Snow Days

OK, so I was wrong and the weather people were right. We got about three inches Monday night, and another 3+ (I didn't really measure it) last night.

I've never seen snow like this in Louisville:



(It's kind of hard to see, but the falling stuff is real snowflakes, not rain. Video taken from my bedroom window.)

So I was going to drive to work today (when it's this yucky out, I deserve to drive and not walk), but this is what my car looked like, and I couldn't get into it:
The handle is completely frozen shut. I managed to chip the ice off of the lock itself, but I couldn't open the door to save my life. So I walked. I still have to go back out there and try to clean the car off this afternoon. Snow days were so much more fun when I was a kid.

Oh and guess what else was wrong about my last post: I wasn't an amazing medical student who went into the hospital to care for her patient on her day off yesterday. I slept in, and it was as divine as I thought it would be. I felt a little bit guilty upon waking, though, so I had my friend David look up the pathology results for me, and guess what -- they STILL weren't back! Guilt gone. They ended up coming back yesterday afternoon, but that would have been after I would have left, anyway, so no harm done. So I saw him this morning and it turns out that the guy does have cancer (not surprising), and it's probably not good, but he still needs a PET scan to look for mets, which will tell us how bad it is.

His lung cancer is almost 100% due to smoking, based on the kind of cancer it is and his smoking history -- 90 pack-years. Yikes! (A pack-year is the equivalent of smoking 1 pack per day for 1 year. So this guy could have smoked 1 pack/day for 90 years, but he's only 74, or 2 packs/day for 45 years, or 3 packs/day for 30 years, etc. In other words, he's a heavy, heavy smoker.)

So don't smoke, kids. Seriously. He's a really nice man, and his 5-year survival prognosis, depending on what this PET scan shows, is 1-30%. There is a 70-99% chance he will be dead within 5 years. That's really sad. Did I mention how nice he is? I don't like days like this.

To end on a slightly less depressing note, here are some snow day pictures from my commute.

In between the two rounds of snow, we had ice. The trees can't handle it, and all over the city, they're falling over and taking out power lines. I still have my power, thank goodness.


I like the icicles hanging off of the traffic light pole. I was walking in the middle of the street because the sidewalks weren't cleared and there were hardly any cars. Look at all those big, fat snowflakes that are falling!


I like how frozen trees look.


I can't remember what this tree used to look like, that is, whether it's a weeping willow normally or not. I love the look of weeping willows, so it's too bad I can't ever have one; it's bad feng shui.

And since that's another depressing thought, here's what Eric just bought me for my birthday:

source

With liners, so they can be used in the rain or snow. Versatility AND purpleness! (And no more walking to work in the snow/rain in my Danskos.)