A Harsh Reality to Return To

Last week, while I was enjoying Florida (much more on that to come), there was some snow on Tuesday, vicious ice Wednesday morning, more snow on Thursday (around 10 inches in my area), and a few more inches overnight into Saturday.

I was originally due to return late Friday (as the fare to return Saturday was much higher), but due to Thursday's forecast, the airline waived change fees, so I changed my return to Saturday afternoon. Which worked out well, both because I wasn't on a delayed flight Friday night that would have landed me home after midnight in the snow, and because I got a little extra time in Florida. My flight was in fact a little delayed (due to the plane having to wait its turn for de-icing in Boston), but they notified me before we had left for the airport, so we spent another hour on the lanai before leaving, and still had plenty of time for lunch. It all worked out well.

However. Today's storm, which is supposed to land us about another foot of snow, give or take, meant that I really had to go out today and get some of last week's snow off the car before it got further buried. The forecast doesn't care that my arms already ached from hauling my luggage yesterday. Nor that the sore muscle in my back, which had seemed to be healed after the vacation, turns out to still be strained (it was bothering me a bit before I left; I think I strained it swimming). Out to work on the car; back in to rest; out to do more. At which point I was in enough pain to be rethinking the idea of a run to the grocery store--would lifting the groceries be worth it?

Before I could decide for sure, someone got his car stuck blocking mine; I think he was trying to turn around in the end of our driveway, and it didn't work out well for him. His car kept stalling, and when he got it started, he couldn't get it moving. At various times, I looked out to see him putting oil in the car, and hooked up to jumper cables from another car, but he was there for over two hours, and in the end only got the car moved up to where I could probably get past him, if the car didn't slip on the snow. (And where he's going to impede our snow guy when he comes to plow us out; thanks, dude.)

Of course, before he got it that far I still hadn't decided if the pain of getting groceries was worth it. I won't starve for a few days, but I'd like to have milk and things. In the end, the pain in my arms was greater than the desire for milk. We'll see just how rotten tomorrow is.