Snowpocalypse, Part 1

Since late last week, the weather forecasters have been warning of a severe winter storm this weekend. At first, Drew pooh-poohed the forecast, saying that he wouldn't believe it until we were closer toward the timing of the supposed storm.

By Tuesday, he had changed his tune, and we began talking about what preparations to make. I worked Tuesday and Wednesday night, and on Wednesday they predicted a "light dusting," with the real blizzard to hit Friday and run through the weekend.

The "light dusting," which began around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, turned into an inch of snowfall -- not so bad, except that in Virginia and the District, NO ONE TREATED THE ROADS. Still haven't gotten an adequate explanation of why not, but apparently it had something to do with the freezing temps outside and on the road, like, the salt would've frozen to the roads -- to which a colleague of mine, Anne, said, "Haven't they heard of f-----g SAND??"

Indeed.

I had driven to work that day because I was working a late shift, and it appeared increasingly unlikely that trying to drive home was a good idea -- there were delays of two hours getting from downtown to Arlington -- normally a 20-minute drive. So I had to make a quick decision as it got later and later: a) take the train home, like Drew suggested, and leave the car downtown overnight; b) take the car and chance getting hit and delayed for hours or c) go to the garage, retrieve the car before the $27 fee for parking it kicked in at midnight (it usually costs only $7 from 2 p.m. until midnight).

I went with Drew's suggestion, a), and barely -- and I mean barely -- made the last train outta town. Walked home in the lovely snow, which was crunchy and not at all slippery, and got home to Drew's white face; he had texted me that he was "so relieved" when I texted him that I was on the train. It was then that it hit me: It would have been selfish for me to insist on driving when he really was so worried; I can't think of my own independence when he's affected, too. And in the end, it was the right call -- it only cost $34 for the car to be there overnight. Wildly expensive normally, but worth it on an extraordinary night like that.