So, as I may have mentioned before, everyone freaks out when it snows here. Most of them stay huddled at home, terrified. There are always those few, however, that think they are indestructible, right up till when they slide off the road, slide into an intersection, jackknife their trailer, or otherwise cause trouble. We got some more snow last week, and due to a combination of the above issues, the lack of snowplows, and the low clearance on my vehicle, I got to sleep over at the hospital, along with a large number of my compatriots. Luckily, there are a number of units that are no longer in use, so there are actually a decent number of beds available to put people up in. And, on the upside, as a doctor, I got an actual bed, rather than a cot, which some people got.
That said, it still was not that pleasant of an experience. I was not prepared, as I had been fairly confident in the morning that I was going to be able to get home, so I had no clean anything to put on. I did grab a pair of clean hospital scrubs, and a pair of grippy socks, but that leaves out an important category of clothing which is nice to have clean.... And I ran out of food from home, so had to eat yucky cafeteria food. And my face doesn't appreciate being moisturized with hand lotion. And I really do get heartburn pretty quickly if I don't take my heartburn medicine.
And, when I finally got home the next evening, I had to park on the street, because the road had finally been plowed (by a guy with a truck, not a snowplow), but had formed an icy barrier at the end of my driveway that I was pretty sure my car would not be able to take on, and I my house was cold, because the heater had decided to not work anymore. Fortunately I have two space heaters, for which I am extremely grateful, so I cranked them up in my bedroom, shut the door, and put on several layers of clothing. Interesting note; memory foam gets really stiff when its cold, but softens up just fine with body heat. The kitties came and slept on top of me and it was warm enough. I called my real estate person, who got it taken care of, and apparently it had something to do with the power going out and something needs to be fixed so it won't happen again, but I'm hazy on the details, since she was hazy on them as well.
That said, today and yesterday were in the 70's, sunny, and there are enough evergreens that it looks convincingly springy. At least it didn't stay cold and overcast long enough to be soul crushing, which, from what I here from my Cleveland friends, is exactly what's going on up there.
Also on the upside, with the snow right before valentines day, a lot of stores did very poor sales and there are flowers to be had for very good prices right now. I bought myself some lovely peach/orange roses that I am very pleased with.
On a different note, there is a decent amount of road work going on right now, the usual 'lets improve our infrastructure prior to a large event' as there is a pretty major golf tournament being held here in the summer. What is interesting, is that they are doing a decent amount of the roadwork at night, with really bright lights that can be a little disorienting as you drive home from work late at night. I'm pretty sure I haven't come across too much night time road work in other parts of the country. I guess they are giving it the best possible effort to get done prior to the actual event. Apparently I could also sub-let my house for a substantial sum, but then I wouldn't have any place to stay, which would be problematic. I don't think the kitties would like that, either, as they are not big on strangers.
In other news, I feel like I might be becoming a real adult, since I have finally purchased a bed. Yes, I got it from ikea, but its made of solid wood, rather than particle board, and its an actual bed, rather than a mattress and box spring sitting on the ground, which is what I slept on all of med school and residency. I actually still need to buy the actual mattress, but that's coming up in the next few days. Its also full sized, rather than twin, which is what my old bed was. The current bed in this house is at least queen sized, and huge, way more bed than I need, taking up way more of the room than necessary, and with a very solid bed frame which I have bruised myself on any number of times. Its going to be leaving to go to a storage unit very soon. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, actually.
:)
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