my winter hero

We thought we lucked out this past weekend when it looked like we had nothing to do but laze around inside our cozy house. Hah!


Then, late last week, I ran into one of our new neighbours and she invited us to her little boy's sixth birthday party. His Zodiac sign is Sagittarius, which Wikipedia tells me is "The Archer". See that trivia I just gave you there? I'm a pretty useful person, you know.

So little Archer's birthday party was on Saturday. I asked his mom what time to come over and she said "whenever". Huh. I don't really do that well with "whenever". I figured early afternoon would be a good bet, and we peeked out our windows periodically to see if there were any signs of life across the road at the party house. I AGONIZED about showing up at just the right moment, and it turns out that we did! The kids were moments away from eating hot dogs and cup cakes, and the mothers were chit-chatting in the kitchen. We gave Archer some play dough, ate cupcakes that we decorated ourselves, and managed to socialize with the adults like normal people. I'd count that as a victory.

Late that evening Mark noticed that we had a message on our phone. It was Tanya, a close family friend who lives nearby, asking if we wanted to hang out that weekend. Seeing as how she had a NEW PUPPY we could not say no. I called her up and we made a plan, only when I asked her what time we should arrive, she said "whenever". Again with the "whenever"!! We took a chance with the weather and drove the half hour to her house on Sunday afternoon.


We were fed sushi and got to snorgle her puppy Maya. It was sheer heaven.

Until the snow hit.

As soon as we realized it had started to snow, we made our escape. The roads in Tanya's community weren't that bad, but as soon as we got on the highway our visibility was marred by giant puffs of snow that swirled in our headlights and ricocheted off our windshield at a high velocity. Oh, and we couldn't see the painted lines on the highway or, for that matter, where the pavement ended and the shoulder began. Woops!

The roads were not slippery so we kept on. Conditions deteriorated after about ten minutes and we started considering the idea of taking the next exit, wherever that might be. I was hesitant - as bad as it was on the highway, with the high winds and drifting snow, I could not fathom driving aimlessly down a lonely country road in the hopes that we would find some sort of motel or even just a cleared parking lot. Furthermore, once we stopped the truck, there we would be forced to sit until conditions were better. Maybe a plow would reach the smaller roads that night; maybe it wouldn't get there 'til morning.

We decided to stay on the highway and luck found us. We gained on a line of cars and trucks ahead of us, and at the head of the convoy was the plow! It was smooth sailing until we reached our exit, where Mark was forced to choose between running a stop sign or getting stuck in a snow drift. (He ran it.) After that it was only a matter of taking turns slowly - and finally, finally, we were in our own driveway.

I told Mark he was my hero and he looked very pleased with himself. The moral is: sushi and puppies are worth the risk of a snowstorm!

It's more than twenty-four hours since we pulled into the driveway and the wind is still howling outside. The snow stopped about three hours ago.


The day after tomorrow is Christmas eve. Drive safely, everyone. (We promise we will too, from now on.)