Lovely, a winter storm. Just in time for my weekend to work.

I live in the area where we are expecting 12-18 inches of snow to fall. The snow will start today, and will not end until sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening. Of course, who works this weekend?

You guessed it --- ME!

I work at 3pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is going to be the big problem. It's going to be snowing very heavily in the weather predictions for the early afternoon hours of when I normally drive to work. My drive is, under normal circumstances, an easy 30 minute trip. With the amount of snow coming, and the horrible conditions of the roads, it will probably be a 2+ hour drive. One way. In a car that is notorious for not handling well on any kind of slippery surface.

New tires? Check. Got those put on after I had last year's horrible car accident in the snow. I looked at the tread this morning. The back tires look good. The front tires - not so great. Passable for inspection, but could be better. I don't own chains for my tires, so that's out of the question.

Times like this, I hate being a nurse in a hospital. You just HAVE to be there for your shift, no matter what the weather. All nurses are "essential personnel" so there is no valid excuse why you can't come in. I understand that completely. I just hate having to risk my own life to get in to the hospital to work an eight hour shift -- a shift that will either be slow (what pregnant woman would willingly risk her own life to get to the hospital in a blizzard? A good storm keeps the fakers and attention seekers away too) or will be crazy (lots of labors kicking in, ambulances bringing them in).

I need to find out if there is any way that the security people will come pick me up. HA! If I remember right, they only pick you up if you are within a certain number of miles to the hospital - which I am definitely not. Years ago, when I worked at a smaller hospital, they would pick you up and drive you home during the really bad snowfalls.

No matter what, I have to try to find a way in to work tomorrow. Needless to say, I believe that I will be packing an overnight bag. If it's as bad as it sounds, I might as well just sleep there overnight instead of risking the drive twice in one day.