Snow: Bah! Humbug!

Instead of the hackneyed "Let It Snow" comments and blog titles I've seen of late, I'd like to change the tone and put forth my plea of: "make it stop!"
I want a break from this, damnit!
Doesn't the snow make the pasture and barn look almost idyllic?
Probably would have been better had I put the cart away and not left it in front of the door, but it was COLD the night before!

Most years I'd love a bit of snow in the days preceding Christmas and of course the Eve of as well as the day itself, but this year it's just getting in the way of my overall tardiness in preparation for the holiday.
It didn't help that I was away for five days on the East coast. Since I am a "shop local" enthusiast, I could not justify doing much Christmas shopping there (I think I bought one jar of pumpkin butter at the Lancaster Kitchen Kettle Village), so you see my hands were tied!
Previous to that, we were awaiting our first settlement from the crab season to really get started on the shopping, so here we go...I am behind, and need a break in the weather to get it finished up. Not much, just a day or so, please?
I thought for sure that back in PA it would be snowy and cold, but it was more like 65 degrees although the freezing rain showed up the day I was to leave, giving me fits of flight delays. I made it home, though, to arrive to frozen water pipes and haven't seen the lawn in over two weeks (which really is ok).
The roads today were a sea of brown slush, the parking lots, too. Just gross. Stores are crowded, but luckily I have not and do not shop much in the stores like Freddy's or Costco, the worst offenders. They were my last resort for a few items, but I will do without if I cannot find them in smaller stores.

In looking all over the county for toboggans and sleds, we started in Costco (because we were nearest when we had the inspiration) and learned they would be getting a shipment of them in. We left, to look first at our local stores...Purple Cow, Ace, Builder's Supply, etc. etc. and lo and behold, the last place we looked, Utzinger's Hardware had scores of them! We purchased about five and took 'em home and used 'em well.

I felt sorry for the "lucky" ones who got part of the shipment at Costco; those styrofoam things should last about two hours. Our Utzinger's-purchased toboggans were even made in the USA.

Well, I'm off to sleep, to see what tomorrow allows for finishing my holiday preparations.

Look at how much the family loves making snowmen...even my yearling, Pyro, got into the spirit (it really was the peppermint eyes and parsnip nose that held his interest in the long run, but Pyro LOVES people and all they do, even though he fails to understand the purpose of the activity).

Anyway, shoo, snow, shoo!

Perspective

Looking at the live camera on top of the Columbia River Maritime Museum from my parent's house in West Chester, PA. I can see snow on the rooftops and can hardly believe it.
We rarely get snow this time of year...here I am looking at the cold, wet miserable weather and it is cold here, too, but bright and sunny.
I feel odd about everything in between myself and home. It's been 16 years since I have been here, and though I've flown and been a few places since then, it feels both sad and liberating to be this far away.
I would love to travel more, but mostly by car, I think. Unencumbered, and with all that implies.
Monday will see my father graduating with his Master's Degree in Physical Science (the reason we are here), and Wednesday we will be winging it home.
I hope that all of you are well and your holiday preparations are going swimmingly.

Interesting article

on our year-ago storm:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news/1228109205174760.xml&coll=7&thispage=1

What a week that was!
It's interesting to read the post-mortem, and see the damage that still persists. The little boys won't remember much of it, though Colton (our youngest) is still rather traumatized at each new loss of power and resulting dark the symptom of a generator dependent on fuel that would run out of gas now and then when we (the adults) were not paying attention, and putting the house back into pitch blackness for a few moments during that week we lived on nothing but its power. The smell of the exhaust was everywhere. I can't imagine what we would have done without it. Thankful for the Olney Store that sold gas and diesel for our genny and truck.

Still, let's hope we don't see another like it. Ever! For three days the wind blew, and sucked! Hahah.
For 7 days we lived without power, alternating dependent appliances to the little Honda to make sure we nurtured their wards through the outage. Mostly the freezer (a hundred lb. of frozen Alaskan Halibut among other things can't be left to go bad), refrigerator (so that we could have water and keep our food), computer w/satellite modem (for communicating outside the county) and tv (for something to do on long nights) and occasionally the coffee maker, although that one coffee maker strained the generator to the maximum of its capacity.