Sunday

Sometime this morning the major winter storm system that dumped snow all over DC made it here. When I left the hotel it was grey and rain was falling in what I'd call a driving drizzle (but most people would call miserable). I love weather like this; only, see, the driver-side windshield wiper stopped working correctly over the recent weeks of snow and ice. Before heading downtown, I decided the rain wasn't too bad to navigate without wipers; but would I attract police attention without them? It isn't as if the broken side won't move at all, it just gimps along slowly while the other side, at some point along the arc, rams into it. If the two meet early in the left-hand wiper's arc, then it's trapped down by the right-hand blade, which is, in turn, lifted off the windshield and I am blinded by rain. If the wiper blades come together in mid-cycle, it causes a jarring t-bone on the windshield, and everything jams to a halt. That time, rain blinded me on I-85 and I reached out the window to untangle the wipers causing the car to weave some. I wondered if the police noticed that. Next my favorite thing happened: the blades struck one another at the latest possible point on the driver-side arc, the right blade flipped over and started squeaking torturously against the window while the left-hand wiper went into reverse, waving off the side of the car to watching police. I had to get out to fix this. Apparently, Durham itself was reeling under this storm, too: no traffic lights working downtown and when I got to the theater for the Nevermore Film Festival's final day, much of the building was without power.* I got to see all my movies, though. [Cavin]