Melt down

Well, we got freezing rain on Tuesday night. I got up in the morning and the whole street was completely slick and there were no cars moving. My KISA called to say that he didn't think he'd be able to get his car down the hill from his house and wasn't going to work. It seemed sensible to me. I had someone coming in the afternoon to assess our worldly goods for packing and shipping purposes, so I figured that even if I went to work I'd just get there are have to turn around and come back. I settled in and worked from home. I tell you, I could get used to that! I cosied up in comfy clothes, made a hot chocolate, lit the fire and got the laptop out. Bliss! It was actually really productive as I had a big task to do, and in work its difficult to concentrate with the constant interruptions.

Icicles on the power lines leading to the house

My working from home setup

By the time Patrick from the packing company came it was beginning to rain. It didn't take him too long to go round the house with me. It was just a little repetitive "this stays, that goes, yes the rug goes, no we're not taking the lamps". It amazes me that these folks can look at a whole bunch of shoes and work out how many cubic feet they'll take up! (Obviously a lot in my case!)

Unfortunately, the rain didn't clear all the snow and it froze overnight. Is there no end to misery? I didn't rush into work too early as I wasn't up to dealing with black ice in the dark. I stepped out onto the mat, locked the front door and froze. The steps down to the path were completely slick and I didn't fancy going flying down them. I peered over to the steps from the kitchen door...they looked better. So it was back into the house, down the stairs, unlock the kitchen door, find the ice melting granules, up the kitchen steps, round to the front door steps and sprinkle the granules, put them away and walk over to the car.

Bugger. I understand now why the neighbours were out with brooms sweeping the snow off their cars. Mine was covered in a good inch of snow topped off with a thick crust of ice. I managed to open the tailgate after a struggle and get the 3 foot long scraper out and begin. Now, this is a big SUV, and I'm only a little short person. In order to get to all the snow and ice (snice?) on the windshield and the hood I had to get pretty up close and personal. I was a 5 foot snowman when I'd done. And it took me a good 20 minutes to break through the ice crust and sweep the snow off. Then I discovered that instead of windshield wipers I had two large blocks of ice welded to the windshield....Even though I had the heater going full whack for 20 minutes by this point they were still welded. Thank goodness for the miracle de-icer spray!

I had someone from the relocation company coming round in the afternoon. She was very nice and very helpful. She was here to do the pre-handover walk round to see what we had to do to the house before we turn it back over. I had to keep her in check as she would have had us repairing things that were like that when we moved in. Much as our landlady is great, I don't think its part of the deal that we return the house in better condition that we got it!

Stephen got home, tired, weary and starving, about 5pm. Its always good to have him back. And it gives him a chance to experience the residue of snow as he's always out the way when it snows here!