Friday evening in the snow, again. Still coming down. Not even dark, yet.

These are Dave's windows. I stole them - they ae so pretty. And the farm is covered in deep snow today also.

Here: One to three inches expected tonight (Friday); Snow again tomorrow - one inch in the day, three inches at night; Sunday until noon - more snow.

Can you imagine?

We have power (light and heat, running water, tv, interestingnet,chocolate cookies, etc.) and that is impressive.

We don't have anyway to clear the snow. Shovel the patio and it's covered again.

Maybe something interesting will happen tomorrow.

What's happening where you are?

and AgAiN -- Life in a SNOWGLOBE

West Virginia in the 21st century. Lots of unusual snow in the beginning of the second decade... (I can't remember what the weather was like in the first decade of this century. I live in the moment now.)

Forecasters say we are "in for another snowy, windy, cold [hovering betwen 27 and 31 degrees] several days."

Today was a Snow Day for education in Taylor,Harrison and Ritchie Counties and countless more... Marion and Monongahelia did not have weather warnings, and they HAD school. The roads didn't clear until after 10 am around here. And so, Linda and Sandy came later with Caleb.

I would like to have a vacation. Forest Gump's Mom says "a vacation is when you go away and never come back." Hummmmm...

Right now the battery is low in the camera or I would take a picture and show you the view from out front window. It's pleasant: the snow has stopped swirling and the sun is dropping behind the hill. The deer have sought shelter in the woods. And I am going to get back to the life inside - dinner and paperwork.

That's all from life in the SnowGlobe.

A simple solution to the snow day issue - my rant

Gentle readers,
I was inspired to write this rant after reading yet another editorial by an assistant editor of the local news paper (and I use that term loosely.) Please send me editorial comments and editing hints. I fear my skills are rusty and I need input as "Number Five" would say.

After reading this rant I decided to take it down... I couldn't decide if I wanted to be serious or scarcastic. And I just rambled. Good for the spleen, but not for the blog.

and AGAIN, and AGAIN

This last snowfall brought the grapevine down. I got a long-distance photo of the snowpile where it once stood, supported by a pipe trellis.

These are the icicles that have been building all over the property.

Do you suppose this weather will EVER warm up?
If and when it does, look out for the flooding ;-)

When I look out through the bedroom window, I get the feeling I've been "locked up" for quite a while. I took this picture from the back porch with snow drifting over my shoes. Cold.


The picnic shelter icicles have dropped away already. These are the "new" ones from the most recent February 15-16-17 warm up and snow down.
Tiny aren't they.

Get a load of the snow on top of the tractor garage. No ICE JAMS or icicles there. No heat. This is another photo of the driveway after Bill took the snowblower up and down, so we can get out. the sun has helped it, but the snow keeps falling.

and AGAIN

Wednesday morning:
Bill has already been here with the snowblower. God Bless you, Bill.
Zoey has croup. Tracy has to work and Delia has no school.
I HAVE to get this paperwork finished. for school and Mom...
Stan needs breakfast. I have been eating Tylenol like it's good; it's not!
Nothing like being stuck in one place and the oj has run out...
Somebody - tell me some good news!
L8tr

AGAIN

When I got the call at a little after 5 am this morning, I had not expected another SNOW DAY. Maybe a little delay, but the roads did not seem so bad when I came home last night at 5. But - there is 6 + inches of somekindofwhite frozen stuff in the driveway -again. And something is falling from the sky - debris from the space station perhaps. I hear the guys are doing home improvements up there this week...

We have breakfasted.
I have cleaned up somewhat.
I have blogged a little.
He is watching the History Channel: Slave trade on the open sea pre-Civil War.

Yesterday, the parking lot was clear at school. At least, I could walk from the handicapped spaces to the door without fear.
The room (my room) was empty and quiet - except for the kid who thought he had to be at school and brought his electric guitar and amp (which he proceeded to play [loudly] next door to my room - until I shut the door and turned up John Tesh on the CD player. Then someone called him to the office, and he disappeared.)
I turned off the big screen TV, which had been left on since my sub was showing Channel One last Monday. Evidently she couldn't find the off button and the kids didn't volunteer. Lucky for us, the library screen saver has that orange block that moves around to keep the screen image from "burning" into the screen.

I graded papers, input scores into Gradequick, attended Faculty Senate, skipped lunch (too snowy to drive to Mickey D's or Wally world) in favor of M&M minis found in the drawer...
There was a rumored team meeting, which never materialized, and then an hour of self-flagellating over observations in our classrooms and unified vocabulary study methods which are supposed to morph into "higher order thinking" skill practice.
I was assigned another impossible task: have a department meeting. When all other departments have the same task at the same time... no one shows up for social studies. All the elementary people are multidisciplinary assigned, all other departments: LA/reading, match, and science have "counted" for the school grade on Westest much longer that social studies: therefore, teachers must go to the meetings that count, before they attend the meetings that "count so very little."

I should write the meeting minutes and send them electronically to my principal. But then again, perhaps not. I would like to keep my job, after all.

Well, I'm going to get back to one of my other lives now - this one (as a sarcastic writer/blogger) is way too much fun right now.

The theme for today is ICICLES

Well, folks, the weather forecaster says "more snow" for Sunday evening - then MORE for Monday... Will it ever end? Not that I'm complaining... I've eaten everything in the house and gone out for more. If I don't get out of here soon, all my clothes will have to have elastic everywhere.

The thermometer is probably not correct. Even though the water drips slowly from the tips of these massive icicles, the sun is the heater, not the air temperature. But the dial gives us a better chance of figuring out how big the icicles are.

I figure that one of these is 4 feet long... It was too icy and cold to walk out there around the house, beside the kitchen window, and measure.

Heading photo: but not cropped - so you can see the tree and the hillside, as well as the roof and, of course, the icicles.

Our cable connection is on the ground. Better get that up and attached before the guys need to cut the grass. Oh, Summer - wherefor art thou?

Thursday afternoon, February 11, 2010

I don't know why the day and date are so important in blogging (for me). Probably, I need the structure of knowing this. More important, rather, is the belief that I am keeping something in order.
Well, the day is grey. The snow is still falling - tiny, tiny particles. (I wonder what the Eskimo word [pardon, the Inuit word] for this particular snow is.)
The driveway is too icy to travel down to get the mail and the newspaper. Snow is piled on the patio to the tune of 3 inches.
Grey, grey, grey.





I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day.... o r at least to the color associated with Valentine's day.

Is this really Wednesday? Who can tell with all this snow?!

It's @ 2P.M. here in the valley. Bill has come down with the snowblower and is presently in the process of clearing the patio (he's already done the driveway). Thank you, Bill. I will go out in a minute and thank him in person.I was having a breakdown: trying to clear-up some paperwork, the shredder got jammed. I altered my task pattern and trimmed Stan's toenails and fingernails (an hour's job on any day)... ate a P&J sammie, checked the blogs, and now prepare to get the paper and check the snail mail.Winter does have its perks: the occasional no school day - shelter in place as you call it - but it is not the vacation that the outside world envisions. Everyone has something that could be better, if not today, then tomorrow...
Don't pray for an easy life, pray for strength.

Fog - deliberate white damp icy-cold spirit killer

The picture at the top of this blog will change by tomorrow.

FYI: the photo of my car was taken from my front porch at Park Boulevard back in the day - when Stan was away and the kids were grown up and away - leaving me with no snow shovel (only a little kitchen pan - to dig myself out from the blizzard that kept WV snowbound for at least a week... back in the first part of this decade (I really can't remember.)

The icy-cold cloud of fog that rolled into the valley this afternoon

will see to the fact that this header photo will change..

The patio had at least an inch of sodden wet snow-like water standing on it

at 3p.m.

I knocked some of the snow off the awning and the house roof

where I could stand and lift a broom to scrape icy-snow off the gutters.

I hope it is not too late to save the gutters - they are leaking at every seam.

I hope they hold tight to the roof until spring.

I did get out of the house today to grocery shop and Rx shop.

I don't think school will be in session for the next two days - but I won't go if it is... Linda and Sandy can't drive on ice. And neither should I. It's 9 p.m. Jamie just called - no school in Taylor tomorrow

Dad had a successful session with our PT nurse, Joan. She'll be back Thurs or Friday.

I could get to liking staying home.

But nothing stays balanced for too long:

I've had to call the gas company two nights in a row to relight the pilot on the hot water tank and the furnace - low pressure in the line or icy regulator - your guess...

I've switched to Tylenol for the crippling leg/foot problem - the knees will take care of themselves ;-)

I'd like to try that new recipe -- CC and Bristol creme w/ cherries, but I am the designated driver.

But nothing stays the same for long-get used to it and it's gone.

Let the Sun shine in.

From the front deck, after I dug my way to the railing. You can see the blacktop on the driveway; Jeff and JJ dug it out and made the patio clear again. The holly trees have been hard hit. But the deer have cut across the yard many times in the dark.



See how the strong rays of the sun melted the south and western side of the overburden snow on Mr. Vance's pine trees?

From the livingroom widow on Sunday, reminds me of Pollyanna - all glittery and shimmering.

OK I know you will soon be tired of snow pictures. However, the sun did shine today and it made the yard glorious with sparkle. Too bad I couldn't caputre that entirely. But I tried.

I am home during the school day: Harrison had a snow day, Taylor did not. But Linda and Sandy are snowed in, so I am home. Daddy and I are "keeping company" and I am trying to catch up with my life (right after I post these pictures.)

These were taken yesterday [Sunday with litle or no snowfall] and today [before the forecast 1 to 3 inches anticipated tonight]

February 6 Mid-Atlantic Blizzard in WV

OK folks, Now that I know how to upload pictures... Stand Back!

My pictures are awesome.

The way I can tell this month's blizzard from previous snowstorms is easy: the inches of snow stuck to the limbs of the trees and piles on the banister to the left of the center stairs.

Sun Valley has around 18 inches of heavy wet snow standing on the driveway and patio and surrounding land and all the poor bushes bent to the ground.

You'll notice an absence of human life forms... they are all out sledding in some other yard, leaving this one pristine... for a while.

Snow is up to the middle of the truck tires.

News, I have NEWS.

Hey guys, Dad got to come home today [Tuesday, February 2, 2010 aka GROUND HOG DAY]

Yes, the fever is down and he's sleeping (with oxygen at night now) waiting for supper... He has pills to finish the antibiotic load.

It's snowing again. By dark there was more than a skift on the ground. I'm going to change the blog heading picture again - winter will be with us for at least 6 more weeks: March 21st, I'd reckon.