Snow Bound!

They said it was coming - and it did. It started at 4 yesterday afternoon and it's still snowing hard outside, more than 24 hours later. So far about 18 inches has piled up in my driveway - not including the five foot tall pile of nasty plowed into the end of my driveway courtesy of the demon plow driver (I will kill him with a stake through his frigging heart if I can ever catch the plow). I didn't expect that they would, and I already knew there was no way on Goddess' green earth that I was going to attempt to make it to the bus stop today and travel the 11 miles downtown - guess what - they closed the office! The first time in the more than 5 years I've worked there! so, I didn't have to use a vacation day today after all, thank goodness for small favors! I shoveled 3 times, all to no avail. Once starting at 6 a.m. this morning to go get my newspaper - when there was only half a foot of snow on the ground; once around noon when I foolishly through I might be able to get down to the supermarket and pick up some more peanuts - the squirrels were ravenous this morning and for the couple of hour window while the back deck stayed unburied under snow, they miraculously appeared out of nowhere (perhaps they fly when we are looking?). Well, I should have gone, despite the blowing snow and unplowed roads. It just got worse at the day wore on. What was supposed to end at 6 p.m. is now forecast to end at 9 p.m. With winds gusting out of the east, and then the northeast, and now north/northeast up to 40 mph, the drifing is fierce. Things got so bad, the county transportation system pulled its buses off the road, service ended at 5:30 p.m. I really feel for all the people working who missed their last bus and are waiting, waiting, waiting... Not everyone listens to all news radio or television while at work, and those are the places where the announcement of suspension of bus service were made. There might even be people out there who didn't hear the announcement while still at home getting ready to go to work, and they're out there at bus stops waiting, waiting, waiting... Oh Goddess! I think I hurt my left shoulder shoveling, it hurts like the dickens. This last time, I shoveled from 5:38 p.m. until 7 p.m. and managed to open up about a 3 foot wide path from my front porch down to the road, where it narrows to about 2 feet because I don't have anywhere to go with the snow in the hill plowed into the end of my driveway - I can't toss it up any higher, about 4.5 feet high along the left side of the driveway. My mail box and paper box are buried - that means I won't get any mail until I can get it dug out - and that means it will wait until spring! I can't toss the snow up any higher than it already is. I may be able to hire someone to come and plow me out, about a week from now.