Last week the weather-guessers around here were giddy with excitement. Wednesday night they had a new song to sing and they were all singing the same tune with the same lyrics.
Snows a commin’ and it will be here Saturday.
In all fairness, snow IS big news around here. We are more well known for our rain. Also, we are pretty good at driving and walking in rain. We play sports in rain all the time. Make the rain turn white and pile up and we turn helpless and slightly hopeless. But… we are always ready to share the exciting news. It usually goes like this…
Me: Must call Betty Lou and brag. Ring-Ring… Hey, Betty Lou, our patio is covered with snow! (said breathlessly because of excitement induced hyperventilation.)
Betty Lou: No way… That’s awesome. We don’t have any here. Can I come see your snow? (Betty Lou lives four miles away in a different climate zone.)
Me: Sure, but you better hurry, it’s melting fast. (A typical snow event here usually is measured in hours and fails to make lasting impression.)
Back to now… Thinking we had plenty of time to prepare for the possible snow we were caught a little off guard when the snow started falling Thursday morning. Suddenly kids were being released from school early, traffic became an instant nightmare and we were starting to make Atlanta’s snow woes look like no big deal. (Side note: Because of accidents closing I-5 the Hub had to go get food and spent the night at work.) I think our county has three snow plows. Two are broken and they can’t find the other. But again to be fair they were supposed to have till Saturday to fix and find them.
Snow does have a beautiful side.
This is one of my favorite shared pictures by Robin Rapp of the St. Johns Bridge in North Portland.
After three days of snow the fourth day gave us freezing rain and a layer of ice. That was the final straw for a tree out back. Branches started snapping under the weight. It is also at this point I start to develop cabin fever.
I need space… Room to breathe… I NEED to spread my wings and… go shopping? I hate shopping and yet now that the option has been taken away, I feel the desire to go.
Today the streets consist of several inches of slush. Main roads are passable, side streets a total mess. I could get out if I wanted to. However, now that I can the desire to go shopping just went away. Funny how that happened.
While confined to the house my time was put to good use. That yearly 1500 piece puzzle I insist on doing is coming along nicely.
Hub has expressed a desire to have a meal on the table without being squished at one end. I agree, I’d like that too, but I won’t tell him that.
Guess I’m going to have to go shopping after all.
We need groceries!
When all is said and done 
We are getting another 8 to 12 inches here Thursday morning and we have about a foot on the ground. How about I box some up and send it out to you? Totally agree with the shopping part. I really want to go when I can’t get out but then it goes away.
Kate.. We’re pretty good at melting snow around here. Send all you want.
We are now in the after glow of pretty snow. Dirty slushy-ness abounds.
Trying to decide if I can go one more day without shopping, however I
am out of coffee creamer. I do have NEEDS!
Send some of that white stuff down here, please! We’re supposed to have highs in the 70s this weekend. Be careful driving!
Janet… I heard it’s going to take a whole lotta rain and snow to get your water woes fixed. I’ll send what I can. 😉
Oh, this sounds wonderful to me! I live in SW Florida, but just like you, I’m sure I’d develop cabin fever in a matter of days 🙂
Jamie… Secretly I LOVE snow. I see it as beauty falling from teh sky. But it is much more fun when shared with others however we couldn’t get around to do that… 😦
I’d like to feel some sympathy for you, but I don’t. On the other hand, living in Michigan where we have had colder temperatures than Siberia and snow so deep that my little Bicheon has to launch himself from the back door and pee where he lands, and even the 90 pound standard poodle (minus grooming frou-frou) forges a path and stays on it day after day rather than roaming over the entire yard, I do have a lot of empathy.
We know where every one of our many snow plows are and we have whole structures looking like large igloos containing the remains of winter salt stock piles. Mostly it’s been so cold with so much snow the salt has been ineffective anyway.
People are digging out their mail boxes and praying their garbage containers don’t get knocked over by the plows that fill their driveways with neighbors’ snow as they try to keep side streets passable. We snow blow during the day, dig our driveways out in the mornings before going off to work and remember to turn INTO a skid when sliding sideways down the express way off ramps. There have been days with ten miles per hour was the best you could hope for.
Nevertheless, the snow is beautiful and the cold, if you’re not out in it for more than ten minutes, is invigorating. The colder it gets, the more snow resembles fields of sparking diamonds and the ice and snow on the leafless tree skeletons transforms them into a fairy wonderland of quiet peaceful beauty. Okay, at least until the neighborhood fills with the roar of laboring snow blowers and spinning tires looking vainly for traction.
I love the beauty of winter in Michigan. My joints creak in protest, but they have no vote.
Oh Pammy… You are living the phrase: “You CAN get too much of a good thing.”
I think it’s been snowing steadily at your house since the first of November…
I’m surprised you can still find the beauty in it… No one will be more appreciative of Spring than you. 😉
I so enjoy reading your blogs, Ellen. You captured a good description of snow in the Portland/Vancouver area.
Hey Judy… We don’t exactly have it mastered around here, eh?
But we don’t let that stop us from trying. 🙂
I liked your blog…….here’s a small sample of mine, Zulu Delta
http://zuludelta45.net/2014/02/16/ah-hello-its-the-road-to-the-bat-cave-duh/