Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth again....

Been a bit preoccupied with the weather situation around here. We've had a lot of snow & ice. The meteorologists predicted a huge storm for Wednesday, so I didn't go to work. Turns out the storm stalled off shore. A lot of people took the day off and all the schools were closed. I felt like such an idiot for not going in. If I'd had a paper bag, I was gonna cut 2 eye holes and write "SNOW CHUMP" in glitter above the eye holes, then wear it into work. Steve always teases me about my panic every time I see so much as a flake. He's from Michigan. It confounds him that someone from an equally snowy area like me is that afraid to drive in snow. Well I hate it. It never bothered me till the night it took me from 11:30 pm-2:30 am to drive from my job at Channel 56 in Boston back to Cape Cod, in a driving blizzard w/ zero visability in the middle of the night. When I saw the guardrail I knew I was close to it so I'd correct to get back in my lane, when I didn't see the guardrail, I was scared I was gonna go off the other side. The snow was mesmerizing and it was so hard for me to concentrate on my driving. I was so happy to see the lights of the Sagamore Bridge and from there I knew I could pick my way thru Sandwich on Rte. 6A. I ditched my car in the middle of my parents' driveway cause it got stuck and had to stay over b/c I knew the road on which I lived, a dirt road, would be impassible & unplowed. That was my "snow fear turning point."

So I decide to go in on Thursday b/c I figured I HAD to go in. It took about an hour to get the 22 miles, door to door. It was really bad. It started snowing again and at 12:30, Steve surprised me by saying that he thought I had better get on the road and get home b/c he was afraid I'd get stuck if I stayed at work. Again, another hour on the road getting home, going 30 mph the whole way. I couldn't even get my car up the driveway; Brian had to slog down to the road and drive it up to the garage. Western WA just doesn't have the equipment or budget to deal w/ these storms b/c it's so rare.

Although it was clear and sunny yesterday, the temp never got above 26 and there was no way I was getting out. Brian has 4-wheel drive so he & I went to Fred Meyer for groceries & stuff. He went out again today to Freddies for a couple things we forgot yesterday and he couldn't even find parking. He said he had to club his way down the bread aisle. Took 20 minutes just to get out of the parking lot and back on Hwy. 410.

So we have a blizzard watch for our area; something which is very rare. It's snowing pretty hard now and the winds are going to kick up. It's going to be very, very bad. But hey, at least we may get a chance to use our generator. I hope our cable doesn't go out or else...NO INTERNET!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! We have lots of food and supplies, so we're all cozy. I don't like the wind storms and am always nervous about the many tall fir trees that whip wildly around. On the plus side, maybe those scraggily firs that are blocking our view of Rainier might topple. Hmmm. Maybe we should go down there with a chainsaw and "help them along" before the storm really starts. hahahaha Kidding. It's a felony to cut down trees that you don't own to improve your view.

Unfortunately the cruelest irony of all is, this is the first year in my entire life that I haven't decorated for the holidays. And this is the first time we've had this much snow so close to the holidays, and we might even have a white Christmas if we don't get a massive melt or rain. It would have been nice to have had a tree and lights and our decorations out, to complete the snowy postcard picture of very rare snowy weather in Western WA.

I'll catch up w/ you guys later. I just want to get thru the wind storm unscathed.