Ask Mr. Blizzard

Snowpocalypse is upon us! It's too early to tell whether we will get the predicted 22 inches of snow. Right now, where I live, we're at 12 inches. I'm doubtful we will get 10 more today, but who knows? Maybe I'll end up eating my words. Which would be good, because otherwise we might starve, being snowed in here for ... one whole day!

So, we all have a snow day. Everything is closed. Well, you know, not the hospital and the TV news stations, but the people who work there had to sleep there last night.

And I'm gonna say, at least as of 8:12 a.m., I love snow days! I can't think of another day where I had the luxury of waking up and knowing that we didn't have to go anywhere. It seems like I always have to go to the gym or the grocery store or Nathan's school or something. Every morning feels like a rush to get out the door, even on the weekends.

But today? I woke up feeling so relaxed and warm and cozy, because there's no urgent need to do anything. And I'm going to let my kid sleep as late as he wants without waking him up like I usually do. And yes, I know, he's the only three-year-old in the history of the world who has to be woken up to go to school at 9 a.m., but before you start hating me, let me say he makes up for this by not taking a nap and having the most frustrating time getting to sleep at night.

Anyway, he needs this snow day. We all do.

Leia has the right idea.

That's right, I got my picture of Leia in the linen closet! Unfortunately she has the Glowing Cat Eyes of Death, and the red-eye repair feature on Picasa doesn't work so well for animal eyes. Also now you see that everything in my linen closet looks sort of disheveled, although that's largely because a cat was sleeping on them. Or because, seriously, is there a way to fold a fitted sheet?

Another fun snow-related pastime for Leia: standing at the window and batting at snow-covered branches that are actually outside the window. Genius, that cat is.

Meanwhile, the humans have been drinking hot chocolate:




We went out in the snow last night and took pictures. It was blowing like a mother.


We attempted a preliminary shoveling last night to get a jump on it.


Now, I know I'm a native Californian and all, but I'm pretty sure that Nathan's shoveling technique is not the best for optimum snow removal. Generally speaking, I find that you do better if the shovel is right-side-up and being pushed in front of you. It doesn't really matter, though, because even shoveling the right way, I don't think my 5 p.m. shovel made that much of a dent in it. It was only 3 inches deep by then. Now it's 12 inches deep.

But you know what? I'm so grateful to have shelter. Last night, as I snuggled in bed with my kid in our warm house that I usually take for granted, I thought of all the poor people who had no home to go to in this blizzard. I'm honestly not sure you would survive if you didn't at least go to a train station or something. I hope everybody found somewhere to go.

Eventually we'll go out today and shovel and frolic around, and I'll probably take some pictures of that and put them up. Stay tuned!