Ahh, the purple flowers of winter!

It finally snowed this past week in Massachusetts!

And boy, did it snow! It took me over an hour to drive to work on Wednesday, which is usually about a 40-minute commute. The second car ahead of me on the highway at one point suddenly spun out and completed a 360+ degree turn, while those of us behind him fishtailed to a stop until he resumed control of his car. He did it again about a half mile down the highway, before we all decided to stay as far behind him as possible, until he pulled off at the next exit, his hazards flashing!

The snow came blowing down all day, and looking out the window, you could see the wind swirling the big flakes in circles around the hospital building.
All of my patients expressed concern about me getting home safely. All the therapists did whatever they could to leave as soon as the day was over. I switched a few patients around in my schedule so that I could leave a little early to go back home that afternoon. As it turned out, the drive home was not nearly as treacherous as the drive in. And the next day, although I left early because of predicted icy conditions, that drive pleasantly required much less wheel-gripping and eye-squinting!

It puzzled me why salt was not pre-emptively laid down on the roads before the snowfall on Wednesday. Or why the plows were not ready to be out as soon as the clouds rolled in. Weather forecasters across the country had been predicting this storm all during the entire previous weekend.
The flower shops were prepared; they made their deliveries for Valentine's Day on Tuesday, just in case they wouldn't be able to make it out on Wednesday. Why didn't the department of transportation act as wisely?

Anyway, because of the snowstorm, I received a lovely purple-themed bouquet upon my return home from work on Tuesday:


And now I appreciate why we celebrate Valentine's Day in the middle of February. A bouquet of fresh flowers in the middle of a winter storm really does a lot to raise mournful spirits and off-set the dread of waking up while it's still dark to go scrape off the car.

And purple flowers, ...well, they're even better!