but... the street is clear three feet behind my car!

long story short, i’ll be working from home today. i’m just hoping someone will find some humor in my situation. it’s got to be good for something, right?

well, given yesterday’s efforts (blocked in by snow, some of it plowed from the street to behind our cars), and cleanup effort through the day (cleared both cars, shoveled all non-frozen stuff with a shovel borrowed from a neighbor, sprinkled salt pilfered from the apartment--they’re dropping bags off at each building), i thought i’d be able to get out today.

of course, since you’re reading this (or not), i can’t. all eight tires are now in their own little ice cradles. well, i guess *something* melted.

with an hour of salting, chipping, and pawing, both cars are still snugly in their cradles. i guess it’s just as well, since getting out of the spot will only be half the battle.

our kind neighbor with the shovel salted and shoveled all day yesterday, and got his entire spot cleared. he’s not here right now. when he returns, he will be able to park in his cleared spot, because he pays the extra $50 a month to reserve himself a spot. i’ve never seen the point in paying that much each month for a spot, especially since i’ve never parked more than maybe 20 yards from the door to my building. i did not consider the small detail of being able to clear your *own* spot of snow, and knowing that nobody else will reap the benefits of your hard work and force you to work all over again. if i were to get out of my spot, there would be a great possibility of me then having to dig my way back into a spot on my return.

***

being suck at home isn’t all bad, though. i get to watch people try to get out of their spots. the street that leads into mine is slanted from one end of the road to the other (mine’s slanted from one side to another, and the top side of the hill is visitor parking—off limits to me), so they’re not quite as stuck in.

i saw someone pull into and out of a spot four or five times (this took about 20 minutes total) before settling on parking the car with the front tires on the sidewalk. the guy corrected this after he got out of the car and saw what he did, but the people walking on the sidewalk at the time were not happy with him.

i saw a man happily get out of his car and let a stranger pull his car of the spot, and then drive it halfway down the street. it’s funny what being stuck for an hour will do to you.

i saw a man try to clear the ice off his car with a bottled drink. matt helped him out, and it turns out that it was a rental. his car was in the shop. guess where his scraper was... poor guy.

i saw a pizza delivery guy get out of his car and scoot himself around a visitor’s spot, not lifting his feet. he looked like he wanted to be a penguin, though i suppose this was his way of clearing the spot before he pulled into it. he then took the delivery sign off the top of his car and walked away… and i thought someone was getting pizza.

i saw a two-wheel drive accord driver put cardboard under (only) his back tires. for some reason, he left his car where he got stuck instead of pulling the two feet back into the spot.

i can only imagine what’s going on with the furniture delivery trucks rolling by…

after all this, i still have no idea where most of my neighbors are (most didn’t come home monday night—maybe they knew it would be a bad idea).

***

at this point, i doubt that i will be able get out tomorrow, either. i’ll probably ask my parents to bring over a snow shovel on saturday, and then we’ll go see about buying our own snow shovel. after all, digging out a different spot every day is better than perpetually pawing at the same spot.

and i've got cabin fever.