Any of you in Minnesota know how loverly the weather has been.  We got dumped on.  The next day the plows came through, and I don't know about other parts of the state, but Kanabec and Isanti counties still have messy, icy roads.

I got a BPO order Friday afternoon.  I didn't go immediately.  Saturday we went Christmas shopping, and it began to snow and drizzle.  Home we went, where I've been since.  Until today.

This lovely interior BPO was due today.  In Cambridge, roughly 40 miles from my house.  Now, that's not a distance to those of us who live in the middle of nowhere, but when crummy roads, it's a different story.

Photo courtesy of *clairity*

So once nap time for the teething baby came around (who spent the whole morning screaming his head off.  Remember those days, parents?), I packed him up, super blanketed and covered him, let my car warm up for fifteen minutes, and loaded up, ready to go.

Since baby only takes one nap a day, and that is generally around 1:30-ish, and he's teething, I left home around 2.  I begin the slow, treacherous trek towards Mora.

The roads in my "neighborhood" were plowed once, and the gravel has become, seemingly overnight, a packed snow strip.  If not for the washboards underneath, I would have gone back home and had more success maneuvering them with my cross country skis.

The paved roads leading to town are "better", but not better for driving.  Instead of snow, they are now packed down to the extent that they are glassy, but still white.  Gives false confidence.  Until you go in the ditch.

Luckily, I didn't.

Once on the main highway, life was a little better, and I was a little calmer.  (Plus baby fell asleep!  Woo hoo!  Mission #1 accomplished!)  Downtown Cambridge was a little more stressful, with random slush and ice spots, but I made it through, and began to head towards my newest BPO "victim".

Of course, the BPO is off a main road, and it's home road was deserving of the worst of the day award.  The snow was packed so tight it didn't even squeak, and had become what appeared to be at least an inch and a half of solid ice.  I creep slowly up the road, and watch mailbox numbers.  I reach a stretch where there is only one house for quite a distance.

And it's the one.

I pull up, and am just about to turn, when I notice that tell tale ridge, that beautiful pile that is created when a plow goes by.

Oh yeah, and no plow has gone IN.

The driveway is a good 6 inches deep in snow, and the trees are still covered in icicles that formed when the rain froze before the precipitation turned into snow.  I know very well that the driveway is solid ice underneath.

Even better, it's a downhill slope to the tuck-under garage.  Can't stop?  Gonna need a new garage door.  Get stuck?  Not digging yourself out of that mess.

I think "okay, no problem.  I'll park on the road."                             

I look again.  I'm on a hill, and if someone were to come over that hill, my car would definitely get hit.  There's no shoulder, and it's not very wide at all.  There are no nearby driveways, no nearby flat roads to park on.  I could park 3/4 a mile away, but quickly nix that idea with the negative temperatures and a 4 month old in my backseat. 

I sat there, staring at the house, waiting for the obvious idea to hit me.  The idea that would allow me to run in with a car seat and 20 pound baby, snap pictures of all damage and every room, while the sun is quickly fading.  I debate the odds that electricity is on, considering this agent didn't even set up plowing for the property.   If no electric, there is no heat.  It's COLD, and I have a very crabby, very young child in my backseat.  If I could pull right up to the house, I would feel so much better about the whole situation, but walking an extensive length on slippery roads and through knee-deep snow in some places with a car seat full of a 20 pounder... yeah, right.

I slowly drove away.  Too many risks, I told myself.  If it were just me, I'd hike through and get the pictures, turn my heat all the way up in my car and try to reheat myself on the way home. 

So for now, the BPO has been delayed.  I will attack it again later this week.  I feel bad, but really, sometimes the little pay we get for these BPO's just isn't enough to cover the risks.  What would you have done?

Image courtesy of Per Ola Wiberg (Powi)..busy busy busy..