We had a nice snowfall last weekend that ended in time to clear the driveway on Sunday afternoon. It was a good, 8-10 inch powder that had the skis rattling in the racks in anticipation. But a late warm front blew in mid-week and wreaked havoc in the Fairbanks area. On Wednesday morning I got up early to do some writing before having to give it up and go in to work. (It’s not possible to get any serious writing done at work, unfortunately.) Rose had gone in but had come back shortly afterwards—her trusty CRV’s defroster couldn’t keep her windshield free of ice. Although the temperature was in the teens, a very fine drizzle was falling and freezing on contact. It took me almost 20 minutes to chisel the incredibly hard accumulation off of my windshield, but the drizzle had turned to snow, so I had no trouble getting in with a clean windshield (though I kept the heat off and the window open to keep it cold and prevent any melt-and-stick). Not many people were in at work, and meetings were being cancelled. One of our dedicated staff described an hour-long commute on the way in, stopping often to manually clean the windshield. Yuck.

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