Last Sunday (the 8th of March) started off nice enough.  The sun was shining and it was calm and relatively clear.  It was about what one would expect for early March in our part of Michigan.  I got the dog out for one of his daily walks and came home before Amy headed in to work.  By the time she left for work at around 2:00pm, it was starting to get cloudy out.  An hour or so later, it started to snow a little.  Gradually, the snow got heavier and heavier.  I made a quick run to the store at around 6:00 and by then, the snow was coming down so heavy that visibility was reduced to about 100 yards.  It was starting to look major and I had pretty much resigned to the idea that the kids would likely get a snow day the next morning.  Sure enough, they did.  By the time the snow stopped early Monday morning, we got about a foot and a half of new snow since the previous afternoon.  Here’s a pic of the trench we had to dig to get down the driveway:

The trench is about 20 inches deep.  This was bare pavement the previous day.

Amy ended up spending the night at work in a hotel room.  By the time she came home the next morning, she could not get into the driveway until we could dig out a space for her at the end so she could get her car out of the road.  A friend came by later and plowed us out.  By the afternoon, the roads were relatively clear and folks could get around again.

Here it is a week later and it’s up in the high 40′s.  All the snow we got last weekend is slowly turning to lumpy-oatmeal glop.  I was able to take the kids for a ride this afternoon with the car windows rolled down a bit and nobody froze.  It was good to get the car cleaned out and opened up again – frankly, it was starting to get kind of ripe in there.  It’s frightening how much junk can pile up on the floor of one’s car over a busy winter.  I almost forgot what color the carpeting was.  Word from the finance company is that last week was my last full payment and the little beast is all mine after a midget payment at the lot next Saturday.  This will free up some serious coin so we can get some other stuff caught up and maybe make improvements to the vehicle (a better stereo and a roof rack, for starters).

Anyways, that’s all for now.  In the meantime, a quick lesson in knowing your limits…