The good news was that we had already decided not to try to drive down to GAFilk this year. That's because a massive snowstorm was moving in from the west and it was supposed to be snowing all the way down to Atlanta with reports of I-55 (which we wouldn't have been on) being a sheet of ice south of Joliet. If we had to pick a year not to drive there, this was an excellent choice.

So instead, I found that daisy_knotwise and I had an appointment to see the optometrist today. Looking at the four or so inches of snow that had come down already, we decided to leave early. As a result, we got to the office about half an hour ahead of schedule. Katie and Julie had fun playing with the other customers and running up and down the stairs outside the office while Gretchen and I got our eyes checked. My prescription remains the same; Gretchen will get a slight upgrade due to advancing astigmatism.

The roads weren't terrible, but they weren't good by any estimation. They were actually better the closer we got to the lake, which surprised me.

After we got home and I finished up work for the day, I pulled out the snowblower and went after the driveway. We're expecting more snow tonight, but tomorrow is trash day and we didn't want to try to drag the bins through multiple inches of snow to get them out to the curb.

And tomorrow, I will blow the snow off the driveway again. But there was lots of room to stash the snowblower in, because my car is in the shop for brake work. Sadly, once again the Ford Five Hundred suffers from the lack of an aftermarket part to replace the brake hose that seems to have had a bubble in it. You'd press the brake, the bubble would fill up, and then the brakes would work properly.

Not so good. Not so cheap to fix either. *sigh*