Ice, Ice Everywhere!

I have to say, my new phone is probably at least partly to blame for my recent blog neglect... I'm just not on my laptop as much, now that I have an even smaller computer that fits in my purse. But, it's also a really busy time of year. It is what it is!

Anyway... We experienced another "Massachusetts first" two days ago: ICE! Sure, we had a few snow storms last year. But never an ice storm! This was crazy! It started on Sunday afternoon, as we were driving back from a holiday open house. I couldn't believe how many car accidents we passed on the freeway. Everyone appeared to be uninjured, but their cars had just slid off the road and ended up stuck in places they didn't belong. One car was straddling a guard rail (upright). I have no idea how it got up there! But yes. It was scary. And it was a very slow drive home, for obvious reasons!

The next morning, however, the entire world was encased in glassy ice. It was so beautiful! As soon as I finished my coffee, I threw on some warm clothing and my boots, and went out to take photos. Of course!

It took Gus a long time to get the ice off his windshield when he left for work in the morning, but he assured me that getting out of our driveway wasn't a problem. But... it was. As I learned after lunch, when I NEEDED to go to the grocery store...

I tried walking on the driveway, and quickly realized that it was one solid sheet of ice. I couldn't walk on it-- at all! So I thought I would be clever and throw some road salt down. Except it did absolutely nothing-- it was still below freezing, so the ice would melt and then re-freeze. Lesson number one! I loaded the kids into the car, anyway, and backed out of the garage very slowly. So far so good. We have a pad off to the side of our driveway that we use to turn around, so that we can go out onto the road head-first (since it's a busier road). I backed into that... and got stuck. In the middle of the sheet of ice. With both kids in the car. Joy!

Long story short, I got out of the car, walked along the side of the driveway (on the grass) up to the house, and then had to walk across it to get to the front door. That was where I ended up on all fours, with my butt up in the air. I'm sure I provided a good deal of entertainment to people driving by. I eventually managed to get the bag of salt and make it back to the car, where I piled it around each wheel until the ice was melted and slushy. And then, I managed to pull forward and get out of the driveway. The whole process took about half an hour, and was so stressful!!! The good news is that the roads were nice and clear. And the better news is that I was able to get back into the garage without too much excitement. But the best news of all was that it poured rain all night and washed it away. Goodbye, ice! For now, anyway... sigh...