Snow days

Earlier this week the huge storm everyone had been talking about developed and positioned itself so that we were in the blizzard track.

It began snowing Wed night around 10pm and by the time we went to bed at midnight everything was covered in a blanket of white.  Since the temperature has been below freezing for a week the snow didn't melt as it typically does.  The light and fluffy snow fell gently, as the wind gusts had not yet arrived.

Thurs is my regular day off and Spouse's office closed so we were both home for a snow day.  By mid-morning the wind was really gusting.  Poor Marvin & Walter didn't want to go outside.  They hate the wind, even if its warm outside, so it was extra offensive to them to have the gusty wind and temperature around 13 degrees.  So we decided to take them out onto the screened porch to do their business, since it was partially shielded from the wind.  This technique was somewhat successful.  

The wind created crazy drifts.  Check out the drift outside the screened porch which was easily 3 feet high.  

There was another drift INSIDE the screened porch near the opposite corner which was nearly as tall.  This photo shows how crazily the wind affected the snow.

Notice how the left side of the driveway and even the grass have NO snow on them, yet there were drifts nearby that were easily 3 feet high.  Wild!

We stayed in the house and watched movies all day, with brief breaks for food.  Marvin & Walter took great advantage of the electric space heater we had on while watching TV.

But most of the time they looked like this:

Knowing the storm was coming we'd stocked up on comfort foods, so we had grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, Poptarts, and chicken pot pies.  We also cooked our Hello Fresh meals.

Both mine & Spouse's companies closed the offices today as well so we had another snow day at home.  We watched more movies in the morning but after lunch I did brave the frigid temperature to do some shoveling.  This photo shows the height of the drift between my car and the convertible.  Notice its taller than the shovel.

The nice thing about the wind is that it eliminated the need to clean off the cars.  The snow was light and fluffy so it wasn't back-breaking to shovel, but there was a LOT of it to move to get my car out to the street.

The street was "plowed" if you want to call it that.  We didn't see the plow since it came while we were sleeping, but it appears that a pick-up truck with a blade on the front made 1 pass and that was it.  The street is still very dicey now.  But at least its passable.

Typically when we get snow here it doesn't stick to the ground because the ground isn't cold enough.  That was not the case this time, as we'd been below freezing for several days in a row, also not typical.  And usually the temperature warms up the next day after a snowfall so it melts quickly.  That, too, isn't happening this time, as our temperatures aren't supposed to get above freezing until maybe Mon.  But I'm not complaining.  The snow is really beautiful and since we have had 2 days at home together with our dogs, comfy and cozy in our home, its been really nice.