The Best-Laid Plans

So much for my "I am so awesome and I don't have to shovel my driveway because I don't have to go anywhere" lifestyle.

That ended today when I called home and The Girl answered, sobbing.

"I was running and I was late for the bus and I dropped my phone in the snow and now I can't find it and it's gone foreeeeeevvvvveeeeerrrrrrr!"

Unfortunately, The Girl's school is not within walking distance. And also unfortunately, a day's worth of sun did not miraculously melt the 10 inches of snow on my driveway.

I thought, maybe I can just barrel through. Maybe if I just shovel that bit from the snowplow at the end of the driveway, I'll be good.

But I took one look at it and knew I wouldn't even get out of the garage.

And so, I conquered my fear:

(With a little help from The Husband, who talked me through all the knobs and gears and pull-thingeys and levers.)

It ain't pretty, but it did the job:

(Apologies to the people/cars passing by. I can drive it or I can aim the snow away from you. I chose driving.)

A pathway cleared, we raced off to school to try to capture the last seconds of daylight. Fortunately, Steve Jobs = awesome and the Find iPhone app told us exactly where to go.

But there was a lot of snow. And knowing the area where it is doesn't help much if it's buried.

Double fortunately, the app also includes a "Send sound to phone" feature. So we tried it, and the snow started to ring.

Triple fortunately, the phone was able to pick up the school's wireless network, and it still had 3% power so it was able to call us with its dying breaths.

Lucky girl.

Not one to put my freed car to waste, I decided we needed to celebrate with Noodles and Company. We had our usual:  chicken noodle soup for The Girl and mac'n'cheese for The Boy.

(She's officially vegetarian. So he ate the meat for her.)