Ohhhh…. the weather outside…

…is freaking crap.

On a decent day, taking the same route home as I did tonight because of the snow (all interstates instead of the ghetto-fab surface street way home), it takes probably 20-25 minutes to get home from work. Today, with a couple inches of residual snow on the highways and byways, it took about 35. I was thrilled. Even the non-main road I use to get to my apartment was all right. (Granted, it’s because there was no oncoming traffic, and I liked the grooves in the opposite lane better.)

Road into the complex? Crappy, but not so bad.

Road into parking area? Worsened by the guy that gave up and parallel parked in the entrance, but not too bad for the first 50 yards or so.

But, Tony, wait! You don’t park 50 yards into your complex!

Ah, but this time, I do. Why? Because my apartment complex decided after last week’s 4-6″ of snow that they would plow what they could around the cars. Which is fine. It got most of the snow off and gave us parking where before there was none.

But they never came back.

So, for a week, we wedged our way around snow piles and stacks of ice and muck, all in all probably taking away six, maybe seven of about 20 spaces. But we managed.

Today? Different story. Rumors of 9″ of blowing, drifting snow. I think they drove through once. But not only that, the spots they refused to come back and clean up after last week’s storm grew. They drifted. Instead of taking up a parking spot, they took up one and a half parking spaces. Maybe two. It’s not that large of a complex, yet nothing was done. With parking lines blurred and obliterated, cars took up two spaces where the snow would allow. There’s a box truck that has moved once in probably five weeks. Another car has also sat idle, but at least it’s within a spot (I remember from the days when we could see pavement). It’s a complete mess, and while I can usually do pretty good with letting things slide, figuring people are trying their best, and knowing that the whole city is fighting Mother Nature’s punches today, I still can’t help but thinking someone out there is to be held accountable, in some way.

Spots should have been plowed as they allowed this past weekend. Something should be done about cars sitting idle for weeks on end. Something had to be done.

Fortunately for me, something was done. After getting stuck trying to maneuver around to take a shot at a parking space (which turned out to be unavailable thanks to drifting around the box truck), a couple of my neighbors walked up (a good distance, too!) and helped dig, push, shovel, scrape and work me around until I could get into a spot.

A 35 minute drive home, a 35 minute effort to get into a parking space. And if it weren’t for a pair of new-found great neighbors, I’d still be out there slugging away at Mother Nature.

I really do hope I catch them around again, because they really do deserve a beer. Or twelve.