This just in

INTENSE LOW PRESSURE TRACKING SOUTHEAST OF LONG ISLAND OVERNIGHT WILL RESULT IN A PERIOD OF HEAVY SNOW AND GUSTY WINDS ACROSS THE AREA. SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 10 TO 18 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS AS HIGH AS 24 INCHES...ARE EXPECTED. HIGHEST ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED OVER NEW YORK CITY AND COASTAL CONNECTICUT...WITH LOWER AMOUNTS NORTH AND WEST OF THE CITY. SNOWFALL RATES OF 2 TO 4 INCHES PER HOUR...ACCOMPANIED BY THUNDER AND LIGHTNING...ARE POSSIBLE DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM INTO THE OVERNIGHT. GUSTY WINDS ARE ALSO EXPECTED... WHICH ALONG WITH THE HEAVY SNOW WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO UNDER A QUARTER MILE AT TIMES...AND CAUSE SOME BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW.

Under a quarter mile at times? Seriously? How about ten inches past the end of my hood for most of the 8 mile drive in? *eyeroll*

And ooh, thundersnow. Can't wait for that.

Ah well. With any luck, the roads will be mostly plowed by the time I get out of here at 10am. Meanwhile, I've got the second half of our Christmas cards to write, some classic Doctor Who to watch while doing it, and an otherwise nice and quiet office. *knocks wood*

Meanwhile, second shift person was much more personable than usual, most likely because I got in even before 11 to get her out of here. She's only been here about a month and has been almost systematically alienating everybody here. Considering I only see her at change of shift Saturday nights, it's rather impressive that she's managed to include me in that. That said, I suggested that if a similar situation arises in the future, she just freaking call me earlier. I don't mind getting someone out of here early for a storm. On the other hand, I pointed out that if I'm not the one relieving her, she'd best be prepared to potentially get frozen in for a double. Gods know I have several times back when I was the four to midnight person.

And the final results: 18"

At least, it was up to my knee, and the tape measure tells me that's 18". Fortunately, it was light and fluffy. As it is, I'm sore all over from shoveling.

Some kids who live in the same building as my work helped me clear off my car this morning. They didn't ask for anything in return, so I swung by Dunkin Donuts for hot chocolate and donuts, which I gave to their mother for them. (Thank goodness Dunkin takes plastic.)

When I got home, the plow had done a straight line through our parking lot but hadn't touched the parking spots. The plow hadn't even been there when Patsfan got home from work, so he'd shoveled a spot for each of us on the street and put a barrel in mine. Er, nice thought, but a) the barrel thing is all Boston, nobody cares if you do that here, they'll just move it if they need the spot and b) it was still snowing and blowing, so the spot filled right back up anyway, meaning his effort was totally wasted. Also, there is a parking ban, and at some point, his car was going to get ticketed and/or towed. So I settled in to shovel our spots in the lot/driveway/whatever you want to call it. Was about half done when the people the landlord pays to dig out the stairs and walkways showed up and used the snowblower on the rest of it, thank goodness. Can't imagine the shape I'd be in if I'd done it all.

Skelaxin is currently my bestest buddy ever. And while I was always planning to hit Curves tomorrow, I think I'll probably only do the stretching circuit. Muscles definitely need recovering time.

Some time around 9 this morning, Priest Dude rescheduled Winter Festival and Dendraia for next Sunday. Via Facebook. We've finally dragged him into the 21st century! LOL

Never did finish the cards last night. Should probably work on them a bit now, as the first batch got mailed Saturday morning. Have more classic Who to watch. Got a bit more than halfway through The War Machines, which at first I thought was going to be the introduction to the Cybermen. Not. But some of the concepts and devices seem to have been laying the groundwork for them, and the next disc in my queue is definitely Cybermen. Tomb of the Cybermen actually. It's very weird, though, as I've reached the point where there are all these forever lost eps due to a fire, and probably others that either just never got put on DVD or else Netflix doesn't carry them in a manner I can locate, so suddenly there's this new companion (Dodo? Really? This is what they named her?) and references to events that I have no idea of. Hmmm. And I just caught a snippet of a dream I must've had today, because I'm reasonably sure Barbara and Ian did not actually suddenly show up in this arc, and why the hell would I dream they did?

Tonight's third shift person called out at 5am. At 4:30pm, I got called because the person they'd found to cover it got frozen in at her other job, and would I come do it? I'm very proud of myself for actually saying NO! The fact that I'd just woken up and felt stiff as a board probably helped my resolve. Just saw (via Facebook) that tonight's 2nd shifter is now pulling a double. Feel vaguely guilty, but then again, no I don't. I'm still sore, also a bit sniffly, and it wouldn't actually have any impact on my paycheck if I did take it. It'd just mean less pool time being used for taking Friday and Saturday nights off. It's never quite worth picking up extra shifts on a week where you've requested days off. Or, for that matter, when there's a holiday. Because pool time and holiday pay can't put you over your scheduled hours for the week, so if you help out by picking up a shift, you can actually end up losing your paid holiday altogether. Stupid.

Babblebabble.

Going to pop War Machines in and see about getting the rest of these cards done. If I don't just fall back to sleep, which feels like a very real possibili...zzzzzzzz...