![\"An](\"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/CabbgeWinterPostSm-1.jpg\" "\\"An")
\u201cThe roads are open. Let\u2019s do dinner and the opera,\u201d my neighbor announced.
\n\u201cWell, MY weather app still says ALERT, Winter Storm Watch, and Weather Advisory in effect,\u201d I said, immovable like an old cabbage in winter, lodged comfortably in its patch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weather advisory is over,\u201d she said, desperate to get out after two snow-days stuck in her apartment.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll never get out of the driveway. There\u2019s a huge mountain of snow where it meets the road. And I don\u2019t know when the guy\u2019s gonna plow.\u201d She and another neighbor then began shoveling the 2500-foot long driveway we share. I stayed inside wondering if we weren\u2019t all just begging for heart attacks with all this restlessness and shoveling.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, will you go?\u201d she asked, all red and steamy from working in the snow.
\n\u201cBut the roads, the travel alert. Nothing\u2019s been plowed yet.\u201d I went on and on.
\n\u201cI have four-wheel-drive,\u201d she said, smiling smugly.<\/p>\n
We threw my snow shovel in the backseat. In case. And we held our breaths as the car clambered through deep snow that hid the driveway\u2019s hills and holes. Inching out onto the road, I checked my seatbelt. And suddenly it was as if the car was flying towards town. We sailed the slushy deserted streets in search of an open restaurant. And in the almost empty theater, we giggled, \u201cSee, all the OLD people stayed home.\u201d<\/p>\n
For hours, I was transported back to the times in my 20s and 30s, when adventure overpowered any fears, and a storm watch was an invitation to take off and go who-knows-where. Like Walt Whitman\u2019s poem: Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me…. I was back in the good old days before I became a cabbage in winter.<\/p>\n
Later, when we returned, the roads and shared driveway had been plowed. My neighbor parked the car and handed me the shovel from out of the back. Laughing like we\u2019d gotten away with stealing something, like we\u2019d conquered something bigger than ourselves, we said goodnight several times.<\/p>\n
It was late. Dark. The small mountain of snow by the garage could wait \u2018til morning. But the shovel was already in my hands. Digging it in deep, I lifted and tossed chunky piles of snow over my shoulder. High. Like in the good old days.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When\u2019s the last time you ventured out in a storm? Or took to the open road? When\u2019s the last time you felt lighthearted, healthy, and free?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “The roads are open. Let’s do dinner and the opera,” my neighbor announced. “Well, MY weather app still says ALERT, Winter Storm Watch, and Weather Advisory in effect,” I said, immovable like an old cabbage in winter, lodged comfortably in its patch. “The weather advisory is over,” she said, desperate to get out after two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1062],"tags":[2026,1146,1141,1142,1139,1138,1143,610,1144,1140,1145,1136,1137],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1062","tag-an-old-ladys-song-of-the-open-roa","tag-an-old-ladys-song-of-the-open-road","tag-cabbage","tag-feeling-free","tag-girls-night-out","tag-going-to-the-opera","tag-good-old-days","tag-grief-healing","tag-old-ladies-dancing","tag-out-in-a-storm","tag-shoveling-snow","tag-song-of-the-open-road","tag-storm-watch"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}