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Allison Larkin

Internationally Best-Selling Author

You are here: Home / effing snow / Dear Weather, Bite me. Love, Allie

Dear Weather, Bite me. Love, Allie

December 2, 2010 Filed Under: effing snow, rochester, weather

Okay, so you know how yesterday, thanks to the crazy wind I basically mooned the mail lady and got hit in the head with a door?

Well, today Mr. Weather tricked me into spending four hours in the car just to grab a cup of coffee at the exit 42 Wilson Farms gas station off I-90.  I was supposed to go to Ithaca to have lunch with my friend, Marty.  I haven’t seen him in ages, and he was so sweet to plan out a wonderful and gluten-free lunch for us (he’s the most amazing cook I know, by the way).

It was going to be so great to see him and catch up.  I decided to leave early, so I could bum around town for an hour or so before lunch and take a few pictures to post for you, so if you’ve never been to Ithaca, you’d be able to see that Ithaca is Gorges.

The weather report didn’t look great when I got up this morning, but it promised a high of 52 degrees, rain, and then snow showers with temperatures dropping into the upper 20s tonight.  No biggie, right?  I’ve lived in Rochester for almost eleven years, and I spent two years in Ithaca in my late teens.  I qualify as a Western New Yorker now.  I’m intrepid.  The Crapmobile doesn’t always start, but it does have four wheel drive.  I had Peter Mulvey in the CD player and snacks on the passenger seat.  I wasn’t going to let a little rain and sleet keep me from seeing my friend.

I stopped at Wegmans on my way out of town, and when I got back to the car, it was snowing, and it certainly wasn’t 52 degrees.  By the time I got to I-90, it was REALLY snowing.  But, hey, people drive in snow all the time.  And I drive like a little old lady anyway.  People are nicer about that when there’s snow on the ground.

By exit 44, it was hard to see more than a few feet ahead of me.  But, I’m intrepid, I told myself.

By exit 43, the roads were clearer, and it was more rain than snow.

I got off at exit 42 thinking, That wasn’t so bad, and looking forward to the twisty, picturesque drive through the Finger Lakes.  I decided to stop at the gas station to fuel up and grab some coffee, and when I stopped, I checked my e-mail.  There was a message from Marty saying that Ithaca was having bad flooding and they’d started closing roads.  When I gave him a call, he said, “It’s not that the roads are bad . . . it’s that they aren’t there.”

I may be intrepid, and the Crapmobile may have four wheel drive, but it is not an amphibious vehicle.  So, me and my gas station coffee turned around and headed back to Rochester, just in time to hear Peter Mulvey sing “We got the news, Ithaca got snow . . . It was just that kind of day,” because, you know, I needed someone to rub it in.

Instead of pictures of gorges and The Commons, you get this:

And this:

There’s a joke that in Rochester there are two seasons, winter and road work.  But December ’tis the season when winter and road work collide, so it took me twice as long to get back home as it did to get to exit 42.

By exit 43, it was bad.

By exit 44 it was awful.

Just before exit 45, there was a multiple-car accident smack in the middle lane.

When I got to 490, it was a sheet of ice.   I exited and took backroads where everyone was moving at a rate of one mile per millennium, and by the time I got into Rochester, it looked like this:

And when I got home, it was lunchtime.  Instead of catching up with Marty over his homemade Cornish game hen and lentil/barley soup, I got to eat a freezer-burned microwave meal (that I’m pretty sure Stella licked when I wasn’t looking) while re-watching the Ally McBeal episode I slept through last night.  Whatever I can stick in the microwave and old TV shows (and Stella trying to eat my food) is par for the course when it comes to lunch around here, and on most days, it’s fine by me, but in contrast to the beautiful, bright, warm plans I had, it was rather disappointing.

So, if you live somewhere with nice sunny winters and have warm fuzzy feelings about the idea of snow, I’d totally be willing to swap houses with you for the next few months to cure you of your affinity for snow once and for all.  Really, I’d be happy to help.

6 Comments

Comments

  1. courtney says

    December 2, 2010 at 3:51 am

    Uh, no thanks. But you can totally come stay with us in Atlanta if you get sick of the snow!

    Reply
  2. Amy says

    December 2, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    I’m in Ohio and we usually get pretty awful winters… but I think you win this round! Happy to hear you didn’t get caught up in the accident. This morning our dog slipped on ice and bumped his head on a curb. Poor guy – really shocked him! (And us).

    Reply
  3. The Modern Gal says

    December 2, 2010 at 2:48 pm

    I’ll swap — but only for a couple of days :)

    Sorry about the winter surprise. I always get so annoyed when the weather of all things is what interrupts my plans.

    Reply
  4. Kate says

    December 2, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    Well, I’d swap, but it’s just more of what you have.

    Reply
  5. Hope says

    December 2, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    I would love to be somewhere warm right now. And we don’t even have snow yet!

    Reply
  6. Marty says

    December 15, 2010 at 7:00 pm

    Well, anyway, what matters is you got home safely. The soup was really good by the way, although the lentils and barley made me qualify for a federal tax break as a natural gas provider.

    Reply

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We are in the habit of starting and ending our day We are in the habit of starting and ending our days side by side in our lawn chairs, while the light rises or dims. It’s still chilly at the outer edges of the day. Sometimes Roxy shivers. I bought her a sweater, but she won’t wear it. Sometimes I try to wrap her in my jacket, but she’s not having that either, so I throw her ball and try to get her run and then she comes back to her chair, warm for a little longer. #dailyroxydog #huskychihuahua #dogssittinginchairs
“I got a secret I should tell. I’m going up to “I got a secret I should tell. I’m going up to heaven in a split pea shell.” ~ @petermulvey43 Words Too Small to Say
Happy as a dog in a freshly dug nap hole. #dailyro Happy as a dog in a freshly dug nap hole. #dailyroxydog #huskymixesofinstagram
I saw this little dresser at my favorite magic ant I saw this little dresser at my favorite magic antique store sometime in November and didn’t buy it. But then, of course, I kept thinking about her. She’s the perfect size for my office, and I found those drawer pulls hilarious. When I finally went back in December, I told myself I was shopping for wall art, because I assumed she would be gone. But she was right where I’d seen her last: balanced on another dresser with boxes of old picture frames and tchotchkes piled on top (the true mark of a magic antique store). I didn’t even realize she had a towel rack — that she was a wash stand, not a dresser — until I asked about the price, said I’d take her, and my favorite magic antique store person asked if we needed to unscrew the towel rack to fit her in my car. I suspect this little sweetie is not from the days of necessary wash stands so much as from a country kitchen in the 80s. She was in rough shape, and not made from wood worth stripping and re-staining, but her price reflected that. I had to disassemble that door and put it back together, but I’d been in the market for some experience working with old furniture, and she made me feel brave about trying. I thought about painting her something more neutral, but I’m so glad I didn’t. She deserves to be pink. She’s not perfectly painted and needs a few touch ups. I learned some things about chalk paint and finishes. The drawers stick a bit. Eventually, I’d like to line them with fabric and when I do, I might plane the edges to smooth things out. But goodness, I love her in a way that I wouldn’t if I hadn’t spent time cleaning away her cobwebs and scrubbing the grime from her hilarious drawer pulls. She’s also become a little shrine for the book I’m working on, which makes me love her even more. I’ve always been a person who sees some soul in certain things, and I’m learning to cherish that idiosyncrasy, because there’s so much joy to be found in a brave little toaster or an underdog wash stand. We’re not here in the world for all that long. We may as well love some bright little things. #furnituremakeover
After Roxy started stealing my seat, I dragged a s After Roxy started stealing my seat, I dragged a second lawn chair out. She nudges me over and we sit in our chairs, side by side, and watch the sun set. Well, I watch the sun set. She spies on the neighbors. #dailyroxydog #dogstagram #sundayevening
I truly don’t understand how anyone is this cute I truly don’t understand how anyone is this cute. I never get used to it. There’s no immunity. She’s adorable beyond what pictures can capture. #dailyroxydog #huskymixesofinstagram #ilovemydog
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