Today's big adventure,
besides mailing newsletters, was lunch with some former
coworkers (from Cosmodemonic Telecomm, not Starship
Startup) at the new home of one of them deep in the woods
of Acton. There's much more to Acton than dozens of
networking/telecomm startups and the Bagel Butler. So
much more... especially ice. Also dark-eyed juncos, downy
woodpeckers, and black capped chickadees but ice is the
story of the day, week, month...
The new home in question has a long
steep driveway with lots of ice. I pulled into the
driveway kind of fast because I almost missed the
driveway between the snow banks. At the spot where the
driveway curves a little on the way down I hit a patch of
ice and realized the car was no longer under my control.
I have no idea whether I hit the brake or what caused the
car to slide on the ice, but it well and truly had a mind
and direction of its own and there was no regaining
control. I hit a snow bank and wedged the left front
wheel deep in the frozen snow.
Sheepishly I rang the front
doorbell and after all the happy hellos managed to
stammer out "My car is stuck in your driveway." The
former coworkers mobilized with shovels and sand and
muscle power. They dug the left front end out of the snow
bank and sanded the ice patch. I rocked the car. They
pushed. After several tries, the car was
freed.
We finally got down to the business
of lunch and had a great time. I threatened to stay until
spring, but our host graciously drove my car up to the
top of the driveway for me.
Back at home off the edge of the
universe it was snowing when I arrived. Slowly and
steadily snowing. Wilbur and I watched it out the window
of my study for awhile as I attempted to update the MRFRS
volunteer database with Wilbur attached to my shoulder.
He rolled over and sprawled across my chest and neck so I
could no longer see the screen let alone the keyboard. I
mean, I did learn to touch type in junior high so I'd
have something to fall back on if I didn't snag a husband
(or something like that- it was the early 60's, which
were really the 50's Zeitgeist-wise), but somehow not
being able to see the screen made it impossible to
believe I was typing the right things. Miraculously, when
Wilbur detached from me to get a drink of water from the
dripping faucet in the bathroom (he's delighted that I
have every faucet in the house dripping to keep the pipes
from freezing) I saw that I had entered the names and
addresses flawlessly.
After a long debate with myself
about whether it was crazy to drive to Central Square for
the meeting tonight in the cold, I decided I really
needed the meeting. I left a little early and took myself
out to dinner at India Pavilion beforehand. The church
wasn't as freezing cold as I expected. The pastor has a
bunch of little space heaters distributed throughout. He
warned us to watch out for the heater in the bathroom
positioned to keep the pipe from freezing. The walk back
to my car afterward chilled me to the bone, but the whole
trip was not as bad as I feared.
The last time I remember being this
cold was the first December that I worked at Cosmodemonic
Telecomm. It was well below zero every day for a week
with plenty of wind and the walk from the parking garage
to the office building was like a wind tunnel. I remember
thinking I'd never be warm again. That was a way wicked
long time ago - I think there was a high-tech recession
going on then, before the boom years hit... No wonder I
feel old.
