We missed the central point of the current New England snowstorm by scant miles. A half hour drive west, and we would be at the center of the storm, where they'll get 24 inches. Out here, we'll only get 20.

Which is not to say this storm isn't cool. The office closed at 5 today, so people would not work late and get stuck driving in bad road conditions. When I left, traffic was backed up such that the first half of my normally 25-30 minute commute took 75 minutes, and the remainder took 30 more. The snow was falling at the rate of about three inches per hour, which means that if you shovel out the driveway at 5:30, as Darleen did in anticipation of my arrival, the work was not readily apparent by the time I got home.

The highways were white enough, but in town, where a maze of crossroads make it difficult for plows not to create little banks of snow at the intersections, RULED. Rear wheel drive trucks were fishtailing around, but I was plowing through with more control.

The thing about driving through snow is that you have to be one with it. You have to respect it, because the moment you stop respecting it, it kills you. But otherwise it's mind over matter. Be the snow. Be the car. Be the road. Then you can do your respecting without stressing, and navigating through snow banks becomes almost fun.

So I got home after a very long drive, and around 7:30, Darleen and I decided we were hungry, and wouldn't it be nice if we went to Unfriendly's to get some fried food and ice cream?

So I escorted Darleen through the rapidly disappearing path to the driveway, and I tucked her away in the car, and then I brushed off the snow all around the car for the second time that day. I had only been home for an hour, and that meant another three inches coating the entire car, and it was clumpier, heavier stuff than what was on the ground, because the car had been warm.

So after the snow was brushed off the car, and then I brushed off as much snow off myself as I could, I got in, and we hit the road. So we plowed through more snow drifts and plow tracks, the headlights shining through the thick barrage of flakes, and, you know, there weren't all that many cars on the road. We couldn't see the lines dividing one lane from another, but it didn't really matter so much. We just kept our distance from other cars.

But wouldn't you know it, Friendly's was not only closed, but the parking lot hadn't been plowed. To drive in would have meant wading through about 14 inches of snow, which just wouldn't have happened. So we figured we'd go up and try that new Uno's place that just opened here. We figured it would be a good time to go, because new restaurants are usually crowded. On the way up the street, we noticed McDonald's and Pizza Hut were closed. For heaven's sakes, how's a guy supposed to eat in this town?

Uno's was open, and so was Chili's. Getting to Uno's required getting into turning lanes that were too unplowed and untravelled to distinguish well. But we parked in a space with about four inches in it and waded over to the restaurant.

And we had a lovely time. Once finished, we discovered another three inches had accumulated, and this time the wind was blowing hard and cold, and even with my hood I was getting snow blown down my neck. We had some minor trouble getting out of the parking space. I could back up, but unless I gunned it, it wasn't enough to get out of the space, and I couldn't see well out the back, so I didn't want to go too fast. That was the only trouble we had.

Driving back was worse than driving over. We slipped a bit through some snow banks, and we went through one will turning area that was a good eight inches deep, and there were some pretty wavy tracks through it. The last street before ours was only driveable on the wrong half, and our street was HILARIOUS -- it was untouched by car tracks and maybe 7 inches deep. It looked like a river the white was so pristine.

Apparently a lot more had fallen and, being in the open expanse of the road, blown away by the wind. The path from our driveway to the house, where the wind couldn't move the newly fallen snow, was about 14 inches deep, which meant the rate of snowfall was increasing to about 5 inches per hour. It also meant it was very difficult to GET to the house. It also meant I had a lot of shoveling to do.

I shoveled a bit, then took a break, then went back out. I'm done for the night, but the job isn't finished, and already, a scant hour later, I need to re-shovel everything I did. The snow banks by the driveway are over four feet high, which means that shovel has to be lifted a long way, or the shoveled snow just rolls back into the driveway again.

It RULED going out in the midst of the worst snowstorm this area has seen in years and seeing the normally VERY well prepared snowplowing forces incapable of keeping up. There were police cars and flashing blue lights, indicating the sites of accidents (ok, we actually only saw one), and there were snowplows, and there wasn't much else on the road. The town was all closed up. The snow was so beautiful.

Sometimes it's liberating to do something crazy and unconventional. Leen and I made a memory together. How cool is that?