STAY HOME!

Nope.
Not gonna do it.
Got ready for work, was going to leave way early to give myself time.
Looked outside.
Not too awful (I live in town).
Stepped outside.
Almost blew over in the wind.
Went back inside.
Checked the weather again.
Below zero and dropping fast, wind chills in the fifties below coming up right quick.
Checked the road report.
No travel advised.
Imagine that.

Getting home from my part time job last night took me a good hour or so because I at least like to FEEL the road (thank God for the center and side lane rumble strips; had to use them a time or two last night when I couldn't see the road at all). So I poked along trying to keep an eye on that white line, sped up a time or two when it got clear for a few seconds only to have to slow right back down. And I was driving on the 'good' side of the road. The other lane had pillow drifts, which caused a white-out for me by on-coming vehicles. So when a faint glow appeared ahead of me, I pulled way over to the outer rumble strip, slowed way down, and rode the strip until I could catch a glimpse of the white line again. The fact that I wasn't the ONLY crazy fool to be out driving in that was no comfort to me at ALL. The kicker of the whole thing was that I COULD see farm lights and finally the lights of my town - but the ground blizzard was keeping me from seeing the road that I had to stay on in order to GET to those lights.

Frustrating and stressful.
It was not a fun thing.
Took me an hour to un-tense my muscles when I finally got home.

And today is worse, even though it's bright outside (relatively speaking). The sky is white instead of blue but at least it's daytime.
When it gets like this they'll pull the plows, because really what's the point of plowing when it isn't doing any good? The wind dominates and un-does their work before they even have a chance to make any headway.

Don't get me wrong; I love the heck out of that job, but honestly? I requested a weather-related early out last night and got told 'No'.
Frankly I wasn't all that amused by her idea of a 'joke'.
That trip home didn't make me want to laugh, either.

Now, I'm not real big on taking advice as a general rule, but from now on when the NDDOT suggests that I stay home, I'm likely to STAY HOME!