Day in the Snow

I never gave any thought to moving my bedroom clock forward, although I was well aware of the looming time change. I woke at what I originally thought was 8:00am only to remember the spring forward. Suddenly, I felt behind the eight ball. I got up and headed downstairs to get the day rolling.

The first thing I did was take my vitamin and anti-inflammatory and then prepped some coffee. In between sets of exercise I logged into work only to discover my assistance was again needed. I helped however I could. Outside it was bright & sunny but still quite cold. It was 16 degrees. The snow was lovely. Ykraps headed out for our walk where again he struggled to find his sweet spots. After returning home I sat at the PC with my first cup of coffee. Columbus made national headlines because of our weather. Officially, we got 20.4 inches of snow. According to the article, we set a new snowfall record for a single storm. Cool!

I can’t recall what time it was when Mindy joined me downstairs. I know that she was back at her laptop when I returned from my sunny run. In many respects, it was a tougher run today than yesterday’s. The plowed streets were slick with hard packed snow, and with the sun beating down it created the slip & slide effect. I had to be extra careful, not to mention the lumpy bumps that were next to impossible to detect by eye. When it’s sunny & lumpy like that there’s always the possibility of twisting an ankle. But thankfully, I managed to navigate through it safely. Upon my return home, I asked Mindy if she would help me clear the drive and sidewalks. She agreed. In the meantime, I headed to the shed to fetch my extra snow shovel. Getting in the shed wouldn’t be easy. I had to drudge through 20 inches of snow where it easily topped my snow boots. They quickly filled with cold snow.

After fetching my old plastic shovel, I drove a bigger screw into my new shovel to make it useful too. I also grabbed the square shovel since the bottom two or so inches of snow against the concrete was hard pack. Together we worked for about two hours clearing the driveway and then the walk. The sun was bright so I knew that once we got it cleared the sun would dry it off quickly. Carl came over and asked if we wanted to borrow his snow blower for the walks. I declined initially but Mindy chimed in and said I’ll do it if you teach me. Carl willingly showed her how. Mindy cleared our walk all the way to the bridge in one direction and then all the way to neighbor David’s drive the other way. David was appreciative of that. While Mindy finished out front, I went around and cleared a path on the deck and then cleared the hot tub cover. In fact, I put quite a bit of snow directly into the hot tub. We figured having the hot tub ready was a good idea since our muscles ached from all the shoveling.

We weren’t inside long at all when daughter Ashley phoned upset about a flat tire. She was over at Kelly’s when it occurred. Mindy urged me to not ask a lot of questions and instead just go help. I took her advice, went and changed clothes, and then loaded my hydraulic jack in the Trooper and drove off. Sure enough, there sat Ashley’s car not only with a flat tire but also stuck in the snow. Lil’ Rocky and Olivia were out playing in the snow. They were both very cute. Of course, I took my camera along and got a couple great shots. Lil’ Rocky even helped me change Ashley’s flat.

Unfortunately, Ashley’s donut spare was next to flat. Lucky for her, it had just enough air to get her to the Speedway just up the road. I followed her there to get air after digging her car out of the snow. A similar thing happened with her car last year.

I hadn’t forgotten that Rocky wanted to have a snow ball fight. Instead of driving off home I headed back by Kelly’s and had Ashley get Rocky ready for a snow ball battle. He seemed to enjoy the pummeling I put on him. J He’s at an age where he needs my influence. I can feel it in my bones. I left Kelly’s around 4pm and headed towards home. Mindy gave me cash to stop at KFC on the way home. I stopped and got an eight piece dinner for about $13. Can’t beat that price for feeding a family of four.

At home, I parked on Mindy’s side of the drive way. There remained snow where the Trooper sat all weekend that I wanted to clear. Inside, neighbor Becky was chatting with Mindy psyched that Hilliard Schools were canceled tomorrow. They announced early. Mindy was hopeful South-Western would soon follow suit.

We enjoyed our KFC and then the whole family headed out to play in the snow. We did a little snow boarding and then headed out further to swing and build a snow fort and snowman. I got some really good action photos in the snow. It was lovely – about 34 degrees and brilliantly sunny, making for perfect packing snow. And, Oh, by the way, snow boarding is not easy at all. I could hardly stand up on the thing. I fell three times before tossing it aside.

We stayed out for about 1.5 hours. Mindy and I had more fun than the kids. They both said they were bored. I thought what kid gets bored with 20 inches of snow? Gessh!

We went in to warm up around 6:30pm. We had already discussed hot tubbing with the kids. They had never been in it before, so they undoubtedly had no idea what it would be like. And judging from their favorite bath water temp, they’d be in for a surprise. Bella stayed on me the entire time I was downloading snow pictures to get the hot tub ready. As a last ditched effort she came to me already in her swim suit. Too cute! I finally conceded and got the tub ready for fun.

Bella was out first. I helped her in. As expected, she found the water alarmingly hot. I coached her through the slow descent technique and the three second approach – basically the boiled frog syndrome. Once she acclimated herself to the temp she loved it. Jacob was next. He came out and did the same thing accept was even more uncertain than Bella. Mindy was slow to join us. She was busy trying hard to overcome her electronic card game. So far, her new laptop is the most expensive solitaire game in the world. Jacob eventually trusted me enough to try the three second technique. It worked equally well with him. Soon Mindy joined us. Meanwhile, the kids had an absolute ball playing in the hot tub. We stayed in for just over 20 minutes.

The kids skipped a bath and instead loaded right into their jammies, that is after Mindy lubed them up with lotion. They watched a movie before heading off to bed. I spent the next hour or so updating my blog through Thursday.