We cannot get J's car up the hill on our front lane. It's not even particularly steep, but with all this sleet on the ground, it might as well be Mount Rushmore. I tried pushing, but the car's slipping so much that J's afraid it will slide back and hurt me, so she's still out there, trying to inch her way up.

My father said she should leave it there and walk in. God knows that nobody's going to come out in this and try stealing it.

Just got done shoveling the two inches of sleet from the sidewalk. My god. A shovelful of that stuff weighs more than my life's worth. It's nowhere near done precipitating, but I figured that I might as well do it before J comes home from work and has to come up the walk.

I ended up driving in this crap this afternoon. When I went out at about 10:45, it was raining. By the time I reached exit three of the Turnpike (heading north) it had turned to a wintry mix. By the time I got off on exit 4, I was driving through large pellets of sleet that were coating the ground like snow.

When I headed home at 2pm, there was at least a half-inch of the filthy, wretched stuff on the ground and encasing my poor, freshly-washed car in a tight shell of ice. Of course, the de-icer was iced into the cargo area. I got in the driver's side, though, since it was facing south-east, and let the car warm up with the defrost on high. Soon, the wipers were able to slough off the ice and I crawled home, seeing as the Turnpike speed limit (which had been lowered to 45 from 65 on my way up) has been lowered to 35 for the duration of the storm.

A half-hour run took me over an hour, and I did not make my planned stops at the grocery store or Pep Boys. Instead, I headed directly back to the farm, made some tea, and let my muscles start to relax from what had been a very tense driving experience. I passed at least two accidents between exits 3 and 2. I wish J had taken her boss up on the offer to let everyone leave early. She doesn't get out 'til 7, and it will be far worse by then.

Oh, well. At least I shoveled.

Need more tea.

My cell phone was ringing at 8am this morning. Apparently, my company made the unprecedented decision to close all of our outside stores (aka "destination stores") in the region due to the snow and ice. As fate would have it, I'm actually about ten minutes up the road from the store because I stayed in Philly last night just so I would be able to get to work more safely, since I can only remember two times that the company has closed due to weather.

I had to chip a thin layer of ice off my car last evening before I could leave the parking lot to get here, and my car started to ice up as soon as I turned off the defrost. Gah. So, much better off here with inside parking and nowhere to go until it melts a bit.

I've called the three relevant employees who were scheduled in today, checked on the weather situation online, and now, I am going back to bed.

Temperatures finally crawled up out of the single digits at around 9 this morning, and they seem to be stubbornly clinging to an ambitious 10 degrees. The wind was quite frigid last night, as I discovered when coming out of the diner at midnight from javanating with cearbhaill. I drove home with the heat on maximum *everything* and was still feeling a bit of chill creeping into my little car. The blinding snow squall I encountered on Rt. 295, while short lived, only served to remind me that we're supposedly headed for some potentially record-breaking cold days and nights in the coming week.

Given that this ramshackle old farmhouse is constructed of wood and horsehair plaster and insulated (upstairs, at least) with newspapers from the 1920s, cold draughts are unavoidable. But hit it with these frigid 20mph winds, it might as well be made of tissue paper. I've loaded the stove with wood and the vents are open so far that on any other day the living room would be 90 degrees. Today, the thermometer tells me it's a begrudging 65, what with the cold air coming in around the windows and the bottoms of the walls.

Don't misunderstand--I love this house. My ancestors built it (the oldest part, anyway) 200 years ago, and it was intended too be heated with radiant heat sources, like wood or coal stoves. The design allows the heat from the stove to travel up the central stairs (as heat rises) and through the second floor, keeping the entire house quite comfortable--even in sub-freezing temperatures.

But once you add this godawful wind, all bets are off. We don't use the oil burner for heat anymore, but on days (and nights) like this we actually have to fire up the noisy old thing just so the circulator will kick on. Otherwise, the pipes that feed the radiators on the windward side of the house would freeze and burst, which would absolutely suck to the maximum suckitude possible, as that would be a phenomenal PITA to fix.

The pipes under our kitchen that feed the sink are also particularly vulnerable, as they are on a north-facing wall and the north winds are notoriously cruel. I'm going to have to pile some hay bales against the outside wall where the sink is to help cut the wind a bit. While that may sound like a stopgap measure, my father can't remember a year when we didn't have to resort to it, so I'd imagine it's been SOP for at least 60 years.

Modern technology is still my friend, though--we wrapped the accessible bits of pipe with heat tape last year after going 3 days without water, and we plugged the tape in again last night. We also turned on the milk house heater in the basement and placed it so it's blowing warm air under the kitchen floor. (The kitchen is a newer part of the house, and has no basement room under it. That's part of the reason the floor is so bloody cold on the feet in the mornings--there's no warm room beneath it for any heat to rise up from.)

The dog is glued to the woodstove. Even though her papasan chair is right next to it, she's sprawled on the floor three feet from the hearth, and the cats aren't far from the heat source, either. She does NOT want to go out, but as she is not litter-trained I will drag her outside as soon as I'm done here. Then I'll get something going in the crock pot, as I find this is the best weather for it.

Was 8 degrees outside when my father checked the thermometer at around 6:30 this morning. It has since warmed up to a balmy 13.

We drove through the snow last night on our way home from PetSmart, and there were cars fishtailing all over Rt. 55. We saw two that were stuck in the median ditch, and at one point the car in front of us lost control when some idiot WALKED out across the highway in front of him. (This is a 65mph-no-stoplights expressway--NOT Mainstreet, USA. So to wander across it in the dark in a squall is just plain nuts.) Luckily, kit_kallisti has lived in far worse snow conditions for *years*, so she didn't lose control of the car.

Still, we crept home and enjoyed the unique experience of driving into a windy snowstorm at night. No matter how slow you're going, the effect of moving into the falling, blowing snow makes it feel like you're actually traveling much faster. Despite the unpleasantly slippery aspects, it's really quite neat.

Now, to see if my car has warmed up. Then, off to yffy's to see the keh-tens and Teh Sev. :)

Still waiting on FedEx delivery. (Someone must be here to sign for it, as it is a permit-required shipment of seeds from another country.) Was supposed to get here yesterday. Now the site is saying "btw. 10am and 4pm" today. Feh.

Also waiting for GMC Financing to get their shit straight regarding kit_kallisti's SS# and billing address. Somehow, both were incorrect in their records and she never got the first bill. I'd been getting increasingly nervous and suggested she call and see what the problem was. Oddly, the dealer has all the correct info, yet GMC Financial does not. This is less than encouraging and does not exactly inspire confidence.

Faxed the info and proof they required last night, so am waiting to make sure it all got there and that there are no NEW problems.

Weather is definitely changing. Wind has picked up as the cold front moves in. Am doing a heap of laundry now, while it's still pleasant outside.

include attending a friend's father's funeral and then heading off to the typical post-funeral activities of food consumption and chatter. It's in Cape May, though, so it will be quite a hike just to get there. We're leaving at 1pm, and by the time we get there, attend the viewing, church service, graveside service and The Feed, it won't be early, and we'll still have to drive back. At least I'm not driving, as my car (the Accent, not the Neon) has no A/C until I can afford to get the belt that drives the compressor replaced.

Time to walk the dog and get ready to go, I suppose...



Ben Folds - Carrying Cathy - Rockin' the Suburbs