Learning About Snow

As mentioned in the last blog, we had a white Christmas. Soon after the family went back to their homes after the holidays, we had a couple of warm days which melted all of the snow. It then became bitter cold and icy,  and that is when Mike decided to head south for three weeks. I had to stay because of my job.  A couple of days before he left, we woke to an extremely cold morning with icy conditions. I kept checking my phone and email for a notice that our University would close. It never came so I headed to work with everyone passing me.  When I finally got to my office, I told my boss I was waiting for the "stay at home" notice. He laughed and said the University never closes.  The next day we woke to 50 degrees! How can this be when the temperature had been below zero for a week?  I headed off to work without my hat or gloves.  Around noon that same day, an email was sent stating we could leave work at 3pm. I was confused. The University never closes and it is 50 degrees?  I asked a colleague and she told me to look at the radar, an ice storm was coming.   I sat in my office and nervously watched the rain and then the ice come. They should have let us leave earlier.

3pm finally came and I penguin walked to my car across campus. Remember, my hat and gloves were at home.  By the time I got to the car, my fingers were frozen, and so was my keyless entry key pad.

I pushed in the code....nothing.  I started to panic because my hands were frozen, my ears were gone and I couldn't get in my car, where my car keys were.  The email from Nurse Nancy flashed in my mind with her tips for safety in the winter.  One tip is to keep a spare set of car keys in your purse. I could never figure out why, but now I know.

I had to think fast.

I pulled out a credit card and chipped away at the buttons I needed to push.  I pushed again, nothing.  I pulled out my office key and pushed in the code with that.  At last! I heard the door unlock.  It took another few seconds to pry the door open.

I was so excited!!! I was in my car.  It hesitantly started and I threw on the defrost full blast.  I then grabbed the best thing I have ever invested in.

I jumped back out and started scraping, to no avail.  There was too much ice. I would have to wait until the defroster started working.

I would jump out, chip, freeze, jump back in, rub my hands, jump out, chip, freeze, jump back in.....over and over again.  I couldn't last too long outside because of my hat and gloves sitting in my warm house!  It took me over 30 minutes to get to the point where I felt comfortable driving.  I learned several lessons that day.

It warmed up again and Mike headed south.  Binx sat at the door for a whole day after Mike left.

Later he gave me faces to let me know he was not happy that Mike was gone.

Pete didn't miss Mike as much as Binx did. 

It was lonely that first week that Mike was gone and I didn't do much.  When the second week of no Mike came around, I decided to tackle a large project.

When Jo was here, she agreed that the built in hutch in the dining area should be painted.  My project was to paint this before Mike got home, as a surprise. The house would be a mess, which he can't stand, and he also wasn't sure painting it was the right thing to do.

The house did become a mess and I had hutch parts all over the house as I painted them.  I had to do it inside because it was starting to get cold outside again.

This project took longer than I thought it would. I didn't finish before Mike got home.  He liked it and thought it looked very nice.  I think it looks better too.

Now back to learning about the snow.

Monday at work, another storm came. I waited for the University to let us go early. They never did. I sat in my office and watched the storm hit us.

I found my car to be much easier to manage with a snow storm than an ice storm. I still don't have my extra set of car keys in my purse though.

Every morning this week, we woke to two more inches of snow on the ground.  Mike stayed with his parents one night during the week so I had to shovel before work! We heard from the neighbor we have had more snow than total of last year.  This is another day of the week's radar.  Yes, I do work when I sit at my desk but this is just so fascinating to me. 

This morning, I decided to take a picture of a couple of  snow piles we made, just from our driveway.

So, what have I learned about snow?

1) Shoveling is an excellent workout. Who needs a snowblower anyway.
2) Cars and stop signs need to watch out for me when I make a turn when driving in the snow.
3) A cold weather snow is a light weight snow.
4) A warm weather snow is a heavier snow.  We can always tell by what method our neighbor removes his snow. If it is the leaf blower, the shoveling will be easy for us. If it is the snowblower, we know our muscles with get a good workout.

Two more inches expected tonight!