> 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.

We got somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four inches - I've heard all kinds of amounts inside there.

> 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.

What a very nice place you work for. My place of business is nowhere near so polite, but I'll get to that a little bit
later in my narrative. Which starts now.

Mina went to work yesterday in the late morning. I went and sat in chat for several hours, where Faux Pas (and
others) talked about the snowstorm that was going on. I went to the window and looked out - no new snow was
to be seen, just the half-inch or so that had been sitting on the ground for ages. It certainly wasn't snowing. I came
back to chat and reported that there was no snow, thereby offending people and causing them to leave
RinkWorks FOREVER. Them's the breaks.

Hours passed, until three o'clock loomed nigh - the time I expected Mina to be home for lunch. Soon, indeed, she
came in with a bag of food, and informed me that she was home for the day; the entire strip had lost power, and
so they closed the store. When I found it funny that they had lost power, and asked why, she told me it was
because of the snowstorm.

Snowstorm?

Snowstorm. Upon looking out the window, I indeed saw a snowstorm - and very little else. Just a sliding wall of
white. By five-thirty (or so), we had accumulated about a foot of snow, and then the storm abated. We went to
take a nap, but we had to get up later that night so I could go to work (for midnight).

At eight o'clock (or so), my assistant manager called to see if I would be able to make it. I told him "yes," and
went back to bed.

I got up, showered, got dressed, and headed out to the car. It had started snowing again - we now had another
foot. Mina told me that the car wouldn't budge - it was buried in the snow and parked on top of a sheet of ice. I
called work and told them I couldn't get there, hoping that I'd then be able to go back to bed. But no, the assistant
manager came over and picked me up and brought me in. Them's the breaks, too.

Before we left, he told me that Joe (the manager) *may* be stuck in Maine. This matters because, firstly, that
meant he wouldn't be in in the morning to help me out, and, secondly, because he wouldn't be able to give me a
ride home as he usually does on days when Mina has to go into work at seven. But my sense of duty has this
annoying habit of overriding self-preservation instincts, and I went in anyway, deciding to bet that he made it back
from Maine (no one knew either way).

Why work even stayed open is a mystery to me - we lost power for forty minutes that evening - an event that
closed every other business in town - yet we stayed open. We were buried in snow, yet we stayed open. Ah well.
The night was insane, since we were the only thing opoen and there were a *lot* of plow drivers who wanted
coffee. I worked like crazy trying to attend all of the customers.

I got a phone call at five telling me that one of the the girls who was supposed to be in at six would be late, since
she was snowed in, too. No problem.

Six o'clock. No sign of Joe. No sign of the other girl who should be in at six. Sigh.

At six-thirty, Amy (the girl who would be late) came in and started work. I had given up hope on my bet coming
through - Joe would have called by then if he were coming in late, so he must have been stuck in Maine. Kaitlyn -
the other girl - had not been seen nor heard of, thereby almost assuredly firmly cementing her re-firing. But I
digress.

I got to run the front all alone during the busiest time of the day (Amy was running the deli). It was a pain. Sebrina
came in at twenty of eight, and I almost couldn't tell the difference - she spent the entire time leaning against the
door to Joe's office. The only reason it was any different having her there from not was because the cuteness was
being rapidly sucked out of my thoughts as I observed her doing nothing while I ran about frantically trying to do
six things at once.

I punched out at eight (I should have stayed and helped, but that would have required my morale to be a nonzero
quantity). I called Mina at work - they were slow, so they let her come to pick me up. Good - I did not want to
walk the three miles home in two feet of snow - especially not since the entirety of my footwear collection is a pair
of loafers (strikingly appropriate, no? :-}).

I guess the point of this rambling is that I wish my company was as nice as Sam's. Oh, that and that I'm now
actively searching for a new job. Anyone wanna hire me? :-}

Dar "long-winded and dull" ien