Finally, finally the snow is starting to melt away. On Christmas eve, we had a friend with a four wheel drive pick my mom up and deliver her to our house. Mom couldn't get out of her driveway, down her street, or down her hill. She was ok. She could walk to the grocery store if she needed to, but Christmas alone? Not even. We couldn't get her home, so we had camp Mommom for the next two days. That was great.

Yesterday, the kids, mom, and I drove to the store which, unbeknownst to us, had not plowed the parking lot. We immediately got stuck. One of the reasons we shop at this store is the excellent service, and a cheerful man with a shovel guaranteed he would be able to get us back on the road. He did, and he wouldn't accept a tip. Try to picture roads hard packed with ice, huge ruts of slush, cars with only front wheel drive. I've lived in Boston and Minneapolis, only twice have I had conditions like this.

Today was like spring comparatively. Of course, my neighbor had to hack up the ice on our sidewalk before I could shovel it, but really things will be back to normal in another week.