Yesterday, the sun was bright and the sky was blue. My cell phone weather report was reporting imminent snow, and I made jokes about it all day. "If this snow keeps up like this, I'm going have to break out my summer gear," I quipped unwisely.
When I raised the window shade this morning, I was shocked to see a blizzard in process. There were four or five inches of show on everything, and sheets of ice were wafting down and around in the blowing wind. Sure made me reluctant to walk to work at 7:45, as if I really needed a demotivator.
Well, I sure ate my words. After getting into all of my Iowa "Perfect Storm" gear, I finally cracked my door and instantly a cloud of the stuff flew into my face and eyes. Wild! There was even a pile of snow against my front door.
There was so much ice out there, no sane driver should have been on the roads. There was no visibility, and all lights that faced north were completely covered up. Cars were slipping and sliding all over the place. But if driving was crazy, that was nothing compared to me; there was nobody else stumbling around on foot, waddling through the snow banks and clutching a scarf trying to stave off the insidious stinging ice flakes. I felt like Luke struggling out of the Wampa cave.
It took about twice as long to get to the office today, but I finally, finally learned my lesson about wool. Yes, wool, somehow, is impervious to snow. My shoes, coat, scarf and gloves were covered with wet white clumps but my pants remained oddly indifferent to the stuff. Hanna will be relieved to know that I finally got it.
The storm peaked about noon, when, of course, I stumbled outside to go to the bank and pick up some lunch at home. I nearly got buried before I made it back again.
So I am fondly remembering the West Coast again tonight.
I purchased a few more home furnishings on sale at Meijer. I'm trying, bit by bit, to add some color to this place. Instead of a white trash can for the kitchen, I found an apple red toy box of about the same size, which will work nicely. I found two dishtowels, one yellow, the other rust colored with the word "Cheese" on it. I don't know what that's about, but I had to have it.
All in all, I'm settling into this full-time schedule and adjusting to my new home well. It is gratifying to be earning some cash again. The motivation to be working politically has so far been elusive, but hopefully the Dean event on Thursday will get me determined again.
Everything has worked out fine so far. I'm sure things will happen exactly when they need to.
