Yay!!! All the ice we got Saturday and the snow we got yesterday was totally worth it...for today, anyway. SCHOOL WAS CANCELLED! I'll be sad in March when I have to make up today, and I'll be sad in June when we make up the last snow day we had a few weeks ago, but today I'm happy.
On Saturday around noon, it started to rain. But it was weird rain. It was tiny and frozen. It was not fun to drive in. It would hit the windshield in a solid piece, but then melt immediately. Then, once it was melted and a thin sheet of water, it would freeze again making the windshield difficult to keep clear. The roads didn't start to get bad, though, until later in the evening. J and I had to run to the grocery store, and it took us a long time to clear off the truck enough to get out. It ice-rained off and on for most of the evening, but then stopped in the middle of the night at some point.
When I got up on Sunday morning at around 7, there was no more rain, but the road outside my house still looked pretty icy. I went about my morning, and didn't even pay attention to what was going on outside. Around 8:30 or so, I looked outside, and it was snowing!! And we're talking serious snow. In that short hour and a half, the ground was almost completely covered, and my car had a decent amount of snow on it, too. I needed to go in to school to do some last minute stuff, so I finished getting ready. By 10:00 J was up and we were ready to go. We dug out gloves and scarves, and headed outside to unearth my car.
His truck was pretty frozen, but we figured we'd work on my car because it hadn't been defrosted the day before. We assumed that the ice would be worse on my car. It was. I couldn't even open the driver's door because it was frozen shut. Luckily I was able to get the passenger door open, and reach across to turn on the car and the heat!
I wish I had thought to bring the camera out with me, but I didn't. You'll have to take my word for it, but the ice on my car windows was a quarter of an inch thick. No joke. My heavy-duty ice scraper that is "Guaranteed to remove thick ice!!" was not even making a dent. I had to turn it to the side, and scratch a groove into the ice, and then I was able to get under it. And that was just on the side windows. J was working on my windshield because he is taller than I am and has a better angle on it. (I love my X-Terra, but I can only scrape part of each side of the front windshield. I have to rely on the defroster to take care of the middle!) It helped that the heater and defroster were on full blast, too. Once we got the ice off, we had to go around the car one more time to get the snow off that had accumulated while we were working on the ice. Man, I haven't seen snow like that in a LONG time! It's pretty cool.
It snowed all day long. It never stopped until 7 p.m. It was so bad that KSD called for a 2-hour delay at noon yesterday. It wasn't until 7a.m. this morning that they finally called it off. I think they were hoping that the city would get roads cleared enough, but it didn't happen. Also, it's 15 degrees outside with a windchill that makes it feel like 8 degrees. I think they don't want little ones outside waiting for the bus in that kind of cold.
It's even worse in Spokane. Which normally wouldn't affect me, but I was supposed to leave this afternoon for a three-day conference. I was sort of looking forward to having a bit of time off, but no such luck. I don't have suicidal tendencies, so I was not looking forward to the drive. But my fellow conference-goer was going to drive and she is from Montana. She has a 4-wheel drive Suburban and nerves of steel, so I wasn't too freaked out. But the district has put the kibosh on any school-related travel, so we are staying home. I guess I have to go to work this week.
On the upside, perhaps we'll still have snow on my birthday this Friday!! That hasn't happened since I was very young! And now, I'm not so young anymore. I've only got a minute left of my 20's, and I'm very sad about that.
Here are some pictures (in no particular order) taken shortly after I found out this morning that school was cancelled. They are all from inside my house because I am back in pajamas and not planning to go outside anytime soon!
This is a rock in my front yard. It looks a bit like a garden gnome with its hat of snow!
Here's all I can see of my car from my kitchen window. Check out the bush in the left corner. Talk about a "blanket of snow!"
Here's my windchime in the back yard. Even it wasn't safe from the snow!
A close up of the tree in my backyard.
Another close up of the same tree in the backyard.
Close up a bush right outside my kitchen window.
My neighbors' cars and the tree in my front yard.
The front sidewalk. J shoveled it clear around 4p.m. yesterday. There's not a ton of accumulation on it, but some...
The fire pit in the back yard. You can sort of see here how deep the snow is. This is under the giant mulberry tree, though, so it was somewhat sheltered.
The shed in the backyard. Please excuse the rust. Taking care of that and repainting the shed is one of our spring / early summer jobs this year.
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