Winter woes

In my extremely humble opinion, Wednesday's winter storm was one of the worst I've experienced since moving up here.

There have been snow storms that dumped feet of white stuff on the ground, and there were ice events that created more short-term havoc but melted quickly.

Early Wednesday morning, the snow started falling. By mid-morning in the City of Poughkeepsie, freezing rain and sleet came down. Mid-afternoon, rain, but temperatures never rose too much above freezing.

After sundown, falling precipitation was again of the frozen variety.

All that ... uh ... mess created a glassy environment on which it was impossible for any creature with legs to maneuver.

Now I realize that as I write this many people throughout the eastern United States still do not have power. Yes, things could have been worse. But I play the cards I'm dealt.

I had to work the early morning shift at the paper Wednesday, arriving at the office at 6:30 a.m. Morning walkies were OK; it was only snow and not too much of it.

I made a conscious decision not to come home mid-shift to take care of Kate figuring I'd be home by 3-ish.

I really, really, really, did not want to have to clean the car off, drive home, walk Kate, clean the car off, drive back to work, work, clean the car off and drive home.

By late-afternoon, while it was raining, Kate managed to pee. My sidewalk had not been touched; indeed the snow guys had started shoveling but then stopped and left. (They decided to come back much later and use a snow blower.)

Long, tedious story, short, since I'd been up since 4 a.m. I crashed and woke at 11 p.m., realizing Kate hadn't been out since around 4 p.m.

By that time, the temps had dropped, freezing the top layer perfectly. The sidewalks up the street had been cleared much earlier in the day, so any subsequent precip was ice.

Kate couldn't find any traction nor could I. She would either break through the ice and her paws would plunge down a couple of inches or her legs would simply splay until they stopped on some tiny imperfection in the ice.

She was, needless to say, unsettled by this. And so was I. She managed, awkwardly, but amusingly, to poop. But a pee wasn't in the cards. After about 20 minutes I gave up.

Thursday morning we managed to get down the sidewalk to the street which had slush on it.

Kate doesn't like to go on the street. I guess she has gotten so used to grass that she no longer considers it a viable venue.

We walked up and down the block for 25 minutes ...

I was praying that the passing cars would slow down enough to not spray me with slush; all but one — the b****** — did, but I managed to get out of the way

... before Kate finally found a pile of snow/slush on which she peed.

And she really had to go!

Since then she has gotten better and more accepting of having to go no matter what. Conditions aren't much improved. Yesterday midday we couldn't get off the sidewalk onto the street because of melted ice turning into lakes at the curb cuts.

All the dog people in the office had tales of woe because of the storm, though my editor Maria Burnham said she was going to start calling Kate "Her Highness."

These New York winters — and we've been lucky for the past couple — are really starting to get to me.