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Vintage Mac Living

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

- 2006.12.22

It came as a surprise to me because I haven't watched the news or The Weather Channel for awhile. I went to bed at about 4:00 a.m. Wednesday, and it wasn't snowing at all.

Now you might be wondering why I went to bed so late. Well, about a month and a half ago, my boss at McDonald's told me that we were going to extend our store hours to 6 a.m. through 2 a.m. instead of closing at midnight. He wanted to know if I would like to work the closing shift (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.). He told me that if I did, I would get a nice raise, so I said yes.

Anyway, I woke up at noon on Wednesday. It was payday at McDonald's, and I wanted to get my paycheck. I looked outside, and I couldn't believe my eyes! It was snowing like crazy, blowing snow at least 6" deep in front of my house. [Editor's note: Ted lives in Denver.]

I needed to get my paycheck, and after that much snow I was sure that it would die down soon.

Regardless, I had to take my family with me. There was now way I'd be able to drive in this mess, but my Dad is a very experienced driver, so I had him come with me.

It was a horrible drive: We almost got stuck on the way to Walmart (where my McDonald's is located). When we got there, I went inside, and my boss was making a sign on his computer that said "Due to the weather, we are closing at 4 p.m. Weather permitting, we will open tomorrow at 8 a.m."

That's when I knew how bad this storm was going to be.

I got my check, cashed it at the bank inside the Walmart, and my Dad and I set out on our journey home.

We couldn't take the road we had taken to get back home because the traffic was far too bad, so we decided to take another route, one that would take us through our old neighborhood.

The main roads were as bad as the side streets, all of them had a 6" or 7" layer of snow.

There are several steep hills between our house and Walmart, and there's no way around them. We tried to find a street where the hills weren't as steep, but everywhere we went there was either too much traffic or cars stuck sideways on the hills.

We got stuck a number of times, and about a mile from home we gave up. We had to abandon our Honda Accord. We were close to a friend of my sister's, and her Dad has a Ford F-250 pickup with four-wheel drive, so we asked him to give us a ride home.

After all was said and done it took 4 hours to get to Walmart and back - normally it takes about 45 minutes.

When we finally got home it was almost 5 p.m., and we were very tired.

It snowed all night long, and it didn't stop until about 12 p.m. on Thursday. When it finally stopped, there was about 3-1/2' of snow in our back yard.

The storm was so bad that my McDonald's didn't open on Thursday -most businesses didn't. The buses didn't even run.

Our Acura Legend is half buried in snow; it's so deep that you can't even see the front half of the car.

My Mom and I walked to the 7-Eleven, which is about six blocks away from home. It was the busiest I've ever seen.

It almost reminds me of the Blizzard of 2003, but the snow isn't nearly as heavy, and it isn't quite as deep.

I really wasn't expecting a three-day weekend, but I'm glad that it happened. It gave me a lot more time to get some stuff done around the house, and it gave me something to write about.

I hope you all have a very nice holiday and a great new year!

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