Hi friends!

The lovely Jaclyn of Snap, Crackle, Pop and I are swapping blogs today. Since Jaclyn lives in the middle of the snowy Midwest and I live in sunny Arizona, we thought it would be fun to share about our "typical" winter day...

I will now let Jaclyn teach you about all things snow and you can find me posting about winter Arizona-style over at her blog today!


I have lived, my entire life, in the Midwest. Because of parents moving, college and new jobs, that does include three different states, but the weather is always the same. The winters are always the same. Cold. Bitter. Snowy.

Because I’ve moved around so much, I have friends all over the place. Luckily, a large amount of them are concentrated to the Midwest, and I like to visit them as much as I can. Last weekend, in fact, I had plans to go to Cincinnati to visit friends.

Alas, Old Man Winter, that turd, had other plans.

The snow started at 2:30 p.m. By the time work ended on Friday, there wasn’t an inch of ground that wasn’t covered with snow. I called and promptly cancelled the trip and looked forward ((sarcasm)) to my ride home.

This is what the drive home looked like:

4:58 -- I walk out of my building. When I get to my car, I start it, turn on the rear window defrosters, turn the heater on high and set it to window defroster. I use the ginormous ice brush and scraper to get all the snow off my car.

5:08 -- I actually pull out of my parking spot. I turn onto Main Street.

5:09 -- A gust of wind moves all the snow I did not remove from the top of my car to my rear windshield. I cannot see out the back window for the reminder of the drive.

5:13: My windshield wipers stop doing their job; there is a chunk of ice so large stuck to one of them that it is pushing the entire wiper away from my windshield. Instead of sloughing away the snow, it is instead just smearing it around, turning the car in front of me into a blurry mess.

5:24 -- I turn off Main Street. It is worth noting that the distance I have traveled on Main is 0.8 mile. The traffic is so slow, I could have safely tweezed my eyebrows, shaved my legs and read a chapter in the book I am working on, “Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman.

5: 28 -- At a red light, I open my window and try to grab my driver’s side wiper as it swishes over to the edge of the windshield. I am trying to snap it so that giant chunk of ice breaks off and allows the wiper to do its job. My attempts are futile.

5:31 -- I turn off my windshield wipers all together. With my defrosters on high, all moisture that hits my windshield immediately turns to liquid, so the blockage of my view is minimal.

5:36 -- I realize I am going 25 miles per hour and feel like a speed demon.

5:42 -- I fishtail my way through a left turn.

5:48 -- I am home. It is 50 minutes after I left work. I have traveled 4.7 miles in 40 minutes. This equates to an average speed of 7.05 miles per hour.

Ain’t winter grand?

Alex said...

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1/23/12 6:21 PM 

And if you didn't win, don't worry! Jaclyn's shop is still filled with super cute jewelry and she is offering free shipping to all my readers. Enter the code freeshipping at checkout!

xoxo,

Jen {and Jaclyn!}