ICE

Charlie's girls don't want to go out of the coop. I don't blame them. I don't want to go outside either. With yesterday's wind chill index down in the minus degrees, they would be little frozen chicken pops in a matter of moments. It was cold. I know this from experience- I had to go out yesterday morning and complete the defrosting of my car before driving it to Butler. Mostly it was about a quarter inch of ice all over, but there were places (the back window) where it was over a half inch thick, and the windshield wipers were frozen in a lump of ice that I couldn't begin to measure except to say the hunks were baseball size that I chunked off.
I ran the engine for an hour before trying the second time to get the rest of this off. I finally realized that I could tap the ice with the back end of my plastic scraper, and it cracked like an egg shell.. and then a couple more taps would break it apart. You'd think this was a simple task, but it was long and tedious and my fingers became numb before I decided I'd had enough cleaning and got in my car to go. The pain in my fingers was excruciating as they began to thaw.
Now, Pennsylvania just passed a new law that all cars must be free of all ice and snow before entering a highway. We were warned to clean off our cars- the police are watching for you and the fines are steep- was it upwards of $1000? I'm not certain. All I knew was that there was still a little on the back of my car, and I wondered if I'd get pulled over because of it. I guess it's all a myth. After backbreaking, finger numbing 2 days of cleaning off the ice and snow, I found myself out on the main roads with every 5th car having only a circle of windshield viewing approximately 10" diameter.. the rear windows were the same or less, and the 6" of snow piled on top of these cars + the hoods of cars leads me to believe that the new laws are not being enforced and I wasted a lot of time, energy, and the risk of frostbite for nothing. In the 11 mile trip into Butler, I saw no police cars, let alone anyone pulled over for any infraction. Well, as I think about it, where would one pull over on these roads? They are still coated with heavy ice and snow- the plows don't seem to be doing much good and now I'm wondering if they are even applying salt/antiskid material, or perhaps trying a new type here in our county. Allegheny county roads are clear and dry.. as you cross into Butler county, they are treacherous with ice and snow. Interestingly, my patients who came from an hour north of us said the roads got bad as they entered our county. They had more snow and ice, but their roads were very good. So what's the scoop here?
I am weary of winter- all 2 weeks of it.

Wendell has gone out this morning to his 2 doctor visits- one his cardiologist for a check-up, and then the rheumatologist for his knees- also a check up. We don't anticipate any problems at this point.
I am gainfully employed today and the weekend. Not looking forward to driving into town, but have to do it.
Just 350 days till I don't have to do this any more. It is encouraging.

My cup is about empty.. I need to get a refill. Have a wonderful day, bloggers..
Pray for us..