This is a bit like the “hi, just letting you know we’re still alive” phone calls Kelcy, Ginneh and I made en route to NY Friday night, while we contended with a winter’s due of wind-whipped snow, sleet and slush. At the outset I don’t feel like I’ll have much to say, so let me start by saying that we are still alive and feeling fine.

It was a long, difficult trip down the Mass Pike, and in retrospect maybe not the genius idea of the year to set out during a blizzard. On the bright side, it was one of those defining experiences with winter driving that upstaters inevitably have, and which give us not only the ability to put up with some appalling road conditions and not total the car, but also the serenity to say “Fuck that shit, I’m staying in”.

It only took about twice as long as usual. There was a fair share of sliding, and pumping of the ABS, but no guard rails, ditches or fellow-motorists were hit. Things were at a low when, just after leaving the Pike and Thruway behind, we got lodged in the unplowed offramp to a rest area some single-digit number of miles from home (in accordance with Murphy’s Law and the laws of irony) and spent the next 20 minutes backing out of the knee-high snow and being sprayed in the face with ice needles. Luckily, the Californian brought spare snowpants, and with some doing, we freed the car. At the height of a Nor’Easter is a shitty time to have to call and wait for triple-A.

Spent an hour or so unburying the driveway so there’d be room to park. Exhausted as we were, we waited ’til Sat afternoon to take Ginneh north to Saratoga. A couple days of pleasant lazy nothing and familial introductions and mom’s experimental Asian cuisine followed, and here we are Tuesday evening, happy and full. Now all we need is to remember what there is to do in Smallbany (homework? what is this homework you speak of. I know not.)

Updates should be forthcoming as we find an answer to this question or, just maybe, actual work gets done.