I did an uncharacteristic thing this morning:
 
It was 6 am, my car was covered in ice, so much so that the door wouldn’t open until I dumped a bucket of hot water on the door seals, and there was ice on many of the roads. Normally I would have said, “I don’t know how to drive on icy roads, and Mass is a 20 - 25 minute drive even on a good day, so I’m just gonna stay in and let it thaw and then go out.”
 
But today, a Holy day of obligation and a day I promised I would take my friend Marjorie to Mass again, I was determined to go to Mass.
 

I asked my angel to protect me and our Blessed Mother to pray for me, and the second main road I hit was ice-city. My car was slipping and sliding, and I was like “Oh crud”, but I just kept on going and kept tapping the brakes as I was told to do last night by a friend of mine.
 
I could only see out of the front windshield, as all side windows and back window were iced over and I couldn’t break through the ice with my pathetic ice-scraper. I tried rolling down my driver-side window so I could at least check my blind spot as I merged into traffic, but it was stuck good.
 
While on the highway, I managed to roll down the window finally–the window rolled down but the sheet of ice covering it stayed put! It was attached to the roof and the outside below the window, so I smashed it out with my arm while driving. I could just imagine what the people in the other cars were thinking as sheets of ice are flying out my window!
 
When I was getting close to the church, I called Marjorie and told her I would come to get her for a later Mass, because walking on her apartment’s icy sidewalks was going to be treacherous, and she scolded me for going out at all and told me to march straight home and go to sleep!
 
I made it to the early Mass, and only about 20 other people made it (usually there are 100 for even a regular daily Mass). Then I called Marjorie and brought her to the noon Mass, and the G joined us in our front pew. It was really neat, and we got to sing all the verses of “Immaculate Mary”, which Marjorie loves.
 
Thanks be to God for keeping us safe today on his Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception celebration!