Snopocalypse, Part 4

We knew it was going to be bad overnight and today, and events proved us right. This morning we woke up at around 9:30, and the snow had absolutely covered our front entryway, the stairs, the yard, and it was halfway obscuring our front-yard bushes. Our enterprising daughter was reading, on her stomach, in the second-floor hallway when I got up (Drew was in the guest room because he's sick and doesn't want to get me sick, too), and announced: "The snow is more than A FOOT!" "How do you know?" I asked. "I went outside, in my jammies and boots, and measured," she explained. When I asked her if she knew exactly, she said, "I didn't want to lose the ruler." I told her that I was very impressed!

Rachel insisted on trying to help us shovel. She tried, she really did, but she just couldn't handle it and came inside looking so sad and disappointed. "I can't," she said. "I'm sorry I get you guys down." We explained that of course she didn't, and I said that shoveling is hard even for Mommy. The biggest thing she did, though, was manage to scrape enough snow from the front of the door so that we could at least open it. I took the first shift, shoveling a path from the front stairs to the sidewalk, and, man, was it hard work. The wind picked up, as had the snow, and I ended up stripping off my coat and working in a flannel shirt, a shirt under that and my sports bra underneath. I went it at it steadily for about a half hour, and then Drew insisted on taking over. (Rachel welcomed me inside by throwing a blanket on me and curling up on my lap while we read a while). Drew shoveled the sidewalk and our elderly neighbors' sidewalk, too. (One of our across-the-street neighbors had already done his own walk, and another guy had a snowblower, so that side of the street's sidewalk was absolutely clear, which was nice, but where was anyone going to walk to, anyway, and who was going to be walking through a blizzard? I thought).

By then it was noon. Rachel insisted on waiting to have breakfast until we'd both finished the shoveling, and so we ended up having bacon and cereal and scones the rest of the apple-cider mini donuts Drew had bought last week. Rachel went outside to go sledding -- thank goodness Drew scored a pair of snow pants for her via a work colleague's friend who was selling them on Craigslist for $5 -- yay!! met some kids from the neighborhood who she said were really nice, and I was hoping they'd come in for hot chocolate, but they ended up going home. Rachel then came inside and grabbed two books, some maple syrup and we improvised a snow-cone container from some pieces of paper stapled together; the idea was that she had carved out a seat for herself in the snow and would make snow cones and read. That lasted all of about 10 minutes, when the cold (it was really blowing and snowing and freezing) drove her inside.

Drew went upstairs to lie down and conked out for about two hours. I talked to my friend Amy, in Oregon, for an hour (when she called me, I answered the phone thusly: "22 inches, Amy. 22 inches!" and she replied, "That's EXACTLY what I was going to ask you!"). Poor Rachel was getting impatient, since I had promised her hot chocolate, and by the time I'd hung up with Amy and made the hot chocolate, Rachel had fallen asleep on the loveseat! That was my cue to go into the study and clean up the absolutely mess my side of the room was in. Drew joined me after a while, and he cleared off the papasan in time for Rachel to curl up in it and read while we worked to get organized, not saying much.

At 6:30 we quit for a while. Drew warmed up pizza and Rachel chose the movie: "Inside Out," which I had already seen. I really, really wanted to pay bills, but Rachel got very sad and said that we really should have some family time together, and Drew said since she'd spent most of the day outside or hanging out with us and not bothering us while we got organized, then it was only fair that we watch the movie together. And they were both right -- I loved seeing the movie again, and Rachel clearly was delighted to have both Mommy and Daddy next to her while we ate and watched the movie. At the end of the night she said she loved us and that she'd had a good day, and then she went up to bed.

Drew and I watched the 11 o'clock news. The snow has stopped, and now the digging out will begin. I am definitely working from home tomorrow (Sunday). No word on when Metro will open, and they're talking about schools opening, maybe, on WEDNESDAY, and I said to Drew, "You have GOT to be kidding me." At this rate, we'll all be going stir crazy before we get back to our normal routines, and Rachel will be going to school until, like, July.