Snowed In Solo

Friday morning I had an amusing conversation with our Fed-Ex guy - making small talk, I asked him if he was trying to beat the impending snow, he said no, he'd be out for a while, and what were my snow-in plans ?  .. no plans, really but that I'd probably do a blog about things to do when snowed in solo. He got sad-faced and assured me that I'd find the right one and not to give up by blogging.  It was funny because 1) I wasn't lamenting anything, 2) he assumed that if I'm blogging, I've given up and 3) I'm getting relationship advice from the fed-ex guy.  Sigh.

So, here's a rundown of what I've done in my severely single and snowed in solo condition: 

- (friday) work until 5:30, at which time driving conditions were crap  Nearly take out neighbor's car sliding into my parking spot, literally.

- take two shifts shoveling, one at 8pm, another at midnight.  Share shifts with my vampire neighbors - super great people, but I swear they never sleep. 

- between shoveling shifts, take a hike across the next neighborhood to watch a movie with a friend.  Didn't really think as far forward as the midnight hike home - where did I put those snow-shoes again ?

- sleep in, wait for breakfast in bed and remember that my cat, lacking opposable thumbs, won't rise to the occasion.

- peek out the window at my neighbors shoveling out ... bake apple granola muffins. This delays participation in the first morning shift of shoveling and also makes me a hero for bringing baked goods.  

- peek out the back window to find the source of the very loud scraping sound I heard at 2am ... since my heat was still working and the roof hadn't collapsed, I figured whatever it was, it could wait until after breakfast.  Source is another neighbor's tree that fell into my yard.  It missed my roof but landed on top of my HVAC unit.  It's sad to think my luck is changing for the better simply because the situation could have been worse.  

- finally join neighbor to continue sidewalk maintenance. Running out of places to put snow in our townhouse community, we throw it onto an absent-neighbor's yard.  He might get into his front door around June.

- receive updates from teammates - Badger has a tree or two down, one on her fence and roof.  Grizzly finished some intervals and was walking to her neighborhood salon for some self-indulgence.  Eeps was stuck on the trainer, watching and wondering who was going to win the 2007 tour.  JenCheng went out to make snow angels and a snow bike.  I dont know what a snow bike is, but I cant wait to see pics.

- watch as another neighbor tries to get his truck unstuck - guy thought he was going somewhere in 2ft (at that time) of snow. To his credit, he got about 100 yards before getting stuck.  Offer help and assure him that if he needed some kitty litter, his neighborhood cat lady has him covered. He just looks confused.

- debate doing my slave-driver workout for the day.  opt for an apple muffin and a nap instead.

- wake up to the sound of shovels.  Guilt forces me to get bundled up and help since I don't have any baked goods ready for bribes. 

- catch CNN's coverage of "Snowmegeddon" (their name, not mine).  They actually mention Elkridge on national news for having over 30" of snow, the most in the area (around 1pm).  I live in Elkridge/Arbutus.

- finally motivate to get on the bike.  Watch bad tv to encourage anger ... I ride stronger when I'm angry (note to competition:  not wise to make me angry in a race). 

- watch my neighbor's daughter's bf roll through on his 4-wheeler - it looks like too much fun.  Silently thank Badger for letting me keep the vespa in her garage, make mental note to thank her and Merdhot again.

- make some dinner, consider more baked goods and sit down to blog, thereby signaling to my fed-ex guy that I've officially given up.  

Next to the tree is my patio set - that's the umbrella half covered by snow

... and here's the lucky HVAC unit, still in tact !

Let it Snow, Let it Snow - STOP THE SNOW !

I used to think that while I hate the cold (I really, really do), I'd be okay if we at least had some snow.  Snow seemed to be prettier, somehow more tolerable than bare, lifeless trees and brown, frozen grass.

 View from my back-door this morning

What I've realized in the past two months is that snow is a pain in the arse.  While very pretty when it falls, the remnants of slush and salt get your car all mucked up and prevent you from riding on real, live pavement for days.  Those lost days are so valuable this time of year when our four walls of (insert room here) are closing in.  A weekend wasted on snow right now gives us all the sad face.

 

Sad Face Identity Protected - never send me pics and think I won't use them !

This past weekend was a total surprise to me - I have been holed up at work most of the time and following the possible vs probable weather patterns is not on my priority list.  We (CAWES) had planned maybe a CT session at Conte's on Saturday and a decent ride on Sunday.  CTs were all booked up by more forward-thinking teams and when the snow started falling on Saturday morning, Badger was stuck in traffic (the kind where idiots are playing bumper cars with anything in their path, then looking bewildered at the fact that their little donut wheels can't navigate snow and ice ... or, better yet, those "hocky-moms" and dads who think they can jump medians and ditches to avoid aforementioned bumper car games in their SUV - albeit one without all wheel or four wheel drive .... I digress ... ) and after witnessing a couple minor accidents over 40mins where she traveled a whopping 6 miles, she called it and went home.

As an aside, please, please, please clean off your car !  I realize that it has no impact on you - hey, the snow disappeared while I was driving, less work for me.  Where do you genius's think the snow goes ??  It's bad enough when the roads are crap, then I have to dodge sheets of ice and snow as you get up to speed. And don't even get me started on how great it is on a bicycle when your two-day-old snow top-hat finally blows off.  Nothing but good fun all around. 

Anyway, despite the weather, I managed to get productive with a typical Slavedriver workout and some cleaning, all while convincing our Philly contingent that while it wasn't snowing there yet, I had 3 inches on the ground and no signs of stopping so a ride on Sunday in the out-of-doors wasn't going to happen.

Sunday was even more productive as I re-potted some plants and hung blinds in my living room (all without burning the house down, score!) and got in another good workout on the rollers - my old standby, Spinervals, made a reappearance as motivation.  Nothing like someone shouting at you in the middle of your interval to make sure you don't wimp out.

The weather gods are not with us, though, as another winter storm may or may not be in the works for this weekend.  Someone give me a heads up on that as the weekend draws near - I've got to get back to work.

Catching Up

I'm going to make a run at updating my blog more than once oh, every month or so.  The bad news is that a lack of motivation combined with an absurd work schedule and the resulting lack of wit and humor makes for no blog posts.  The good news is that I do have a few interesting stories and adventures stored up - from the Month of Wendy celebrations and team updates to sarcasm about people in general and trying to burn my house down.  Ah, yes, it is a good-news, bad-news kinda post.

On a good news note, our squad FINALLY had a decent weekend for some team riding and bonding.  Our philly girls made the trek to casa de Meidhof, where we proceeded to take over the joint as we donned our super-woman suits and headed out for an assault on suburban Montgomery County.  This was my first ride around that area in months, so it was fun to see lots of familiar and friendly faces.   A team ride like this is great for motivation after some long weeks of indoor riding.  Check out our new website and blog ... JenCheng is so excited with all the new changes that she's already posted !  Have no fear, there will be updates and "official" announcements made in the coming days.

My bike was a disaster for Saturday's ride.  It wouldn't settle into the big-ring (which is the preferred gearing for a masher like me), instead throwing the chain over to catch my pedal.  Between that and  my chain/cluster causing all kinds of racket, it was mildly entertaining once I got over being mortified.  I was spoiled at one point in my life (only with regard to bike maintenance, believe me) and I frankly never bothered to apply what I may have picked up during that period.  Thankfully, Badger married Merdhot, who knew that he was getting into with her friends, so he took mercy on me and fixed the bike all up.  So, I escape yet another ride without having to learn/apply bike maintenance.  Maybe I should take a class ... then again, given my home improvement debacles, maybe I rely on the kindness of other cyclists.  A girl's gotta know her limits. 

Sunday was supposed to be a trek through Howard County but the weather was crap.  Thats the bad news.  The good news is that we had the opportunity to hang out at Conte's for an impromptu computrainer session.  The Bethesda location has a super cool bike room with a huge flat screen, dozens of race courses or training rides and an awesome sound system ... We got to ride the same roads we had planned on riding, virtually.

All of this riding in one weekend is a novelty to me right now - work has been so obnoxious and deadlines keep looming over me.  My rollers, trainer, various viewing entertainment (I'm currently watching the last season of Heroes) and patience are about all worn out for indoor workouts.  The bad news is that indoor workouts can't substitute for real, full-on climbing.  The good news is that after Sunday. I can see things will come back quickly if I can string a few of these weekends together.

My most recent home improvement near disaster:  my bedroom has never had blinds/shades since I've lived here.  Yes, that's about 7 years or so.  I have realized in the past year or so that the potential for me to flash anyone walking or driving by is pretty high - in hindsight, I'm sure I'm not the only one who realized this.  So, I finally bought some nice blinds to protect my ... modesty (cough).  I was trying to read the directions (another novelty) and needed more light, so I plugged in a lamp that Mitch had given me when got new ones.  It immediately blew the fuse.  Not thinking anything of it, I dutifully went to the basement, found the offended fuse, and flipped it on.  By the time I got to my 2nd story bedroom, there was a haze of smoke everywhere.  I couldn't figure out what was smoking ... then I saw the cord going to Mitch's lamp was literally frying - on top of two brand new sweaters that I needed to hang up.  It burned through both sweaters and left a trail of melted plastic on my carpet.  Is there any way to get melted plastic out of carpet ?  A shot of the cord is above- it was a mess.

So, we'll end this post with the good news that I didnt burn the house down, and I did get the blinds up (and they look awesome, if I do say so myself).