Snow

Last night, the Pittsburgh area received 8.4 inches of snow.  As one radio broadcaster put it this morning, "I thought the forecast was for 2-4 inches, not 2 x 4 inches.  Must have missed the "x" symbol in there somewhere."

Since we were only expecting - initially - 2-4 inches, I thought that I would be fine traveling to have dinner with a friend at a restaurant about 45 minutes away.  Generally, I have no problem driving in snow.  But the falling of the flakes began a little sooner than most people expected, and collected on the ground faster than anyone thought it would have.

"Eh . . . I'll still go to dinner," I thought.  And I did.  And it was a delightful dinner.  A catching-up with one of my friends that was long over-due.  By the time I left the area, it was 8:50 PM.  I returned home to the rectory at 10:30 PM.  I, luckily, decided to take the Turnpike.  While there was some traffic, everyone kept moving, so there wasn't any problem about getting stuck on the road.  The only major problem I had was as I was driving on Route 19 South.  I sat in traffic there for about twenty minutes.

In retrospect, I probably should have spent the night at a hotel.  (The pastor assumed I wasn't coming back, and was waiting for me to call informing him of that.)  But, once here, I was happy to be in my own bed for the evening.

When I went to bed last night, our parish school and the surrounding school districts had a two-hour delay.  When I woke up this morning to unlock the church for the 7:00 AM Mass, they had closed.  I was surprised when I had about 10 people this morning for Mass - I was preparing for about 3-4.  And we're still at the point where the snow is still the major story everyone is talking about, because a lot of people are still be effected by it.  Nevertheless, it's wonderful to see the sun out, though it's still chilly out.

I just cannot wait until Spring finally decides to come around.




Enjoy the journey . . .