What Is It About Mondays?

There’s something about Monday morning that seems to bring out the worst in Mother Nature lately.

Last week, it was snow showers. Today, the ante is up: ice. I didn’t know this until I went to take out the trash about an hour ago. The concrete at the back door is fine. That’s where the difficulty comes in because it catches you completely off guard. Walk out the door. Fine. Walk up the three steps where the back door leads out to the driveway and – not so much. Whooooooosh. You and the two bags of trash that you’re carrying are now on a slalom course.

Or at least that’s what happened to me. I might have qualified for Olympic competition with that performance! Even the landscape rocks were covered with a nasty sheet of ice so they weren’t much help. Thankfully – if not rather oddly – I managed to not fall. When I left for work, I didn’t even attempt my brick walkway. The blanket of ice draped across it shone like diamonds. No way, man.

Instead, I edged myself across the yard which was crunchy with the stuff, willed myself across the few feet of sidewalk, and marched, penguin-style, across four lanes of icy roadway. I continued this laughable procession down the street to the corner.

People are, remarkably, taking their time. There is none of the typical pealing out that I see every day. No one cruising ahead of passing cars. No. It’s slow and steady all the way.

The bus. Well, it came, a marked improvement over last Monday. Even so, it’s creeping along. We’ve already slid through two stop signs. I can hardly wait to see what bridge conditions will be like. And even better, what will that block be like between the stop and the office?

Luckily, most of it is at least partially covered, so I guess I can always hold out hope that it isn’t like my driveway.

I sure hope these temperatures start rising a little faster. We’re supposedly headed for about 50 today, which is great. It’s just not doing us much good right now.