At long last it is Friday. Friday,a gift from the heavens, a reward for having survived the week, and we did, but it was not always easy, there were a few bumps along the way, no week worth living through will allow unfettered passage.
Monday, there was snow, it had piled up, over the weekend, and it was a white curse, deep, imposing and dreadful. Sunday, I dug out the driveway, and the sidewalk. It was not easy, and it gave me an elevated sense self worth. There was so much snow many of our neighbors had just left it, waiting for the inevitable central Ohio rain to come and wash it all away (coming tomorrow, coincidentally). Monday, while I was at work the snow plow came through our neighborhood, and while clearing the streets by pushing the snow to the side of the road, managed to bury the entrance to our driveway under a cold, compressed barrier of snow. Turning it dark, and dingy, and compacted into a substance a little like concrete, immovable, unbreakable, and, awful. It is still there, taking its toll on our suspension, tires, and patience.
To combat snow the city sends plows to push the snow out of the way, and dump "road salt" all over the freeways, and thank goodness for that, there are enough videos showing cars spinning out of control and slamming into things already. Nobody wants their 15 minutes of fame to come in an expensive, terrifying ballet of ice-inspired mechanical failure. It is probably not, technically, salt, it is probably some chemical mixture, but whatever it is after a short time it covers almost everything, and everywhere you go everything you see looks ashen, grey and dead. It's not bad enough winter is slowly strangling your will to live, but the entire city starts to look like a scene from a post apocalyptic future. A future where some seemingly benign creation of man somehow went haywire and blocked all of the suns rays that provide color, and warmth, and life. Personally I am betting on those cursed E-Cigarette things that are popping up all over. All that "vapor" (vapor, yeah, right) can't be good.
Tuesday and, Wednesday brought cold, mind numbing cold that settles into your bones and stays until almost July. In the past this was a "cold snap," or a "blast of winter" in some extreme cases it was an "arctic front," moving through. But, with the advent of twenty four hour news, sports, and weather networks all of those sound so skimpy, so finite. Now, it is a "Polar Vortex!" There is a phrase that will make you zip up your jacket a little higher, pull down your stocking cap a little lower, and send local meteorologists rushing for the microphone, and a gimmick. "It is so cold, Marybeth Anne, we are going to do the weather forecast outside tonight." Wow, it must be cold! I said to my wife just the other night, "look at that poor local meteorologist toiling outside in the cold, just like a sanitation engineer, or a first responder, what a brave soul."
But, now we have arrived safely at our destination, Friday, the gateway to the weekend, freedom from the alarm clock, freedom from a hurried good bye, and a mad dash to the car, freedom from the oppressive commute, and the peril involved in driving 70 miles an hour on a road filled with people who probably didn't get enough sleep, and are running a few minutes late, and are bound and determined to make up for lost time by passing everybody on the freeway, even if that requires the use of the shoulder or median, while they finish their breakfast, god, I hope it isn't pancakes today.
But, soon I will be home, safe and sound, enjoying dinner, and a recording of the Cornhuskers beating the Hoosiers in basketball, Thank you, Coach Miles! There is something refreshing about that guy, kind of like the weekend.
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