Salt of the Earth

Around these parts, road salt and winter go together like, well, salt and pepper.

My car can't decide if it's a pretzel or a margarita. Either way, there's too much salt!

The downside of having such an enormously long stretch of cold weather is that it has not been warm enough to get the car washed. So the road salt keeps clinging, coat after coat, making our black Honda Civic look white.

Today, it was 22 degrees -- which feels like spring -- so I was tempted to go through a car wash for a good ol' rinse. But then I remembered 22 degrees is still 10 degrees below freezing. So much for our spurt of spring.

I don't know how much warmer it is supposed to get this week, but the immediate forecast doesn't look good. With 4-7 inches of snow predicted in the next 24 hours, that will mean more salt on the roads, not to mention the grimy slush mess already out there -- on road surfaces, my car and some of my nice fashion (not functional) boots.

Other than the car wash that wasn't, we tried to think spring today. Carter went to school to work on some baseball drills at open gym. Jim got some snow off the roof and did some preemptive shoveling. I did some cleaning and then concentrated on prep for scrap camp next weekend. Got lots ready. Took a break to watch the Olympics tonight and catch up on the men's Super G and ice dancing.

Now it's bedtime. While the snow falls softly, I will sleep soundly knowing I do not have to set an alarm for tomorrow. With the winter storm coming, I am really glad we get Presidents' Day off. That would not be a fun drive.

Plus it will just add more salt to my tears, er, tires.