The powers that be finally remembered that this is winter, sigh. Monday and Tuesday were merely absurdly cold, while we finally got some snow on Wednesday. It was just a couple of inches, but Washingtonians have no snow-driving skills and little common sense. Everybody peered out the windows at work, watching multiple accidents at exactly the same spot on Wilson Boulevard. We also noticed a lot of people spinning their wheels, unable to get up the hill. I was glad to be using metro (and my feet) instead of my car.
The snow was mostly gone on Thursday and it was a bit warmer, though I imagine that it was unpleasant to be outside for hours at the coronation, er, inauguration. (Really, it's most undignified to spend $40 million on festivities for a second term. Woodrow Wilson had a quiet swearing in, held in the Oval Office, followed by chicken salad sandwiches for lunch.) There were hordes of people there despite the weather, at least if the metro is any evidence. They were running trains only every 15 minutes or so and the great unwashed, who don't normally use public transit, don't have the common sense to actually move away from the doors. So it was a packed and slow ride and a worse than usual battle to get out of the train at Rosslyn. (Hint: if you are standing by the door, you can step off the train and let people out and still be able to get back on. Really. Nobody has ever been stranded eternally on the platform because they were polite.) I didn't get the day off and was occupied with our office consolidation. The movers were clueless and everybody was tripping over one another, but it all seems to have worked out. I even got my new laptop delivered and set up.
I was smart enough to check the weather forecast on Friday, so took care of some errand running after work. Everybody in Northern Virginia went grocery shopping on the grounds that even a few flakes of snow mean you might never ever be able to get to a store again. The store wasn't actually all that crowded when I was there, but I noticed that the shelves had been stripped clean of a number of things, particularly stuff like frozen pizza. Fortunately, I mostly buy actual ingredients and those were all in stock. I also noticed that the store has added a major section of indian groceries, which must be new in the past month or so. (I alternate which supermarket I go to, so I can't be sure quite when.)
The snow showed up as forecast. I don't think there was more than four or five inches here, but it's not like I went out and measured it. I did go out today to take out the trash and it was particularly frigid out. If we really lived in a benign universe, there would be no such thing as the wind-chill factor. I brushed most of the snow off my car, but gave up when I was maybe 90 per cent done as I was on the verge of frostbite. When I went back upstairs, I just stood in front of the heating duct for several minutes, warming my hands.
By the way, it may be most unseasonable, but I finally read Faithful. I have to admit I was disappointed in it. Stephen King is amusing and entertaining, but Stewart O'Nan goes into excessive detail about too many early games. And, while I realize that only Red Sox fans are all that likely to read the book, I found the insider language to be annoying.
Copyright 2005 Miriam H. Nadel