Getting Around

The Evil Genius family is all snug and cosy at home for what I hope will be the last snow day of this winter. The high temperature is supposed to be 39 degrees this afternoon, but the snow was bad enough this morning that I'm glad school was cancelled. In my opinion, it would have been seriously courting bad accidents to try to get the kids to school this morning. Mr. BTEG is also able to work from home, and does so regularly once a week in any case, so he and his group are all working from home today.

I can't wait for the warmer temps this week! We're running out of room to put all this snow. Our driveway has been getting narrower and narrower. On the other hand, it's also been getting longer. The piles of snow probably extend out past the curb by at least a foot. Which is good, because in related news, we got a second car!

We've been a one-car family for years. It can be one of the hazards of being a family with a stay-at-home-mom. With Mr. BTEG working downtown and able to take a bus, the burden wasn't too great, although I had to drive him to and from the bus stop. What drove me to the breaking point was the Musician's teaching experience requirements. Twice a week, she has to be at the community college for classes for a couple of hours in the morning, then the rest of the day at the high school. Three times a week, she has been assisting a teacher in the classroom, first at an elementary school, then the intermediate school, then the middle school. Again, this is only for about an hour and a half in the morning, then it's off to the high school. For complicated issues, which I'm not going to discuss here for privacy reasons, the Musician hasn't yet gotten her driver's license. So I spent a good bit of morning driving, then picked the girls up later at the high school, then had to pick up Mr. BTEG at the bus stop, then many evenings the Dancer goes to dance classes. So this second car was a true blessing. Mr. BTEG now handles getting himself to and from the bus stop, the Dancer to the high school, and the Musician to the college on those mornings. My sanity has been restored.

Snowed In

The weather outside is frightful at Casa de Evil Genius. There's a couple feet of snow piled up outside the back door, but it's hard to tell how much of that is snow drift considering the wind is also blowing pretty hard. Fortunately, Mr. BTEG is on vacation from work, and the girls are still on school vacation. Mr. BTEG went out to buy groceries so the fridge is stocked, and we're ready to settle in and wait for the storm to finish. And as Small Dead Animals points out, thank God for fossil fuels as we sit here with warmth, light and computers.

Saint Valentine's Day

I hope you all are having a nice day. I know some people are not, on account of the snow we received. While driving the Equestrienne to confirmation class this morning, we saw five accidents. We only saw one on the way home, but it was somewhat spectacular -- an SUV down in the ditch, on its side. Also, at one point an SUV just in front of me in the farthest lane, which wasn't plowed very well, was kicking up so much snow that I couldn't see out the windshield for several seconds, even with the wipers going as fast as possible. Fortunately, the roads are already pretty normal again, just a little wet.

I'm very tired today, for some reason. Good thing we did not pick today to go visit our new niece. We're going to be going in tomorrow. We'll also celebrate the Dancer's birthday, and my sister-in-laws' birthdays. I finished the baby bib; I just need to wash it and shape it. I'll take a picture of it before I deliver it. I also finished a hat. It turned out as it was supposed to, but I'm not thrilled with it because it doesn't come down over my ears far enough. I'm eying a hat pattern with ear flaps. I'm too tired to even head out and buy yarn for it. I think I'm going to go take a rest!

Relief

The good news is, (relatively) warm weather and sunshine have come to Northeast Ohio, melting away a lot of the snow and ice. The bad news is, our church basement flooded. Boy, does that building need work. Maybe we should all start buying lottery tickets.

I didn't realize how much being housebound by this illness that refuses to die was affecting me until we went out to lunch with friends yesterday. I felt a lot better afterwards. I wish there were more active homeschool groups around here. I've found a couple that mostly communicate through Yahoo Groups, but they don't do much by way of activities. My eldest daughter is in an online charter school, but a lot of the stuff they do seems to be waaaayyyy over on the other side of town. Why is it so hard to find congenial folks so often?

It's Piling Up

The weather's getting bad tonight in any case. 3-5" of snow expected.

Well, we ended up getting about 8" of snow instead. All the schools in the area were canceled yesterday, except of course for homeschoolers and school-at-homes, mwa ha ha ha. They're running out of places to put the snow in parking lots and on smaller streets. We have a narrow strip of grass in front of our place, and the snow is going to overflow onto our front walk soon. As others have said, this is the coldest, snowiest winter I can remember in a while.

I have a bunch of knitting projects planned, which means a pile of yarn. I also need to get into the sewing, but I've been under the weather for a few days, so knitting has been more conducive to how I feel. This also means the big cleaning and sorting project has been set aside for a few days as well.

Snow Go

The weather was very pretty today, but not good for driving -- heavy snow for hours. If I hadn't needed to pick Mr. BTEG up from work, I wouldn't have gone on the freeway. On the other hand, we never got over 45 miles per hour, and went for quite a bit of time at 20 MPH, so everybody was taking it very easy.

The Equestrienne is very excited, because she gets to start jumping next week in her horseback riding lessons. Of course, she'll start small, jumping over poles on the ground. Still, she's been looking forward to this for a while.

I should go to bed. I have to drive Mr. BTEG to work tomorrow. Goodness knows what the roads will be like.

This Time I Mean It

Today we really *are* snowed in. The white stuff has been falling steadily since last night, making it hard to keep the roads clear. Not that I don't think they couldn't have been doing a better job. We were headed for confirmation class this morning, skidded a little a few times on the road (at slow speeds), saw that the freeway wasn't looking much better, and called Pastor to say we weren't coming. Since the grocery story was less than a mile away, we did stop there and stock up on essentials. Now we're safely ensconced in our warm home, thankful to be comfortable and out of the snowstorm.

Snowed In

Road conditions are probably not at their best. The snow is falling fairly heavily and staying inside is looking a lot nicer than going outside and braving the weather. I really wish we had garage space to keep our car in at the moment. Our car, the one that's currently drivable, hates the cold. And I'm not enjoying watching it get buried under the snow. We do have a two-car garage, but it's currently full of stuff, both woodworking stuff and things packed away from our last move.

People talk about McMansions and how bad it is that the garage is featured so front and center in many homes. My take on the garage thing is that the closer the garage is to the road, the shorter the driveway and the less snow to shovel! Seriously, I don't mind the garage-next-to-the-house plan, although the garage-behind-the-house might be nice to have. The garage must be attached, however, in my mind. I'm starting to wish we could enter our home through the garage, to avoid coats and shoes piling up at the front door. I used to completely dislike the idea of coming in through the garage, as some people dislike the garage-shoved-to-the-front of a house plan. But if you're using the garage as your everyday entryway you may prefer it that way.

Mr. BTEG is snowed in here with us. He stayed home from work today, because he is still getting his Crohn's medication sorted out, and he was not feeling at all well last night and most of today. I offered to teach him to knit to give him something to do, but he declined. The gastroenterology office adjusted his meds this afternoon, so hopefully this will improve things.

Speaking of knitting, I am working on a cell phone sock for myself. I'm using wool, for the first time, and I'm noticing the yarn seems to be thinning itself out as I pull it off the skein and use it. It's noticeably thicker on the tail than what I'm putting on my needles. Does this "stretching out" happen with wool, or is the wool I'm using just not up to the highest standard or what? I don't think I'm pulling on it overly hard.

Sick of Snow

Seems like Easter would not be Easter in Ohio without some snow. We got a fresh coating today, just when most of the huge piles from last week's snowstorm had disappeared. How discouraging. Definitely puts a damper on my desire to dress up for Easter, when I know it will be cold and probably snowy.

Blessed Easter

Today I'm being a real blogger, and blogging with my pajamas on, in bed, no less. I have a slight cold, and that and the weather make me want to just snuggle in bed. My poor husband is sleeping off a migraine, so Easter Sunday is rather quiet here. We did go to church this morning, which was an adventure, as the roads were atrocious most of the way there and back. I guess most of the snowplows took off for the holiday. Several main roads looked like they hadn't seen any plowing or salt since the snow started.

I hope all of you have a safe holiday. This weather is something else! I hope we get spring back soon!

We're Having a Heat Wave

It's a balmy 42 degrees (6 Celsius) today! The snow is getting slightly mushy, and very packable, because it's starting to melt a little. Perfect for a...snowball fight!


Wildchild tries to stockpile ammo.

Mark Price for threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Oh, um, the driveway got shoveled a little too.

Christmas in Deutschland, Part Drei

It's fun to look at pictures of snow when almost none of us actually have snow on the ground, isn't it? Isn't this little tree pretty? It was outside of the youth hostel in the Erzgebirge Mountains where our college group stayed for a few nights.

Here is a more panoramic view of mountains, also taken at our youth hostel.

How excited was I to find this web page and see that they still have a similar display to one I saw seventeen years ago! (You need to scroll down to the bottom of the linked page to see the picture I'm talking about.)


In addition to the wooden toy and ornament making we saw in the Erzgebirge, we also saw this beautiful church.

Isn't this street sign adorable?

Lastly, a traditional Christmas decoration in Germany is translated into English as a pyramid, and for outdoor decoration, Germans don't go small.


This one was in a toy museum, and was a total of three stories tall!