Syracuse Guy.

Last night Todd (NuSTAR Assembly Engineer, my boss) sent me an email that included, "Don't risk coming in tomorrow if the snow is too bad. We can't take any chances with our people."

"Har, har," I thought. "That was nice, but he forgot I was born in Syracuse. I eat snow for breakfast!"

I looked out the window and nary a flake could be seen. I wrote back and told him I'd be in if I had to rent a dog sled.

When I was getting in bed at 8 PM, I looked out the window again and still no flakes. I knew snow was coming, though. I hopped in bed, read awhile, then turned out the light and fell asleep.

About four hours later, near midnight, I awoke, thinking, "What's going to happen?" It kind of looked like it was snowing out, but it was hard to tell. Between then and 3 AM I slept uneasily. I got up before the alarm went off and walked to the front of the apartment to see how it was. I opened the door and... do you remember the photo Twila posted of the last storm?... there was a foot of snow. But it wasn't wet snow, and a plow had cleared the driveway in front of our apartment. I resolved to go in to work

I did the morning stuff, put my shoes in a plastic bag, and threw on some boots. Fearlessly I emerged into the snow, which was still coming down heavily. I made it to the main driveway and walked to the side driveway that leads to our garage. Hmmm, the plow had made that pile across the side driveway. I decided I could use my legs to clear it, if necessary. I started walking down to the garage when I realized that the snow was over my boots, halfway up my calves. There was no way my bad-in-the-snow Prius would be able to escape. Defeated, I walked back to the apartment.

Now what? Todd had told me not to worry about it. But what about Syracuse Guy? I gave in and went back to bed. Sleeping, however, seemed impossible. Then, at 4:30 or so, I heard the plow, and I thought it was behind our apartment. I got up and looked out the window, but I can't see the driveway from there. I thought awhile and then went back to bed.

I was lying there fretting, wondering what to do. Every minute that I was late made my work less useful, since getting the grinds done before the techs come in is most of the point. And if the driveway was cleared, would the road to the lab be? After a long while I fell asleep.

When I got up, it looked almost summery outside, in my mind. The driveway was clear and the sun was out. It wasn't snowing. I dressed and prepared some fruit and sat down to read the paper. At 10 AM I viewed the webcams and grinds were going on both machines, so that was good, at least. I kept wondering if I'd done my best to get to work.

Now, having thought about it all day, I guess I made a reasonable effort. But, goodbye, Syracuse Guy.