Even more Winter! [sigh]

Saturday, I wrote about the upcoming snow and ice. It did, in fact, arrive Sunday evening, with a twist. I live in a portion of the county which seems, because of topography, wind currents and limited sun exposure because of the aforementioned topography, always to be 2-4 degrees cooler than the rest of the county. This is more common than to be worth me mentioning it, but the past few days, it has become critical. We are far below average temperatures for the past few days, with high temps barely above the freezing point. Unfortunately, that leaves us in my neck of the woods with high temps at or below that magical freezing point. As I write this, the Birmingham airport is reporting 35F; at my house, it is 32. We are still frozen in! Sandy and I tried to get out to run some needed errands, and could not get either vehicle to the street. The snow cover got a bit soft yesterday in the sun, and last night, the 14F low froze it all solid. Now, instead of snow, we have solid ice. As an example of our little winter wonderland here, tomorrow every school in the entire county is open as usual - except for the four schools closest to my house, because the lingering arctic icing makes it too dangerous to run school busses, or in one case, to even get to the school! We will try again tomorrow; if the sun tries to make it a bit soft again, I will get out and try to shovel some tire track areas to the street. Neither Sandy or I are in any condition to get out shoveling, but we have a pharmacy run to be made. In the past week, we have had more snow than we have had in all the years since the Blizzard of '93. Is it time for spring yet?