Snow Days 2019

We've had quite the winter.  One week it is literally 50 degrees and sunny, prompting me to walk around the neighborhood in only a light jacket, and the next it is a literally blowing blizzard... and keeps getting worse.

Saturday reminded us of our life in Casper, Wyoming.  Snow was falling, yet it couldn't accumulate where it fell because the wind was blowing it wherever it wanted.  We had snow drifts in places up to a waist, which is fine when it is in our backyard, but not fine on major streets.  We became a homebound city.

Unlike Casper, Richland is not as snow equipped, which is something we learned pretty quick after moving here in November.  Although I do need to remember that they were still laying sod in the backyard of the rental we'd just moved into.  In November!  Anyway, I digress..

It became apparent on Saturday that the plows wouldn't have really mattered all that much, we just needed to wait out the blizzard winds and plow when we knew the snow would stay put.

I guess we weren't homebound when you consider that we have neighbors that braved the weather decked out with their ski poles.  Probably walking around to make sure front doors weren't being painted...

It didn't stop Brennon from going out with Mira.  I got the cutest video of them playing together, but it is too long for here.  You can see the patches of grass near the bottom of the picture, as well as the drifts that Brennon is playing in.  It was a windy day!

 This was the view from my dining room window on Sunday morning.  Compare to the picture above of the "hikers."

 This is the view from our back door.

 We spent the day helping neighbors dig out.  It was actually really neat to look down the street and see so many of us out at one time.  There was laughter and talking as we all commiserated with one another about the difficulties of the storm.  At one time, every home within our site had at least one person outside.  That's never happened to me.  Ever, in fact.  And I grew up in "The Greatest Snow on Earth."

*Side note:  It's hard not to judge a few of our neighbors a bit harshly, if I'm being honest.  We have many senior citizens in our neighborhood.  With all that you've heard about our HOA, it's not hard to guess that I have mixed feelings about a few of them.  But when it comes to the work that was required to dig out, I felt nothing but compassion and goodwill for every member of our community.  There were a few neighbors that used their snow blowers on their own driveways and sidewalks, got their work done, and went in for the rest of the day.  I just don't understand how someone could not want to use their tools to help for such an unusual circumstance, especially when we have so many elderly women.  Randy and I spent from waking to 2:00pm shoveling.  Not because we absolutely love getting blistered hands and broken backs, but because it was just so overwhelming and we couldn't pass up an opportunity to serve those in desperate need.  Our last home was an older woman that hoped to get a small swatch out of her driveway, in case her husband was actually able to make it home-- the airport had been shut down.  She could not believe that someone would actually come to help her, thanking us with hugs and emotion-thick thanks.  There were more that could have used our help, but we physically couldn't go on.  I just don't understand how someone could not use their snow blowers to help, especially when most of us had only shovels with snow up to our eyeballs as far as the eye could see.**

Notice the snow is above my knees.  We were blessed to have Bill Trappett, the man that took care of our mowing each week while Caden was dying, come and help us finish our entire driveway.  We'd planned to make a path behind our Expedition only, but he helped us finish it all.  He did more than five driveways, and probably 1/2 a mile of sidewalks, before I noticed him doing his own.  I wish more were like Bill...

 Being Randy Dirks' home, it wasn't all work with no play.  They made their annual Snow Fort.

 I was trying to capture just how tall the snow was here.

And then I thought how fun it would be to place my phone on the sidewalk...

 Pretty cool.

We've now been told that today will be our third Snow Day.  We had freezing rain last night, waking to another 1-2" of snow.  While freezing rain scares the heck out of me, I must admit that it sounds incredible while falling.  I can't describe it well enough to even try, it's that indescribable.  It's not the snow that prompts our Snow Days the last few years, it's the freezing rain.

Winter finally came.  All at once.  In one weekend.