The Snow

We've had a week of it now. Almost a week. It'll be a week tomorrow. And there are no underachievers here. According to weather reports, this series of snowfalls is angling to add up to the most accumulated snowfall in November in Spokane. We are at 20 inches. The record is about 24 inches. And there are three days left in the month.

It isn't two years ago - when we had crazy snowfall in 36 hours. But it's steady.

Somehow though, I don't mind it. It's actually kind of nice. Maybe I like it because it happened to accumulate on a Thanksgiving weekend when I had no travel plans. So all the world's quiet fits neatly in with a weekend intended for peace. That must be it. Also, the snow isn't too heavy to shovel. (Having lived here too many years now, I have finally learned the difference between wet and dry snow.) I even bought some insta-logs for the fireplace earlier in the week, and have had a couple fires to warm up the house while snow has fallen outside. Very Norman Rockwell of me. Or Crazy Cat Lady. You pick.

On Wednesday (or was that Tuesday?), it was so cold that it was miserable. It hardly reached the single digits. But that lasted only a day. Perhaps that's another reason I'm enjoying the weather now. It's a balmy 20 degrees outside right now.

Or maybe I've enjoyed the snow because I've been hosting archangels. Suffice to say they are fun to have around. And without going into details, the dreams this time around have been a sort of "This Is Your Life" review. So it's been interesting.

Thanksgiving was very sweet. I went with friends to their parents' home. It was great turkey, and lots of cheer. I made a carrot raisin salad - had to borrow my friend's salad shooter after learning that using my chopper/grinder would not be wise... yes, I had not known that until my sister told me ... (in amongst her laughter, ha ha ha ha ha). At the dinner, we debated whether a cold salad was "cooking." The cooks in the room said no. I, on the other hand, said that it was. It certainly was a lot more cooking than I normally do!

After dinner, we went back to my friends' home to hang out a bit. Finally it was time for me to go home. I said my good nights, and walked down the driveway to my car, parked at the side of the road. I must have been watching my step, because I was almost to my car before I looked up and saw him - a young buck, antlers shining in the moonlight. He was standing in the middle of their snowy road, watching me walk towards my car, and towards him. I gasped. He took my breath away. And then he nodded - didn't he? - as he casually loped to the woods there, on the other side of the road. I heard a rustling and realized he wasn't alone. I never did see who was there with him. I guess it was Thanksgiving Day for us all.

Snow Reminder

I feel bad for people on the East Coast, as they get slammed with all that snow right now. I really do. It looks terrible. And here we sit in Spokane, with our green lawns.... With just a little rain and a chance of clouds.

Lest we forget, however, of the Ways Of Winter 2008/2009, here is a photo of my car in front of my house last January.

In the end, we had over six feet of snow in 20 days' time. Here is my recollection of events at that time. Ah, the memories....

So. Feel no guilt - no remorse - if you are living in the Inland Northwest these past few non-snowy days. It wasn't our turn for snow this year.

Snow Again

Today, it is sunny and warm and without snow on the ground. Yesterday was a different story. This photo says it all. Spokane has a habit of having snowstorms in March - frantically arriving, scattering flakes the size of nickels, and then leaving with little trace left behind. But this is April. I wonder if winter now is over. It's pretty though. This is from right outside my front window yesterday morning.

It Snowed Again

It snowed this a.m. Just a sprinkling of snow, and most of the rest of the piled up snow is already melting, bit by bit....

Stop! Stop! Stop snowing now!!!!!!!

Here's why I might be a bit hysterical about the idea of more snow....

BTW: To people around here who have commented, "so much for global warming," this actually is global warming, when you realize that global warming is a bit of a misnomer and is really meant to describe new and outrageous weather cycles, however they may show up. In this case, six feet of snow in 20 days.... that is, in fact, a symptom and sign of what we have named "global warming" and probably should be calling "global weather chaos."

An Exaggeration?

A friend of mine sent me the following email with the caption "From Spokane":

Winter is almost over and we can see the deer wandering around now.

Snow in Spokane

This is a picture of my car outside my house from early January. Can you see it? Yes indeed, we have had a lot of snow. In the end, it was over six feet total in 20 days' time. And then it started to rain. Joy. Though the rain did help wash the snow away. The snow's still here, but at least now I can see my car from my house (well, most of it).

The first 36 hours of snow were the craziest. That's when we got the first two feet. Yes, yes. Two feet of snow in 36 hours, that nobody had forecasted. It just kept snowing and snowing... On the 2nd day, I had to go to my office to get my computer, so I decided to try to drive. My little car was willing, but not able. I figured if I could just get to the tire ruts in my street that the SUVs had made (you know, the grown-up cars), then we'd be fine. I dug my way to the ruts, drove ten feet, landed in them, gunned the engine, lurched forward.... And froze in place, stranded on the top of a snow berm, my little car earnestly trying to touch back down into the ruts, to no avail. I got out, dug under the car, got back in, spun the air with my wheels, got back out, dug under the car, got back in, spun the air with my wheels.... for two hours. Yes, it was a fun day. Though I did laugh a lot. And then my neighbor tied a rope to one of my axles and pulled my car backwards off the berm with his truck. My other neighbor let me park in front of his house for the next few days. I traveled 15 feet in two hours. It was quite the accomplishment.

I was better off than a lot of people, as the weeks progressed. Reports came in about all the men (okay, "people," but you know they were all men) who came to the emergency rooms with broken legs, having fallen off their roofs while up there trying to shovel off snow. (In their defense, at least 50 roofs have collapsed all around the county because of all this snow.) There also were two incidents of two different "people" (men again) threatening snow removal plow drivers with guns. (Who would be mad to see a snow removal plow?) As one police officer said as he tried to calm people down, “Remember, when July comes we will all be laughing about those crazy days in December. Try not to reflect on those days from your shared cell at the Spokane County Jail." And then it snowed again. And again. A woman wrote to the newspaper with a grammar question: "Is it 'I snowblowed,' all day yesterday, or 'I snowblew' all day yesterday?" She then answered her own question. "It doesn't really matter. I'll just go with, 'I am snowblowing every day.'"
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And then there were the animals. They couldn't find food, so they started to come to town. A moose crashed his way into someone's basement bedroom through the window. It took animal control a few hours to get him out. Apparently the moose left "presents" in the bedroom in the meantime. Poor guy. He must have been terrified.

And there have been many, many
deer, even in the more urban areas like mine. In fact, I had a deer here. I was sitting on my couch in the living room and suddenly, from around the corner of my house, there she was - staring at me. In an instant she had turned, trotted down my somewhat-shoveled walk, crossed the street, and disappeared. It happened so fast, I had no time to take her picture. I took a photo of her footprints instead. I hope she found some food.