You Win, Colorado

So this is a little embarrassing.

I had to work remotely today because I couldn’t extricate my car from the snow. 

This would be the two feet of snow that fell Sunday and Monday—yes, three days ago. (I told you: embarrassing.) 

In my defense, a series of things happened that don’t typically happen. 

One, the city plowed my street. That almost never happens. So there was a mountain of snow up against the left side of my car that I was not expecting. Usually parallel parking along the street is the best place to park during a snowstorm, because you’re not left at the mercy of the company who plows the parking lot potentially either not showing up (true) or depositing an avalanche of snow along the backside of all the parking spaces, blocking cars in. 

But this was way more snow than usual, resulting in the presence of the snowplow and its overflow. 

I had even scored a primo spot—the last (first?) space before street parking ends for the block. No one in front of me to make un-parallel-parking challenging. In my mind’s eye, I imagined myself driving right out. (Although in my mind’s eye, there was not a mountain of snow deposited by the snowplow in front of my car either. . .) 

This primo spot is farther from my home than I typically park, so I did not have a clear visual of all this snow during the storm. However. . . 

Did I see neighbors digging their cars out along the street on Tuesday? Yes, yes I did. Did I think to myself, “That’s pretty high maintenance. This is all going to melt in a jiffy!” (Sigh.) Yes, yes I did. 

I’ll admit it. Colorado has me spoiled. Most snow is blasted away by the sun pretty quickly, even when it’s cold. We had a remote teaching day on Tuesday, so I didn’t have to go anywhere. I assumed the snow would melt over the course of the day. I didn’t even worry about it. 

Wednesday I woke up not feeling well. Nothing serious, but definitely under the weather. So I worked remotely—no biggie. Didn’t even think about my car.

Then came this morning. I bounced up, feeling much better. I got ready for work. I headed out to my car only to discover that not only was there still a whole lot of snow all around my car, but it was frozen rock solid. I couldn’t have shoveled it if I wanted to. (And, who are we kidding. . . I did not want to.) I gave it a go for almost an hour: scraping, defrosting, rocking back and forth to flatten things out. No dice. 

So. I worked remotely again, feeling all kinds of sheepish. 

Lesson learned, Colorado. 

And this afternoon—when it was 50 degrees and sunny—I headed out into the rapidly melting slush to move my car.

Tomorrow morning should be cake.