Thursday, December 10, 2009

There Oughta Be a Law Outlawing Murphy's Law



As the 'Assassin' informed you Tuesday, those of us who live in the middle of the country got hit by what the weather guys called 'The Storm of the Century'. While that might have been stretching it a bit, there's no doubt that the first snowstorm of '09 effectively shut down a number of states, Les's and mine included. With 16 inches of snow, coupled with sustained wind gusts of 40-60 mph, everything came to a grinding halt. Interstates closed while cars littered the medians and ditches. Rest areas and truckstops overflowed with semis and stranded travelers. Hotels filled. Flights got cancelled.

Wednesday morning my daughter and I ventured out to survey the situation. Three feet plus drifts covered our driveway and sidewalk in front, and a humongus drift covered our three car blacktop parking and smothered the garage in the back.



I wanted to turn around, go back inside, and hide in my bed. In hindsight, I should have.

I am doubly blessed to have a front-to-back double lot. Double the lot. Double the shoveling. I am also blessed to somehow be on the side of the street where the plows direct most of their snow. And they seem to particularly enjoy 'gunning it' as they go by my house in the front, throwing what they've plowed from the streets directly onto my sidewalks. Can someone explain why they need to drive so fast they hurl snow past the parking, onto the sidewalks, and halfway UP my driveway? Just curious.


Anyway, after some cajoling I managed to get the snow thrower going. It's a smaller model, great for 5-6 inches of snow, but not all that great with thigh-high stuff. So, the top layer has to be shoveled off by hand. I finally get to the point where the snow thrower can actually move some snow and after getting a faceful of snow, I brilliantly deduce the wind is out of the west, which means I have to blow the snow back toward the garage. I tuck my glasses in my coverall pocket.

And you guess it.

Somewhere along the line, my glasses slipped out of my pocket. My daughter found the mangled frames and one lens.

Murphy's Law.

It took us 8 hours, two frozen feet, one numb nose, and a swollen knee to get all the snow cleared. At present I'm basically blind due to the fact that the only prescription glasses I have left are tinted for the sun. And I drive to work in the dark and come home in the dark.

Murphy's Law.

Then we have 'car issues' to deal with. My daughter's car needs a new water pump. Of course, you can't just remove the water pump and stick another one on, you have to remove the timing belt.

Murphy's Law.

We make an appointment for this morning. Yeah. The same morning our temps are in the minus digits and wind chills are -30. We take her car up the road to the shop and discover the road is blocked off by police and fire equipment due to a fire.

Where's the fire?

You guessed it.

The repair shop working on my daughter's car.

Murphy's Law.

My bed is looking better and better all the time.

Have you had any 'Murphy's Law' moments recently? Any of those 'broken mirror' or 'walking under a ladder' incidents that evoke thoughts of hiding under your bed?

How's life treating you all?

~Bullet Hole~

16 comments:

Leslie Langtry said...

Holy Crap! That's some weird mojo you have going! It's a balmy -20 here and we only got 10 inches so it's like Florida here! I feel for you! Again...why do we live here???

Kathy Bacus said...

I'm a writer and I can't come up with good enough motivation to explain why the heck I still live here, Les.

~Kat~

Suzan Harden said...

While shoveling the three-foot drift across the front of the house nearly fourteen years ago, I looked at DH and said, "Take the job in Houston."

Kathy Bacus said...

I'm just about there, Suzan! If I could find a good job, I'd be outta here in a New York minute...

At least the sun is shining today but MAN is it COLD!

~Kat

Brandy said...

Good golly! That's some Murphy's Law. Best wishes for better luck soon!

Kathy Bacus said...

Thanks, Brandy. It's fair to say we'll take all the positive vibes we can get.

Oh, and just so you all know. You CAN'T untint prescription sunglasses once they're tinted.

Guess I'll look like a 'WIP' (woman in black) until I get new eye glasses.

~Kat~

Tori Lennox said...

Murphy and his stupid law need to be drop-kicked into deep, dark outer space.

Linda Currier said...

Kathy,

If it were 70 degrees where you are, I would say "when it rains it pours", but you got snow.

Here in Lower Michigan It is 13 degrees with 50 mph winds. Just a bit of snow and the blacksmith is coming to trim one of our horses at farm where we keep them. Fortunately, hubby agreed to go meet him and I am staying home.

Here's hoping your week gets better.

Linda

Kathy Bacus said...

What you said, Tori!!!

~Kat~

Kathy Bacus said...

That wind is brutal, Linda. I had a scarf around my face while snowblowing yesterday to keep my face from freezing. I had to thaw out before I could pull it off. It was literally frozen to my face!

Good thing your dh is doing the horse hoof duty. Hope they're trimming inside a barn.

~Kat

villain2 said...

I'm impressed with the prose but the subject matter ... eh

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Heather said...

I have 18 inches of snow outside my door -- which, thankfully, I do not have to shovel. I thought briefly of bundling up and venturing out with the camera yesterday, but when both the mayor and the governor say, "stay inside and off the roads," who am I to quibble? The -3 (-19 windchill) when I woke up this morning, did not make me want to get out of bed.

Becky LeJeune said...

Ah, yes. The wonderful snowstorm. It just all began there, right? I know it did for me.

Mike shoveled before he left for his weekend snowboarding, not that it did any good because everything was covered again within the hour.

Then he ran into a tree -- to which he says it sounds like he was doing something stupid (snowboarding?) but it was really just an accident. Now he needs knee surgery and is on crutches for a while (they say recovery time from surgery is MONTHS). So I guess I'll be doing all the shoveling from now on.

And I'm so great at it, that our corner lot with heavy foot traffic is kind of a treacherous path at the moment. Not my fault the bottom layer froze and won't shovel up. I've been out there three times trying to get it up now and can't find the salt.

Kathy Bacus said...

Fortunately, the worst of the storm hit on my days off, Heather, so I didn't have to stress over trying to get to work or not. I still am amazed each time I look out the windows at how much snow there is.

I don't even want to think about how long it will take to melt...

~Kat

Kathy Bacus said...

That's terrible about your dhs snowboarding mishap, Becky. And BIG time bummer that he'll require surgery. OUCH!

I've got a similar dicey spot in front of my house where the driveway meets the sidewalk. No matter how diligent I am, for some reason it seems to ice over there. Yesterday I took after it with one of my shovels and managed to dislodge some of it. I'll put some salt on later when the sun comes out.

I have a feeling it's going to be a very long winter...

~Kat