A Snow Day's Night

Actually, I slept in a little today. When I got up around 9, it was still snowing lightly.  I stuck a ruler in the snow on my porch later - it came up to 3 inches. Not a dusting, but nothing resembling the foot everyone was worried we'd get, either.

Thankfully, the snow was done by the time I finished breakfast. It was just cloudy when I went on my porch to sweep and sprinkle salt. It was also bitterly cold, probably in the 20s. There was a layer of ice under the snow that made it harder to sweep than the snow we got last time. I gave up on the main porch and just swept and salted the stairs.

Ran Turbo when I wasn't doing my outside chores. Dreamworks' animated film from last summer is more-or-less the same story as Planes with a different underdog. Here, a snail obsessed with speed and racing (Ryan Reynolds) ends up in a freak accident on the freeway and gains super speed. He's found by a kid who works in his family's taco stand. When he tears up the competition in snail racing, the kid knows there's only one place Turbo belongs - the Indy 500! Turbo is almost laughed off the course, until his impressive speed and a photo taken afterwards makes him an Internet sensation. He's determined to prove to his brother and to the world that being built slow doesn't mean you have to stay slow.

Cute, but nothing special beyond some nice visuals. As I mentioned, the story is cliched to the ninth degree, even more than Planes. There's also the problem of there being too many characters. There's Turbo and his brother, the Hispanic guy who finds him and his family, all of the racers at the Indy 500, and the other snail racers...and that's only a partial list. You really don't get to know anyone besides Turbo. This was a surprise flop last summer, and I can kind of understand why - unlike Turbo, it just couldn't stand up to the competition. Not horrible if you have kids who are racing or car fans; unnecessary for anyone else.

Rose picked me up around quarter of noon (after I made my way down the path from my place, which hadn't been shoveled yet). The roads were a mess. Once again, the snow and salt had congealed, creating slippery slush everywhere. Surprisingly, that didn't stop people from going shopping. We were on-and-off busy all day, especially later in the afternoon, when more people had cleared their sidewalks and driveways. I shelved candy and helped put away the seven carts of unwanted items during the down times.

Rose was a little late picking me up - she forgot, and I forgot to call her. Someone did a better job shoveling this time than they did after the last storm. There were clear paths to the mail box and to my apartment, and the porch had been shoveled. The salt did its job on the steps; they were fine. I sprinkled the porch with the remaining salt before heading in.