Monday, February 28, 2005

The Snowstorm(s)

It's Monday night. The kids haven't been to school since Wednesday.

Last Wednesday night, they predicted a Snowstorm that would leave 4-6 inches of snow on the ground. They canceled school at 5am, before the first snowflake fell. We got about 4 inches. The pavement was warm, so it melted the snow. Then it got cold, so it froze the water.

So they canceled school Friday morning. Then, by about 10:30am it warmed up to about 45 degrees and melted any ice and most snow. Then, on Friday's evening news they had parents bitching that school was canceled again.

Saturday and Sunday were beautiful. Sunny, near 45 degrees.

Then Sunday night, they predicted another Snowstorm that could dump about 4-8 inches on us. They canceled school for Monday by 5am, before the first snowflake fell. We got about 2 inches. The pavement was warm again so not much accumulation on the roads.

Now it's Monday night and the only question on every parent's mind is:

"When will these kids go away???"

What does it say about Washington DC that they cancel school BEFORE it actually starts snowing? I grew up in Indiana. The only way we got out of school was if there was 8 inches of snow on the ground when we woke up...

And, it was still coming down...

And, drifting was likely.

Of course, there were only 45,000 people in my town, and no such thing as a commute. Still, I have to wonder.

Canada is probably laughing at us.

Sunday, February 27, 2005

New Adventures On the East Coast

Spring is on its way, and I'm out of hibernation. It's been a weird winter, to say the least. We are almost settled into our house in Virginia, Tater is almost done with his school, and the kids are well into their first semester in their new schools.

We got here on January 8th, after spending almost exactly 5 months at home with my parents.

By the way...my parents ROCK. They took in me, Mackenzie, Dillon, and Dog. They became surrogate parents. They attended open houses, football games, awards ceremonies, holiday concerts, taxied kids, cooked Walton-style dinners, practiced driving with Dillon on his permit, babysat while I gallivanted from one coast to the other and back again, opened the door again to Tater in November, and were still sad to see us go. I know how incredibly lucky I am. I know that under any circumstances, at any time, I am welcome to go Home. I can take kids, dogs, husbands, and will be received with open arms. Even as a 37-year-old woman, the comfort I find in that is like an every-day hug.

Anyway, I've been knee-deep in paint, sandpaper, tools, and moving furniture across the room, only to decide that it was better where it was in the whole first place. I take twice as long to get places than everyone else, because I get lost, miss my turn, or don't realize that the two streets I'm trying to traverse don't actually connect. I dislike having to go to the base hospital or commissary, as I'm not used to all of the People there. (I just looked it up: Demophobia - Fear of Crowds.) Apparently a little-known side effect of spending 4+ years on Atsugi.

Despite all of these things, I'm looking forward to our new Adventure on the East Coast.