Surviving an Ice Storm

Wow, so Missouri weather has hit us two little Californians hard this year.  I know many of the people we now know from places like Michigan or Ohio might think we're soft, and they'd be right, but we're slowly getting the hang of this crazy weather.

So last week, as some of you may have heard, Armageddon was proclaimed for the Mid-West and a huge chunk of the country in the form of an ice storm and then blizzard like conditions.  I found myself wondering, what does an ice storm really look like?  I mean obviously there is ice, but does it rain and then freeze and that creates an ice storm.  To be honest, a part of me had this mental image of sheets of ice that looked like glass in a window falling from the sky.  Now that would be a storm!

In actuality, for those who don't know like me, it's basically what we called sleet in Idaho.  It's frozen rain.  (Some of you may be saying Duh right now, but hey we all learn a little differently.)  Now here in St Louis, the issue is that it is still wet enough to bind and then freeze.  So the weather was a mess last Tuesday.  Expecting to die on Wednesday, I awoke to the pleasant surprise of just snow, and to be honest, it wasn't even that hard.  It was a nice little flurry, nothing to get upset about.

However, my problems came on Thursday.  I was so cold on Wednesday, that I decided to not go out and brush off my car.  HUGE MISTAKE!!  In more than one way.  First, our house has a screened in porch.  The porch door had not been open, so it was completely frozen shut, there was no way to actually open the door.  I had to walk around the house, however, as I went out our shared back door, I saw the salt our landlord had left us and decided once I got in to my car I would salt by our front door, so that when I came back from class I could get in the house.  You see we only have one key to the back door, and since Mark parks in the driveway off that door, he has the only key.  If I couldn't get the front porch open, and the neighbors locked that door, well I was SOL as some say. 

Second, there was frozen snow, plus a 1/4" thick casing of ice, wrapped around my entire car.  I had to use my key to break the ice that surrounded my door, and then spent 10 minutes pulling, breaking more ice, and pulling. At one point I did think that I might rip off my plastic handle and then be screwed because the passenger side lock is broken and I wouldn't be able to get in my car.

Finally, I pryed my door open with all my might.  I inserted my key and just prayed the engine would turn over, and it actually did.  I blasted the defroster and raced to the back of the house to get the salt mentioned earlier.  I put the salt out on our steps as well, because they looked pretty icy, and I really don't want to kill the mail man.  After having completed the salting, I went straight to work on my car.

It was quite a process to get the snow and ice off my car.  I had a method to my madness though.  I started at my driver side door, and continued on the side, to the back, around the other side, then to the front.  Now I had to do a thorough job on the front because I forgot to lift up my wiperblades, and they were somewhere below all the layers, frozen to my car.

I dusted snow, I hacked at ice, continuing around the car.  After about a half our, I noticed some of my neighbors just staring at me as they drove by.  For now, I looked like the White Witch of Narnia.  Completely cloacked in snow and ice, my hair wild and frozen, with ice scrapper in hand, attacking vigorously at my windows, shouting words and phrases not commonly heard.  And finally, when all hope seemed lost, I managed to find my car.  I looked at my phone clock and realized that I emerged victorious after an hour and a half of intense (and cold) battle.  It was now 9:15-9:20, and I thought I might still be able to make it to my class.  I hoped in my toasty car, engaged the clutch, put my foot on the gas and then listened to my wheels spin. 

At this point I thought I'll try reverse and see if that works any better.  This time with my head turned around I got a better view of the smoke coming from my tires and the exhaust making its way towards heaven.  I thought perhaps I can use our neighbors shovel to help dig myself out.  I ran to the back door, but alas, the neighbor had locked it.  Determined to not fight my front porch door I decided to give it one more go.  I got behind the wheel and gave it the gas, and finally, after lurching and studdering (and not from the clutch) my car was finally released from its icy cage.

Of course at this point, I would never make it to class on time, so I decided to head to Barnes and Nobles and buy a book.  When I returned home, the long term battle began.  That is the battle with my front stairs.  There are two sets, one that leads up to the house in general, and then both my neighbor and I have a set that leads into our perspective portions of the house.  The stairs were, and are so icy, that I can't actually just walk up them.  I mostly rock climb up them, holding the bannister for dear life as I manuever around them.  We are currently out of salt, and so now I do fear for the mail man.