Kalamazoo on Jan 14th 2008 aka Western Michigan's Winter at its.. norm

Woke up at 700am. Laze for 15 minutes. Hot Hot Shower. Dumped 3-5cookies in maw. Drank glass of tap water (filtered, mom). Got out of apartment. Sees this.

No. 20 consecutive days of Car-Eaten-Alive-by-Overnight-Snow when you're late for work is not fun. Hence on Snow will be known as The S that must not be named. Or, as known by close friends and family, S.

It was probably about 15F.

Close up view of my blue baby (blue as in blue from the cold..get it? he..he...snort. Maybe not)

Gingerly walked across S covered pavement. Luckily there was no layer of ice (S's evil twin) down there. Stepped next to car. Looks down. hm.. we have about 6 inches today. Notice left foot completely drowned by S.

Started engine, and switched on the heater line thingies for heating the back windshield. Got out of car with essential weapon of choice - this stick that you see above, placed approximately 60 degrees to the windshield. It is about 2 feet tall (there're smaller or bigger versions of it too), with a few rows of brush at one end, and a hard flat surface perpendicular to the axis of the shaft at the other end. The brush is use for brushing off S from your car, or body if you choose to. The flat end is for scraping ice off windows and windshields. Or for murdering cockroaches. It is, of course, as with all consumer products in USA, made in China.

Luckily the snow was fresh, and temperature didn't fluctuate much through the night. There was no ice that needed to be scraped off underneath the snow. Got done in about 10 minutes. Sat on drivers seat and proceeded to kick legs together to shake S off sneakers. used gloved hands to dust S from legs of pants. At that moment I finally understood the reason for existence of snow boots.

Apartment doesn't do a good job of cleaning the roads in the early am.

But the Kalamazoo Municipal council does. Some admirable driver in a tractor like vehicle had pushed most of the S off the road in the wee am. The rest of it were melted by liberal spraying of salt on the roads with an awesome salt sprayer truck. Well, awesome unless you're driving directly behind one. The salt works for temps above 10F only.

Got in to work, on time. Yoohoo!
Spent 8 hours attending meetings, doing drawings, talking, machining. Then, at 530pm. Came out to parking lot, to see this:

The cycle repeats.