Bad (redux) and message for UK f-listys
Nov. 29th, 2010 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayI am going to be so happy when today is over. It's been a re-run of Friday, which was such a major nightmare that I abandoned my healthy supper plans and ordered pizza, hid under a quilt and spent the evening watched Grey's Anatomy. I was half-afraid that the oven would blow up if I attempted to use it.
Today is definitely a potato wedges level day of badness. It would be a pizza-level day of badness, if I didn't have some yummy salmon with teriaki sauce in my fridge from the lovely boutique grocery store. So, I shall be uncouth and have potato wedges with my salmon.
If this week continues like this then I will be the size of a house by the end and nobody will get a look-in at the food for the knitters' Christmas party at the weekend. All the bacon-wrapped scallops and yummy wings will be mine and I will kill anyone who tries to take them away.
To my UK f-listys
It sounds like you're in for another bad winter :-( So sorry. I shall try not to revel too much in my current above-zero temps and the warm rain promised for the end of the week. This is not natural. Although every day that I don't shovel is a happy day.
In the meantime, may I suggest:
1) Carry a box of non-clumping cat litter in your car. It functions like grit and can get you out of that "argh too slippery" stuck in a ditch/carpark/driveway moment.
2) Also carry a shovel. Your driveway is not the only place where you might need to dig yourself out.
3) Wear a coat. I know you're just going from the house to the car to the office car park, but if you break down or get stuck you'll want that coat.
3a) Gloves, scarf and hat should be with you for the same reason.
4) If you don't think the roads are safe and you have the option to work from home, do it. I have learned not to be proud on this.
5) When digging out your car, take care to make sure you put your snow banks in a location where you can manoeuvre the car and turn it without the nose hitting the bank because moving a snow bank sucks.
6) There is no such thing as "owning too many snow shovels". I have three sitting in my front porch (different types for different things) plus one that lives in my car boot from November to May. I also have a stiff broom in the porch for the days when it's light, powdery snow that can be swept away.
7) If you can get hold of rock salt, keep your steps, path and driveway salted. It's much less painful than slipping over.
8) Whether your favourite snow activity is playing in the snow or watching it from the sofa with a hot cup of tea, make the time to do it otherwise you'll hate snow in two days.
I have to admit, while I don't enjoy snow much (so much work!), it doesn't terrify me as much as it did two years ago. The survival tips folks here gave me for getting through a winter with my sanity intact helped and I've learned that being prepared with all the right gear is one of the most important things.
The other reason it doesn't fill me with abject horror (just mild horror) is that I am able to work from home on the days when there is just no way that I'm safe to drive or there's too much for me to shovel and I need to wait for my plough guy. I know that a lot of people can't work from home, but anyone who can doesn't need to be a brave soldier. There is nothing wrong with saying, "The roads are neither gritted, ploughed or salted. Hell no, I'm not coming in."
Today is definitely a potato wedges level day of badness. It would be a pizza-level day of badness, if I didn't have some yummy salmon with teriaki sauce in my fridge from the lovely boutique grocery store. So, I shall be uncouth and have potato wedges with my salmon.
If this week continues like this then I will be the size of a house by the end and nobody will get a look-in at the food for the knitters' Christmas party at the weekend. All the bacon-wrapped scallops and yummy wings will be mine and I will kill anyone who tries to take them away.
To my UK f-listys
It sounds like you're in for another bad winter :-( So sorry. I shall try not to revel too much in my current above-zero temps and the warm rain promised for the end of the week. This is not natural. Although every day that I don't shovel is a happy day.
In the meantime, may I suggest:
1) Carry a box of non-clumping cat litter in your car. It functions like grit and can get you out of that "argh too slippery" stuck in a ditch/carpark/driveway moment.
2) Also carry a shovel. Your driveway is not the only place where you might need to dig yourself out.
3) Wear a coat. I know you're just going from the house to the car to the office car park, but if you break down or get stuck you'll want that coat.
3a) Gloves, scarf and hat should be with you for the same reason.
4) If you don't think the roads are safe and you have the option to work from home, do it. I have learned not to be proud on this.
5) When digging out your car, take care to make sure you put your snow banks in a location where you can manoeuvre the car and turn it without the nose hitting the bank because moving a snow bank sucks.
6) There is no such thing as "owning too many snow shovels". I have three sitting in my front porch (different types for different things) plus one that lives in my car boot from November to May. I also have a stiff broom in the porch for the days when it's light, powdery snow that can be swept away.
7) If you can get hold of rock salt, keep your steps, path and driveway salted. It's much less painful than slipping over.
8) Whether your favourite snow activity is playing in the snow or watching it from the sofa with a hot cup of tea, make the time to do it otherwise you'll hate snow in two days.
I have to admit, while I don't enjoy snow much (so much work!), it doesn't terrify me as much as it did two years ago. The survival tips folks here gave me for getting through a winter with my sanity intact helped and I've learned that being prepared with all the right gear is one of the most important things.
The other reason it doesn't fill me with abject horror (just mild horror) is that I am able to work from home on the days when there is just no way that I'm safe to drive or there's too much for me to shovel and I need to wait for my plough guy. I know that a lot of people can't work from home, but anyone who can doesn't need to be a brave soldier. There is nothing wrong with saying, "The roads are neither gritted, ploughed or salted. Hell no, I'm not coming in."
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 10:06 am (UTC)I don't get why anyone wouldn't - it's cold enough just in the car! Plus I also have a 5 min walk from the car park to the office. And 5 minutes outside scraping the car is very cold.
There was snow this morning! So I slid down the road to the bus stop because I don't own a shovel and if I did there's no way I'm shoveling the whole of my cul-de-sac and the side road + car park at the other end.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 07:23 pm (UTC)Okay I felt a bit of a wuss this morning when I declared (to myself) that with a forecast for it to get worse today that I was going to stay at home - the possibility of buses suddenly getting cancelled when you have two rides to get home is not fun. I wait to see how bad tomorrow is, guaranteed ice and black ice - fun!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-30 11:04 pm (UTC)