This winter has been nasty. Snow and cold and ice and more snow. Oh, and the flood that killed my car. That sucked pretty bad, too.
So, things had been going okay until about 2 1/2 weeks ago when a water main broke near my apartment, and caused flooding in the streets. This flooding was so bad that it caused a large portion of the street to collapse. It was also so bad that the water reached my car, parked about a half a block away, and rose to a level where it seeped into the interior of the car. Oh yeah, then it froze. I spent that whole day trying to get my car towed out of the mess that was my neighborhood before the whole thing turned into a giant block of ice. I didn't succeed until 7 p.m. that night, and the car was a total loss anyway. Bummer.
The next couple of days I took the train to work, which worked out okay, except I was damn depressed about my car. Plus, I had places I needed to go that weekend and no way to get there. That Thursday my Dad called me and told me he'd loan me his car so I could get around over the weekend (Love him!!). I told him I would give it back to him on Sunday, or whenever he needed it. It ended up that he didn't need it at all that next week, so I kept it and drove it to work every day. The following Thursday (after I'd had the car for a week), I had made plans to go to the parents' so my Mom and I could watch the "Lost" season premiere. Dad said that the next day, he and Mom would come out to my place of work to pick up the car, and I could take the train home from there. Well, due to the snowstorm forecast on Thursday night, I decided it would be in my best interest to spend the night at my parents' house. So I did. And I drove in to work the next day from there. But because of all the snow, my Dad didn't want to drive all the way to my work to get the car again, so he said I could keep it a while longer. Awesome!
The weather has only gotten worse. On Super Bowl Sunday, it snowed some more, and my friend and I got made fun of at the bar because we went to the window to check out the snow. Apparently some dude thought it was funny to assume we'd never seen snow before, or were not native to Chicago and had no idea it snowed here. In reality, we were gauging the amount of snow and whether it would be better for my friend to leave early (she'd driven) than stay for the whole game. 'Cuz you see, having lived in the Midwest our whole lives, we're smart enough to know to be aware of the weather conditions when we're driving somewhere. That guy was a prick.
This past Tuesday/Wednesday actually were prime examples of that need to be aware of the weather. We were expecting ANOTHER huge storm, with snow and rain and sleet and every other form of precipitation imagineable. Tuesday night I went home, half expecting to not come in at all the next day (or if I was feeling ambitious, I'd take the train). But when I woke up Wednesday, it was only raining. Where was this mythical storm? So I drove. And that was stupid. The weather worsened as I neared work, and this only put me on edge all morning. I knew it was going to get worse before it got better, and I would much rather be stuck at home than stuck at work. I ended up leaving half-way through the day, and I am super glad I did, because the snow was getting bad out in the burbs, and as I got into the city, the rainy "wintery mix" was turning to humongous snowchunks plummeting from the sky. I watched out my living room window as the snow continued to fall and the roads got worse and worse. I was happy with my decision to leave early, and it turns out I didn't miss all that much at work anyway.
But this morning, I started to think I really wouldn't mind being without a car for a while. I was giving my friend a ride to work (thank god) and when we attmpted to get into the car, we failed miserably. All 4 of the doors were frozen shut. After about 30 minutes of pushing and pulling and punching and slamming and trying to think of hot things we could use to melt the ice, we finally made a breakthrough. Literally. I threatened my friend that I was going to pour his hot coffee on the frozen door, and that was all the motivation he needed to finally pry the door open. You might be wondering why I didn't just give up and take the train. Well, that really wasn't an option today because once again, I am going out to my parents' house after work to return the car to my Dad. If I showed up without it, that might be a little odd. Not to mention, how would I get there?
So anyway, it's still cold and snowy and icy outside, but it's actually not as cold as it has been the past few winters (knock on wood). And as of tonight, I will be officially carless. Not that the one has to do with the other, but, well, in my mind, "the winter" and "the car" are now inextricably linked.
