New England Robo-Rain

Yesterday was supposed to be the long awaited break from the constant succession of snow storms.  It was supposed to be an afternoon of rain that would finally melt some of the snow pack that’s built up around here.  I even debated taking my own car to work instead of the four wheel drive but this winter has made me cautious if nothing else.

This caution was well spent when the forecast rain showed up as a hellacious snow storm in the afternoon. The city of Worcester wasn’t blessed with the same level of caution or they ran out of road salt because the roads were quickly covered with an inch of packed ice and snow as traffic ground to a halt.

Yesterday's "Rain" Storm

My wife often gives me a hard time about my penchant for exploring alternate routes, something I call reconnaissance (an old infantryman’s habit I never lost).  I’ve been reconning Worcester for nearly ten years now and that came in extremely handy yesterday after surveying the parking lots that used to be the main Worcester thoroughfares.  I departed work going east instead of the usual west and with some broken field running was able to reach the interstate where there was some road salt still in use.  The trip was twice the usual distance but I would probably still be sitting in traffic if I’d gone my normal way.  I was presented with 5 inches of really heavy snow on the driveway when I got home so the ritualistic snow blowing exercise has now reached seven consecutive days. 

Son and I Yesterday

The first part of the day was significantly better as my son’s busy schedule finally permitted a return to our weekly Wednesday lunch date.  In my wife’s extended absence I’ve come to depend on these for a weekly infusion of sanity into my life (something sorely needed – levels had reached a dangerous nadir). 

 My dateless date night saw me at the movie theater (huge surprise) seeing the new Robocop flick.  The original movie was something of an event when I took my very young (alright way too young) son to see it.  He doesn’t seem too damaged by this parental failure.  The new one is glossy and all CGIed up but it lacks the heart and visceral violence of the original.  There were some exciting sequences but invariably interspersed with some absolute plodding.  The resulting stop and go reaches whiplash level pain.

The new Robocop had issues covered up his Euro-accent but the rest of the cast was good.  There was a heavy handed, anti-American message in TV host Samuel L. Jackson’s character (who got in his signature M.F. with only a few seconds to spare).  I’m probably too hard on this because the original had so many fond memories, but this wasn’t nearly as good and a PG-14 Robocop is just too safe.

This winter (I’ve come to ascribe a real personality to this beast) had a surprise waiting for me when I came out of the theater.  That rain finally did show up, as the freezing variety.  I got home okay but that earlier snow blowing had created a pristine canvas for the freezing rain to create a fairly accurate representation of a luge track.  I started sliding backwards about halfway up the hill and was able to get sideways enough to stop the car before I reacquainted myself with my neighbor’s front yard again.  The contribution of most of my own remaining road salt supply finally saw the car into the garage.  Beast indeed.

My Own Personal Luge Track - Decidedly Uncool