the garage door when she came to a grinding halt. Fine. She wasn’t going anywhere.

I shut off the car. And went inside. I was home. … and this is where I’ll be staying. Until Monday.