Uppance update

Our car looked like this, too. Then Boogs dug it out.
Someone else's car via Washington Post.

A neighbour with a truck kindly drove me to Target/Old Navy this morning. I snagged boots (a size too big- blargh) for Boogs and a coat for Squirms. They had no shovels but I did get the very last ice scraper in the store- the worlds smallest ice scraper BTW, the runt of the ice scraper litter. I got a car washing brush that will reasonably double as an extremely annoying short handled ice brush.

Then, via a community listerv, I bought second hand from a different neighbour, snowpants and snowboots for Squirms. Boots were a little big, but she was keen to try them out in the snow anyway.

The roads were slippery as hell. Before we even made it off our block there was someone jackknifed across the street, completely stuck. It took about eight dudes pushing the car and others shovelling and sticking carpets and cardboard under the tires to get that station wagon moved. We were in a giant 4-Runner, so we were OK. Once we got out on the streets it was creepy and quiet and icy.

It was actually pretty great to see all the people out on the street walking to and from the supermarket instead of driving, and helping each other with the shovelling. It was nice and village-y.

Our street and the surrounding streets still haven't been plowed. The metro is still closed. Boogs' work is canceled tomorrow. More snow day!

My uppance has come

Can you see me shopping in this weather? Or driving?

I cannot have been more stupid about this snow storm.

Up front, let me say, it's totally gorgeous and wintry and Christmassy and fun and I am in no way being a Debbie Downer about the actual snow. It looks like tomorrow is going to be heaps of fun playing in the snow with snowballs and snowmen and sledding.

It's just that our family did not in any way prepare for this. Oops.

I am the only one who could go outside today because I was the only one who had boots. Not good boots, mind, the cheap shitty ones I mentioned here. So I had to be the one to go outside, with my shitty back from falling down the stairs, and trek to the supermarket to buy milk and cereal and noodles and carry it all home in a heavy backpack and canvas bags becoming increasingly soaked with ice. I had to do this walking in the three feet of snow and more coming down because all yesterday I had mocked the fools who were stocking up and I had assumed I would go do the grocery shopping on Saturday like I do every weekend.

Squirmy has no snowboots, no snowpants, no ski coat, no waterproof mittens, and no hat that doesn't cause her to throw a mind-meltingly intense tantrum.

Boogs has nothing warmer than his everyday uniform of tracky daks, sneakers, and t-shirts and jumpers that advertise an alcoholic beverage/sporting team/college event (bonus points if it's all three *cough Bruce Hall 1997 Inward Bound Powered by Bundy Rum cough*).

We have no snow shovel to clear our front path or dig out our car from its snowbank. Even if we got to our car, we have no ice scraper or brush to clear the ice off the car. Even if we had all this the roads are totally impassable, and we have no way of driving on them to the shops to buy snow clothes or any of the ice implements we so badly need. Even if we could get there, the shops are probably closed.

Also the metro is not running.

So our options are-
:Check in with the Metro again tomorrow to see if they have opened. Maybe I can get to the mall in the morning. I can get clothes there but not the shovel etc.
: Reinvestigate driving conditions in the morning. Maybe I can drive to the Potomac Yards shops where they have a Target and and Old Navy. Between them I could probably get all the clothes and shovelling devices I need, unless they are sold out, a distinct possibility.
:Wait until 12pm when the Gap Outlet on King St opens. I can walk there. They'll probably have clothes and boots for Squirms. Outside chance of boots for Boogs.
: I can ask a neighbour with an unburied 4-Wheel Drive to take me to the shops.

Seriously though, this is the second DC winter I have experienced, and it seems like every two weeks the whole city area loses its collective mind about a potential snowstorm that never materialises. Or its like 2 inches of slop and they still close the schools. Even OBAMA said this city was totally wussmo about snow. Can you blame me for skepticism?

However, indeed my uppance has come. Biggest snow storm since 1922. Biggest snow dump in December of all time.

I mostly feel bad for Squirms, who's going to have to wait until I can scour some clothes for her to wear before she can play outside. That's likely to not be until the afternoon. All the other kids in the neighbourhood will be playing outside from daybreak. Boo me.

In praise of Facebook

Is it embarrassing to admit to being an unironic fan of Facebook? I have some concerns about the amount of screen time I log each day (maybe 4-5 hours each day- but no TV!), but none of that concern is related to the 'book. Since I live on the oooooooother side of of the world from my family and most of my friends, FB really does help me feel caught up with them. In the pre-2007ish world, before everyone hopped aboard the bandwagon, it would sometimes be weeks and weeks between phone calls and I would lie in bed every night consumed with guilt and sadness about being a bad daughter/sister/granddaughter/friend and not communicating more. Although I still feel like I should call home more often, and it saddens me, on the other hand, that having the easy access of FB has cheapened some of the contacts I have with friends (is a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! post on your wall worth anything if you would post the same message to a friend from two jobs ago? I loathe the happy birthday wall post *removes secret curmudgeon hat*).

So I am in the middle of thinking seriously about where I should live and why, and it's a little weird to think that if, in the end, I stay away for more time that I had ever intended, it will be partially due to Facebook. It might be the truth, though.

Through this blog I want to explore some of the reasons why I will or won't move back to Australia, and when, and what it will be like when I get there, so more on life far away to come.