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CEDAR BLUFF/CENTRE — I finally made it in to work this morning. This afternoon, really. 

I woke up this morning and, for the second day in a row, saw the same thing out my window as most of the rest of you: a desolate, white landscape. But there has to be a new edition of The Post come Jan. 17, and my co-workers and I can’t work from home, so … 

I hopped into the car at 11:50 a.m. and slid out the end of the driveway and onto my desolate county road near Cedar Bluff. I then spent five minutes skittering through ridges of piled up snow and ice towards the three-way stop a mile away. Almost went off into the ditch once, but I was only going 10 mph at the time. (Thirty-five years of playing video games gave me the hand-eye coordination I needed to avert complete disaster, apparently.) 

So far, so good. 

The road got better in Cedar Bluff — for a mile or two, anyway. I noticed Johnson Pharmacy, Dollar General and La Cabana were all closed. But the Piggly Wiggly was open and, based on the number of cars I counted in the parking lot, probably already out of its second or third delivery of milk, eggs and bread. 

Most of the convenience stores I passed on the way were open, as well, including the Country Store, Weiss Mart and the Cedar Bluff Quick Mart.

The Burnett Bridge over the Coosa River – the one many of us locals know only as “the big bridge” – was in pretty bad shape. I passed that information along to county engineer Corey Chambers a few minutes ago. I later received a report from a motorist that the bridge had been scraped again and was in much better shape, at least for the time being.

There were waist-high mounds of slush along the sides of the road all along the causeway, thanks to the grading work Chambers and his co-workers have been performing since yesterday morning. Chambers said the temperature is supposed to drop to 19 degrees tonight, so check with The Post or WEIS-AM for road closings before heading to work Wednesday morning. 

There were very few cars on the road on the approach to Centre. I saw more kids playing in the snow than vehicles crawling down the highway as I passed in front of the old Midway Variety location on Cedar Bluff Road. 

When I finally drove into Centre around 12:30 p.m., I found most businesses closed. Main Street was completely dead, and heavily littered with slush and snow. McDonald’s was open and doing a brisk business, however. Guess everyone finally ran out of leftovers. I suspect most of the other fast food places are crowded this afternoon, as well. 

We received word this afternoon around 2:30 p.m. that Ingles and Kmart in Centre will close at 6 p.m. Piggly Wiggly in Cedar Bluff will also close at 6 p.m.

At 2:50 p.m. an employee who answered the phone at the Centre Piggly Wiggly said they are planning to stay open until 9 p.m. Check Twitter, our Facebook page and The Post Online for more updates on business, school and road closings.

The Post is going to try to open Wednesday at noon. We’ve pushed back our Wednesday 5 p.m. deadline for display ads to noon Thursday. Send email classifieds to freeads@postpaper.com.