And snow, it begins...

So here's the timeline of everything that happened since Thursday morning...

Thursday AM:
- Colleen drops off Marcus at my parents', just like any other typical Thursday morning.
- Colleen stops by the flat, just to make sure that I'm ready, as her car is going to Fiore's garage on Rt 9 in Shrewsbury for an oil change and to have some minor repairs done before our Annual Christmas Exodus from MA. I pick her up there and drive her to school in Shrewsbury, then me to work in Marlboro.
- Colleen emails me that Shrewsbury schools are dismissing early due to the oncoming storm. She'll keep me posted about St Mary School, as they use Shrewsbury public school buses.
- Colleen advised 1240 dismissal for St Mary. I consult my boss, and he allows me to leave at 1300. I've got the PTO to burn, so he lets me go free for the rest of the day.
- 1257: I get a call from a customer who demands an update on an issue that has been escalated, and is still being worked on. I'm subtly trying to give her the bum's rush as I need to get out of there as the snow is starting to fly.
- 1310: I finally get to my car, do the initial clearoff, and get on the road. Pull onto Rt 20 W, see that it's at a pace that an overburdened asthmatic ant would find painfully slow, so I pull off to a couple of side roads that would get me to I290W.
- I290W is in somewhat crap state, but at least it's moving. I take that to 140S, and pull into St Mary School parking lot at 1350. We're back underway at 1355.
- Drive on 140N to I290W is somewhat slow, as it's slightly hilly and the snow's getting worse. C's stomach is in knots, and I'm just concentrating on the roads, and letting myself feel every shake and shimmy of the car on the road. I290W is in crappier state when we get on there, so we're moving along at 25mph at most.
- I make a decision to pull off the highway at the W Main Street exit to head toward Lincoln Street that way, as I290 is a hill after crossing Lake Quinsigamond, and I wasn't sure how we'd be able to do it on an unplowed highway. Plus, fuel is fast getting toward bingo, and I wanted to get at least half a tank. This, on the whole, was somewhat of a mistake. I forgot about the other inclines and such. We had problems getting up them, as did other drivers. I think it took us nearly an hour to get from 290 to the Exxon station.
- Fuelled up, used the head, and we were back on the road. Now this Exxon station is about 1.25 miles from our flat. It took us 52 minutes to drive that far. Now it's about 1600, and we haven't even gone back to my parents' house to get Marcus. We discussed this with my parents as we sat in traffic, and they agreed to keep him there until the roads were better later that evening.
- 1900, they decided to venture forth in their AWD Matrix. While driving, Marcus falls asleep in the car. Roads were decent, according to my parents, up until getting close to Lincoln Street. After sitting in traffic for over 20 minutes, they bin the idea, and take Marcus back, and have him sleep there overnight.
- The house was quiet without him last night.
- Colleen wakes up at 0100, worried about Marcus. Meanwhile, Marcus wakes up at 0100, afraid, as the surroundings are unfamiliar. Colleen works on some crochet until 330. Poppa takes Marcus downstairs to hang and chill until he falls asleep around 330. Weird.
- Worcester has a two hour delay. Colleen's school has the day off for some Professional day, which is cancelled due to the weather. We go to pick up Marcus, who is overjoyed to see us. They're both at home now, waiting to hear from Fiore's on when the car is ready. (Side note -- the repair, oil change, and tire rotation for like $270... nice!)

So it's business as usual here...
Four days of work next week. I have Friday off, and then gone.