The slush-storm and the symphony

We finally did get snow today, just a fraction of an inch, but the forecast had said it would warm back up to 40F, and it did not; it stayed around 33F. I drove to the Market of Choice in the afternoon, which was fine - the main streets were mostly clear, and our street and the connecting street were clear, although lots of side streets stayed snowy. However, I was concerned that attending the 7:30 pm symphony performance - with our fifth and final conductor candidate - would be a mistake, as it could easily drop down to freezing by 10 pm. When the time came, though, I decided I'd go ahead and attend the pre-concert talk at 6:30 pm so I'd have some information about the candidate's personality. It was fine to drive downtown, but I avoid parking structures (since the '89 earthquake), and walking the five blocks from where I parked on the street to the concert hall was only marginally okay. The streets were fine, and the sidewalks were mostly fine, but the transitions between sidewalk and street tended to be pretty slushy. I took very small steps and didn't slip.

The talk was interesting! The seats were only about 2/3 full, but it was still a pretty good crowd. Then I was tempted to stay for the first half of the concert, which would end soon after 8:30 pm. I was exchanging Skype messages with J, whose Thursday sword class had been cancelled, and he suggested that he could pick me up right outside the building and drive me back to my car, so I did stay for the first half. That was so generous of him! The concert was fun! Interesting! And then there was J, parked right outside the door - I felt like a princess. We then realized that he could have just driven me there in the first place and saved all the scariness of the walk from my car, but it worked out fine. If we hadn't thought it could get colder by 10 pm, I could have stayed for the whole thing, too, but I didn't want to risk the potentially icy hill and S-curves involved in getting to our neighborhood.