winter wonderland

Every few years, we get a really snowy winter.   This is one of them.  Last winter we had nothing.  Zip.  We just had our third round of snow the other day, and miracle of miracles... the Significant Other was home to enjoy it. 

Guess who did zero shoveling or snow blowing...  You got it.  I made soup instead.  Believe me, I've earned sitting it out for awhile.

Carrot ginger soup. Delicious.

On top of the two feet we already had, we got another 8-10 inches.  Ivy seems to be dealing with it a bit better.  She loves to play in it, but she's been stressing out about where to go to the bathroom.  I'm not sure why, but dogs seem to have this thing about having to pee and poop in certain places, and the snow seems to have thrown off all her boundaries.  But like I said, she seems to be dealing with it now. 

The good thing is that playing in the snow makes her tired.  Having a young dog is kind of like having a toddler... sometimes you just want them to nap.

Of course there's also a downside...

Before

After

We have to remember to wear slippers or else everyone has wet socks for awhile.

A bunch of my friends and I were talking the other day about the Blizzard of '78, and lo and behold, I came across this picture.  It was February of 1978, and I was in 7th grade.  The snow started on a Sunday and didn't stop until Tuesday.  We lost power for a few days, but some people in our town lost it for two weeks.  I think we wound up with over two feet of snow.  After the plows piled up all the snow on the sides of the roads, it was perfect igloo building snow.  

A month shy of my 13th birthday yet not too old to play in the snow. 

I remember bringing all sorts of things in there - my tape recorder, books and such.  It was a fun place to hang out.  I did miss TV though.  I was quite a TV junkie back in the day.

I took a few pics during yesterday's storm.  I would have removed the window screen for better shots, but I would have wound up with even more snow in the house than the dog brings in. 

Backyard view from upstairs

Gray and snowy

Once the storm passed, which was somewhere around 4pm, the blue skies came, and everything brightened up.

The view from our street

Today is much of the same.  It's cold, but it's bright and sunny.  There's even a cardinal singing right now.

Right now I'm enjoying it.  I'm not thinking about the mess it will become when it starts to melt. 😨

 

what's up

 My daughter just had a birthday, so now we've all had quarantine birthdays.  I told her that it's possible she will have only one quarantine birthday - for the rest of us, it looks like we'll be going a second round. 

Vaccine rollout here in NJ has been pretty pathetic.  There are still people in the 65+ category who can't get appointments, my mother-in-law being one of them.  Now that the requirements have been opened up to people 16-64 with certain conditions, it's a total mess.  I don't expect to be vaccinated until summer. 

Right now we are getting hammered with snow.  So far we have over a foot, and it's not supposed to stop until tomorrow.  We've gotten several snowstorms this winter.  It's reminding me of the snow we used to get when I was a kid.

Outside my window, ready for a snow tea party.

The SO (significant other) is NEVER home when we get storms.  The only one he didn't miss was Hurricane Sandy, which was good, but COME ON!  Every time!  That's 34 years of ditching me in bad weather, 24 years of it with kids and dogs!  But I say this tongue-in-cheek, really.  It doesn't bother me that much... And in case you're wondering, yes, he still travels for his work.  There are very complicated and elaborate systems in place for his traveling, including a lot of Covid testing.  He's had more Q-tips up his nose than anyone I know.  So far, so good.  The new variants popping up make me nervous though.

Not long after we moved in, we set up a home office in the basement.  I always felt a little isolated down there, so this past weekend I decided to move my part into our bedroom.  So I stole his desk and moved it upstairs for me to use.  These are the kinds of things I do to get my revenge for his being away. 😉  

My son is still doing college at home online.  Honestly, sometimes I forget he's still in school.  My daughter has been doing editing work for Scribbr, which is an online proofreading and editing service for documents such as research papers, PhD dissertations, and the like.  The other night she was working on some crazy 8-page scientific document.  Nobody had any idea what any of it meant.  When I was in college, I used to type papers for grad students.  I laugh when I think about how old that makes me sound now.  But hey, I used to charge $75, and that was good money then.  By the way, I still love to type.

I've been wondering what my next move will be once I can be out and about.  I've got some ideas that I might share in future posts.  Really though, the first thing I want to do is just hang out on a beach somewhere.