They are still home

We have had a couple of inches of snow since the weekend storm. That was a big one, dumping over a foot of snow all over my fair city and its environs. I think the big one is why I am keeping my kids close this week. Nobody has been able to dig out the snowplows and open the roads, or something. Actually they have done a pretty good job on the "arterials," leaving the neighborhoods to fend for themselves. I made it out and back a couple of times in my little Fit yesterday. It was interesting, but manageable.

My sister across the state sent her kids back on their rounds yesterday, except for the one who is visiting the land of In-N-Out Burgers. Mine are still home. We have been watching lots of movies, catching up on sleep, and after yesterday's trip to the library, catching up on reading. I am glad the library is open. I have never seen so many cars in their parking lot. Last week was finals week at the high school, so my girl is completely free from homework. My boy had to read 20 pages for his weekend homework. If he stays home much longer, he will have read 20 books.

I take my Shadow for a couple of walks every day too. She does not think snow is an excuse to stay in, she likes to go out and play in it. meanwhile, we keep looking at the immitation Himalayas in the front yard and wonder when school starts for the Spring.

What a real snow day looks like

The local school district finally found enough snow on the doorstep to let the kids stay home. This is what the backyard looks like on a snow day.Over there on the other side of the state, they have at least an inch, which melted as soon as the sun hit it, and they are staying home too. This is what the backyard looks like when it is not a snow day. I do not see much difference.We are obviously tougher than they are when it comes to driving in the snow. The golden bear is happy out there below the icicles.
Snow piled higher than a 10 year old is tall, might be a clue that there is enough to stay home. Notice the blue sky? I thought it might be snowing on a snow day. Today we have a forecast for an inch or two, but I would think that they could have plowed out the parking lots like we did to the driveway yesterday and find a place for the busses to park.I have seen the bus drive down this street when there was more snow on it that this. What are they so afraid of? I hope we do not get the promised two inches tonight, or I might get to keep the kids again tomorow. The trouble is that we pay for it in June with extra days of school.

Another race day

We went to 49 Degrees North yesterday for a race, amid warnings from the Washington Department of Transportation to stay off the road if it was not an emergency. There were lots of skiers and snowboarders there who had the same definition of emergency that we did. My geographically astute sister pointed out that if we were really at 49 Degrees North, one more step and we would need a passport. We were really at 48 degrees and change, but that did not fit in the window.

Toward the end of the day, I went out and took a couple of shots looking back at the lodge. I like the piles of snow on the ends of the beams.When I use the flash, you can see the snowflakes as well as I can.Then after all the races, I have to find my car again. It is easier if the guys with the 4x4 trucks park in another lot than I do.She was still there, waiting in the canyon. I put the wipers up, so they would not freeze on to the windshield. They still collected sufficient ice to function poorly on the way home through ice and snow. I could see enough to know where the road was.

We made it home safely, and now my little fit is warming and melting in the garage.

It only gets worse

I thought it was cold when we were down to the teens.Then I thought single digits were breathtaking. Literally. I wear a face warmer to help me breathe when I walk my Shadow.

Then I decided this morning that the little minus sign on the digital thermometer was not really necessary at all.

Whatever the temperature outside is, there is fur on the inside of the window frames. I have seen that before, but ice forming on the inside of double pane windows?

I am glad we have the new furnace. I will try to remember what cold feels like when July comes. I think all the snow might be melted by then. Maybe.

Brrr

We have been experiencing cold weather this week.

Some of you might think it gets cold when the water in the dog bowl freezes. We have past that standard and gone further in the direction of cold this week. One morning, I looked at the thermometer which shows the outside temperature, and I thought, "How nice, 95" I missed the decimal between the 9 and the 5.

I try to walk the dog closer to midday when the thermometer moves toward freezing. The layered look is in these days. Our street is a sheet of solid ice, but there are streets in the neighborhood where the truck with the deicer spray has made it safe for walkers. Shadow loves the smell, taste and feel of the stuff on the street. She wants to roll in it when she can, but I do my best to prevent her. She still remembers her life without a fenced yard, and prefers to do her business on the end of the leash, rather than inside her own yard. We take lots of walks.

The kids are still busy skiing, but I do not have any new pictures today. It was too cold to take my camera out of the pocket this weekend. Maybe I will have more next week. Happy Winter.

More fun skiing

This is where I want to learn to ski. Watch out for the snow snakes though.The kids line up by these animals, I am guessing they do it by height.I do not want to teach the group on the end, though.What I saw when I first arrived at Picnic Point. They said the view was delightful. I begged to differ. Then I cleaned my lens and took another couple of pictures.
They have difficulty rating the trails. On the map, they are green circles (easy) out on the trail, they are blue squares (not so easy). Then there is Huckleberry. Sometimes it is blue and sometimes it is the dreaded black diamond.Then there is the unrated cat track. The downhill skiers think it is easy. I would give it a double black diamond at the end, but I survived.

Can you say "snow day?"

If you can repeat the above phrase, you are ahead of the local school district. Despite 5 to 7 inches of new fluffy white stuff that appeared overnight, magically all over the ground, they insisted that the kids show up as usual. Every district around our fair town was at least on a delayed schedule, if not off for the day. That meant we shoveled out the driveway so my daughter could hop in the car and make it somewhere. She survived just fine, although at least one student stopped in the driveway up to the parking lot for an unreasonable amount of time. All this in a city and county that plows once a year, whether we need it or not. That was last month.

My son made off to the bus stop just fine. His stop is #5 on the route, and the bus was 15 minutes late. The 4 stops before his are in our immediate neighborhood. That bus was wearing chains for the first time all year. At least we go to a district that values education, although according to the report I heard, about half the student population at the high school never made it in. I can imagine a lot of parents did not want their little darlings driving today, or they got stuck on the way in. I offered to drive, but she was sure she could handle it, so I let her. It is not far and mostly level roads. She knows how to handle the hill now.

How I get my exercise. . .

Some people go to the finer ski resorts to ski. Silly them. I go to watch my kids ski. There is far more exercise involved. Those lazy skiers just ride the chair to the top of the hill and glide down. The watchers hike up and down the hill in all kinds of weather, all day. This smart one brought snowshoes. I brought hiking boots. Next time, I think I will take my poles too, they help on the way down.This place sure has a big lodge. They wanted $10 to park my little car in their snow too. I guess someone has to pay the mortgage. Sometimes the view is more rewarding than others. Sometimes I clean my lens before I take pictures. The lake of hanging ears is out there somewhere. That would Pend Oreille to those of you who speak French.Sometimes the snow blowing in my face is colder than others. Then it stops snowing and we can see the courses. I case you are confused, there are two courses here, one for boys and one for girls. Each skier only does half of the gates. I would hike up to just above the third pole from the bottom of this picture.
My boy had a great first run. He fell on his second run, but he got right up. Unfortunately the loss of a ski ended the run for him. He was not hurt, but he needed Mom, which is the other reason why we hike up the hill to watch the race. He can hear me cheer him on as he flies by, or he can have a hug if he is not flying. He took a few extra rides on the high speed quad chair after the races, so it was a fun day in the end after all.

Race day

All the fog was gone, so we could see the racers and the gates on New Year's Eve. There were too many pictures, so I made them into a video. Watch for the moving black dot on the course. That would be a skier. I was glad the sun was out, because I was holding a stopwatch at the finish line. The pictures are courtesy of my spouse, who froze his fingers to take them. Maybe if my brother made the film, there would be music. I did not feel so inspired, so you just get to watch. Turning up the sound will not help.

Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night.