Superhuman effort--getting to work

Yesterday was dubbed the storm of the century, despite the century being a mere seven years old. Its like the big blizzards we used to get in the 70's, and will now permit my kids to tell their children about snow in the good old days some years hence. I remember a series of storms back in 78 or so followed by one huge storm that had the houses virtually buried. Each house had such high snowbanks that if you climbed on top of them it was a short one foot up hop to the roof--on the second floor! We played on the roofs because there was little else in the way of playspace, and we certainly didn't get hurt jumping off the roof. Well, this storm was enough to rival those storms. I had to work that night and deserve combat pay for the adventures I had getting the short 5 miles or so from home up to the hospital.

Standing beside the car before digging...

During excarvation the next day

I got up relatively early because I knew I would have to do a lot of shoveling--little did I know HOW much shoveling I would be doing. The landlord pays for a plow to come for the driveway, but he never comes at a time practical for me, since I work nights and have to leave around 6:30pm. My daughter had called from her friend's house, and when I had asked how much snow he got, she said "You don't want to know." At this point it was still falling at a good 3 inches an hour or so. I opened the door and found snow that came halfway up my thigh.

The view out my window

I spent hours shoveling so as to be ready to leave early and hopefully get to work somewhat on time, only to then have the city plow come by and bury the end of the arduously excavated driveway waist deep. I called work to let them know what had occurred, and give them a heads up that I would be late due to once again needing to dig out. Blessedly, three people from the homeless shelter down the street came down and helped me dig out--a much welcomed act of kindness.

Note the nice hat on the car prior to leaving for work

With the driveway clear I left for work, approximately 6:45pm, which wasn't bad at all. Well, my elation was to be short lived. Because we had hand shoveled, the driveway was quite narrow, and I promptly got stuck front and back. More shoveling ensued and I eventually managed to get out of the driveway and onto what passed for a road. The snow was falling much faster than the plows could keep up with, so its an understatement to say road conditions were poor. I made it around the corner, only to to get stuck in the middle of the road thanks to some yahoo who had used his snowblower and blown the contents of his driveway into the road. I had aimed for the relatively clear road, but got caught in just enough of the snowblower detritus to be stuck. A passerby helped push me out and I made it as far as the traffic light one block down. My car is low to the ground and had great difficulty making it over the plow wash in the intersection, so it took four full cycles of the traffic light to actually make it through the intersection. At this point I was having serious doubt about the wisdom of trying to get to work, but since I live so close I was determined to try. Soon I was making it up the hill with relative ease--at least in comparison to the misadventures thus far. Visions of the parking lot at work filled my head, quickly followed by visions of the shoveling I would need to do to leave work in the morning.

As I made it to within yards of the top of the hill, I saw a flare in the road and the blue lights of a police car. No surprise that there had been some sort of accident--it was hellish out there...if hell had frozen over. Not only was there an accident, it consisted of a jackknifed semi completely blocking the road. I could have walked the rest of the way to the hospital, except for the fact that I couldn't leave my car in the road. Despite protesting that I was essential personnel and needed to get to work, the police sent me back home, since there was physically no way to get past the truck. I of course slid off the road on the way back down the hill (at a blazing fast 10mph), but since I had thought to bring a shovel, I was able to dig out in about 30 minutes or so and make it back down the hill to home.

Arriving at home was a relief...until I saw that a plow had filled in the parking spot I had spent five hours labouring to clear. I wanted to cry! I impaled the car on the bank to get it enough out of the way to let the neighbours through, and went in to call work and let them know I was once again back at home. I was more than willing to go to work, but they would have to send someone with a plow or 4 wheel drive truck to pick me up, because I was simply NOT going to try and drive up again. Twenty minutes later my hero arrived in his shining maroon and silver armour. The husband of one of the day nurses was in the area doing private plowing in his truck, and he kindly gave me a ride up to work, the semi now having been plowed out and towed out the road. Drifts in the road? No problem--he just dropped his plow and poof! The snow evaporated and we continued on our way. I ended up being over two hours late that night, but I did make it in to work. If I had any other job than nurse at the hospital, I would have called in, but the patients needed care no matter what the weather.