Shovel it!

Winter 2 - 0 Ivar

Made it to the first service at church this morning without too many problems: a ten-minute scraping of ice and snow from the car was all that it took.
However, on coming out of that service, it took some considerable effort to get the car moving again. It was parked in a just-off-the-road parking bay on a slight incline and any attempts at moving forward resulted in much wheel-spinning and little else. About 30 minutes later, and with the aid of a shovel provided by a lady across the road from where I was parked, I had dug away enough ice to get me moving again.

Then, during the second worship service (to which, of course, I had arrived about 25 minutes after it started) it started snowing heavily outside. (It hadn't snowed today until that point.) The minister did consider ending the service earlier than planned, but decided to continue for the remaining 15 minutes or so. By the time we had cleared up afterwards, the heavy snow was lying and the journey home - only five miles and mainly on the M80 motorway - was horrendous. However, everyone was being sensible and both travelling at a sensible speed and keeping a good distance between the vehicles in front and to the rear.

Despite all this, it would be untrue to say that I didn't venture out again - when the snow appeared to have stopped for the day around 4pm, I joined the neighbours in trying to clear the snow from the paths and pavement outside.

2 - 0 down, but not defeated!