Tuesday Talks

If you read my blog daily, you may realize that I changed yesterday's post. I was rather grumpy about things yesterday and instead of taking the time to talk to the person involved, I just grumbled about it. Today I got in touch with the person involved and we talked about things. I understand things better now and I'm okay with how it worked out. If I had done that in the first place instead of grumbling about it all last night I would have saved myself some grumpiness. I decided to remove the post because things had been worked out. Moral of the story here - communication is important and don't be afraid to talk to someone about something that is bothering you.

Now today...ah...it was a beautiful spring day here. Would you like to see? Here you go:

See that white stuff on the ground? That wasn't there yesterday - it had all melted. It effing snowed today! Yup. Enough that they had to break out the snowplows a few times. Yes, it is almost May. All I could do was laugh because what else can you do? My neighbours are suppose to come back home tomorrow. Last year when they came home there was a beautiful rainbow over their house that evening. This year they get snow! I was thinking that it would probably melt before tomorrow but then I saw that there's a chance we'll get 2 cm tomorrow. What a welcome home, especially since they are coming from down south in the States where it is warm and sunny.

Since I'm finished with the Solar Flare MKAL and the next Outlander clue doesn't come out until Saturday, I pulled out the Hobbit scarf yesterday and worked on it. I finally feel like I'm making progress on it although it is still slow going. I also started a new project but I had to tear it out because I made a mistake and in trying to fix it I dropped some stitches and as it is lace, well, into the frog pond it went. (Frogging in knitting = ripping out your work). I started it over today and so far, so good on it. As long as I pay attention it should be an easy knit.

I had what will probably be the last burger of the month for lunch today. We went back to the burger that started it all - the Southern Jack. I don't think I did a thorough review of this burger before so I'll do it now. I have to start off by saying out of all the burgers I've tried, this was my favourite.

The patty - it was 6 oz of Cajun blackened beef and it was juicy and flavorful. It was topped with smoked applewood cheddar which was delicious! The panko breaded onion rings added to the tastiness (and I don't like onion rings so you know they were good). It was topped with romaine lettuce and a Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce, bacon, mayo, and a homemade dill and jalapeno relish that added a mix of heat and flavor. It came on a toasted rustic bun which was soft and fresh and yet strong enough to hold up to all the tasty goodness on this burger. I've cast my vote twice for this burger and I seriously hope it wins because it is one that I would definitely eat again, once I recover from all this meat.  There are still a few more days left for Burger Love but I have tapped out. No more burgers for me for at least a month! :-)

Sun Day

I wish the sun was shining today. I've seen it peek out for a few seconds and then disappear behind all the ominous gray clouds that have been hanging around all day. We've had some rain off and on today but not a stead rain. Of course, because this is Canada, the forecast for tonight includes 2 cm of snow, with a chance of rain or snow for the next few days. Yes, you read that correctly. Snow. At the end of April. The snow won't stick around if it does show up but still, snow.

So to brighten up my day, I am going to share a picture of the sun:

Okay, it's not really the sun but according to S it looks like the sun. That is my finished Solar Flare MKAL shawl. C took the picture for me this morning so I would have a good picture to post on Ravelry. So far I am the only one with a finished picture and tomorrow is suppose to be the final submission day but I have a feeling the designer will give everyone a few more days. I love how the colours in this look like the sun. It reminds me of a set of paintings I saw in an art auction that I really liked. If it wouldn't cost a ton of money, I would get this framed and hang it on the wall as a piece of art.

It does feel good to have it done. I have gotten back to work on my Outlander shawl. Amazingly I'm not behind on it. I was able to finish up clue 3 last night and start on clue 4 which just came out yesterday morning. I also wound up the yarn for a cowl using some Unique Sheep yarn that I have. The colour for that is called Carpe Diem and I'm sure I shared a picture before but here it is again:

I have to say, the yarn looks totally different all wound up into little cakes. My least favourite hank of yarn was skein 4 (3rd from the top) but when I wound them up, skein 4 ended up being one of my favourites. It's strange, I know. I am excited to see what it will look like all knit up. I'm trying to decide if I should start with the reds or with the bluish-green colour. Once I get it started I will add some in progress pictures.

S will be heading back to school tomorrow - and there was much rejoicing. She is all better now and hopefully her immune system has had time to recover and she will be able to resist getting sick again. She is excited to go back to school because she's missed her friends. It will be good for her to have some time away from me (and good for me too). I'm happy to have things back to normal for this week.

I wasn't going to add this but hey, why not? If you like my shawl and you're on Ravelry, go here and click the love button to vote for my shawl. You need to have a Ravelry account to go to view that link. If you do vote, thank you! I appreciate the support. :-)

Mmmmm Burgers...

Yesterday was April 1st, and around here that means that Burger Love has begun. Burger Love is an event that lasts the entire month of April. Restaurants around the island come up with one-of-a-kind burgers and the best burger wins the right to be kept on the menu. Some burgers are normal and then some are...unique. Like the burger that has ice cream sandwiches for buns...yeah. To see all these burgers, check out Burger Love's website. There are 60 burgers this year which means there is no way I am going to be able to try them all. And I'd be impressed by anyone who was able to try them all. That is 2 burgers a day. Good luck with that!

I did try my first Burger Love burger today. It is called the Southern Jack and it was really good. I had never been to The Whiskey Pub before so I wasn't sure what to expect, both food-wise and decor-wise. It's pretty much a sports bar but the food was really good. The bun was really fresh, the burger was juicy and full of flavour, all the fixings on the burger were fresh and tasty, and it came with a side of fresh-cut fries that were really good. The burger was a good size - some of the burgers on the website look like they are huge. This one filled me up but didn't leave me feeling overfull. All in all, a very good way to start off Burger Love. Here's a picture of the burger:

I'm looking forward to trying some of the other burgers on the list. As I try burgers at different places, I'll share pictures and my review of the burger. I'm hoping that Saturday the weather will cooperate enough to let me get out and try another burger.

Yes, the weather is looking bad for the weekend. Fun! Tonight we're suppose to get some snow and then that snow is to turn to rain on Friday. That's not too much of a problem - the garage has been dry lately even with all the melting. I'm sure we'll get a little water in but they're not calling for a whole lot of rain. Saturday is a bigger concern. We could get more rain or we could snow...like 15 cm of snow. It all depends on how the storm tracks. We'll most likely get snow since our contract with the snow removal people ended yesterday.

Won't that make for a fun Easter weekend? At least we don't have any hockey this weekend. They changed the schedule so we don't have to be in the hockey rink on Easter. I'm glad about that. We can have a relaxing day, looking for eggs in the snow. Or most likely we'll do the hunt in the house. I'll be working this weekend on making our special family dishes that we like to have for holidays so it might be gross outside but it will be fun inside.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means the final clue for my Snow Queen shawl comes out! I'm excited about that but also a little sad. I've really enjoyed working on it and will miss the excitement of a new clue each week. I do have the Solar Flare mystery shawl to keep working for the next few week. And I also have the Hobbit scarf that has been on hold while I've been trying to catch up on the Solar Flare shawl so I'll get to work on that again once the Snow Queen is done. Lots of long term knitting projects are keeping me happy!

Snow-free Thursday!

Okay, so there were a few flurries this morning, and the roads were a mess, but yesterday's snow storm is over and gone!

Today was J's last day of hockey camp. He needed to be there by 7:45 so C set the alarm for 6:15 to give us time to get up, get ready and get him over there on time. At 6:25 we got an email saying camp would be delayed until 12:30. J wasn't awake at the time and I thought it would be silly to wake him up early just to tell him he could sleep late. It was around 7:15 when I heard him get up and I thought about getting up and telling him, but the room was chilly and it was warm under the covers.

The next thing I heard was him getting stuff out of the dryer then I heard him heading down to the garage. A short time later he came back up and I heard him in the kitchen. At that point I heard S get up and the two of them were talking about whether they should wake us up or not. We heard them coming, so C and I were very still and quiet. They opened the door, came in, and then went out without saying anything, closing the door behind them. At that point I couldn't keep from laughing.

I got up and asked J what was going on. He pointed out the time (7:43) and said he was going to be late for camp. I told him that camp was delayed and he was relieved. He had such a good time on Tuesday and Wednesday that he got himself up and ready without any help from us. He then went on to fix his little sister a bowl of cereal and had a bowl himself.

C wanted to try to get into the office this morning so we all climbed into my car (his isn't that good in the snow) and we started to drive down our street. We made it to the stop sign and decided nope. The snow was too deep on the road that goes in/out of our community. I had seen another guy try to get out in a sedan type car and give up but I thought maybe my SUV could handle it. It may have been able to, but I wasn't ready to risk it. We turned around and went home and he worked from home for the morning.

Just a bit later I saw a minivan stuck at the stop sign and my friend's husband walking up the street carrying a shovel. I knew it was one of our neighbours stuck in the snow. C walked up the street with a shovel and helped dig them out. He got his good neighbour sticker for the day. Around noon we ventured out and managed to make it through the snow to the main street. The snow in our community had melted a bit and also been packed down a bit so we were able to get out.  So J was able to get to hockey and C was able to get to work. Once we were out on the main roads things were much clearer.

It was very much a hockey day today. In addition to camp, J had a birthday party to go to today that involved playing an hour long game. Thankfully camp and the party were at the same place so we didn't have to drive all over. He had a good time playing and hanging out with his friends. He ate a lot of pizza today - the camp served the kids pizza and then he had pizza at the party.

Now both kids are tucked in bed and we can relax for a bit. It was nice to have a day without snow falling from the sky. Tomorrow is also suppose to be a nice day and most of the roads are pretty clear, so going out tomorrow shouldn't be a chore. J has more hockey tomorrow - yeah, March Break has become Hockey Week. The playoffs start tomorrow. The kids have one game tomorrow and are suppose to have 2 games Saturday. Of course they are calling for around 25 cm of snow Saturday or possibly 25 mm of rain, or a mix of both. But that isn't until Saturday. Tomorrow is Friday and the weather should be nice, my new clue for my Snow Queen shawl gets released, and hopefully Canada Post will actually be able to deliver the mail. We shall see!

I made it to Thursday!

I made it to Thursday! The kids are alive, the planning for J's birthday party Saturday night is just about done, the invitations for S's party have gone out and I'm already getting responses, laundry has been done, and C is on his way home! I am very glad that he will be home soon. It hasn't been the best week, but it hasn't been the worst week either.

Today has had it's ups and downs. J still wasn't feeling well this morning so I let him stay home again. By hockey time he was feeling better so we went to his game. Too bad I effed up the time and got him to the game after it started. I had it in my head it was a 6:20 game and it was a 5:15 game. He got changed faster than I've ever seen him and made it out to the ice about halfway through the second period (they play 12 minute periods). They ended up losing but J did have an awesome breakaway that almost got them a goal. Tomorrow he has another game. We will be there early for that game! Yeah, total Mommy fail on hockey today.

S went to school, had a good time, and came home tired. She had fun running around playing with another girl at the rink but managed to bang her knee. It was totally fine until it was time to sleep. She's been up out of bed at least 6 times now. My patience with her is wearing very thin. Hopefully she's gotten up for the last time. She has a busy day at school tomorrow so she needs to sleep.

The weather was crazy today. One minute it would be snowing with almost total white-out conditions and then 5 minutes later it would be sunny. The weather on the island does that a lot. And then to add to the joy that is Thursday, Environment Canada announced that there is the potential for a snow storm on Sunday. They aren't saying how much yet, but I've heard the number 30 and the word centimeters thrown around by some people. I do not like those people right now. And someone mentioned something about Wednesday but that is too far away for me to worry about snow. One storm at a time, please!

Tomorrow is Friday and that means my next clue for my Snow Queen shawl comes out. I totally missed on the last clue that I was suppose to start transitioning to my new colour. I checked with the designers and they said I would be fine doing the transition on Clue 4, so I have some yarn to wind tomorrow. I probably won't get to work on it much until Sunday since Friday is S's birthday and we have a hockey game, and Saturday is J's party at a hockey game.

I'm working on another knitting project right now but I'm thinking it isn't going to turn out the size it's suppose to. I used my yarn that is a blend of alpaca, merino, and musk ox yarn to make a cowl but it's turning out smaller than it should. Perhaps I should checked by gauge! Oh well, if it doesn't fit it can either be a present for S or I can frog it (that means rip it out to non-knitters. Rip it, rip it = ribbit  = frog) and use the yarn for another project. If I do frog it the yarn will sit for a while because I'm dying to start on the Hobbit scarf, although winding up 1500 yards of yarn doesn't sound fun. I will break out the electric winder for that!

All is quiet from the kids rooms, so I think they have finally gone to sleep. I am going to sit, enjoy my last peanut butter cup, watch some mindless TV, and do some knitting. Tomorrow is Friday and it will be a good day!

Snow, melting, and the dentist

Surprise, surprise! We woke up to snow and ice pellets (sleet for you southern people). Guess what? The kids had school! Most of the icky weather cleared out by noon and then the sun came out so it was good that there was school. It actually warmed up to above freezing, which around here means you might need to break out the shorts. Okay, maybe not but it definitely feels good to have warmer weather. Too bad the warmth isn't sticking around. Tomorrow the temperature is going to be cold (aka below freezing). The weather people said spring is going to be late this year up here. Apparently we won't see any signs of spring until late April. Yay?

Of course, with the warm-up, the bajillion feet of snow (okay, slight exaggeration) started to melt and that snow melt started sneaking into the garage. Thankfully it was slow enough that I was able to keep on top of it and keep the garage from flooding. We have a drainage pit in our garage that catches the water but it doesn't drain anywhere. The water runs in there which is nice but then it needs to be vacuumed up. When the thaw finally goes arrive I plan on getting a pair of waterproof insultated fisherman's gloves because that water is going to be freezing cold. I have enough problems with cold fingers and toes as it is, I don't need to add to it with snow melt!

As I said, the kids had school today although only one kid actually made it to school. S came home Monday with a nasty cough. She was coughing some yesterday and we encouraged her to rest in hopes she could shake that cough. That was not meant to be. She was up twice last night because of her coughing with the second time involving a fever. I got some ibuprofen into her and got her back into bed. When she woke up this morning she had added a runny/stuffy nose to the cough. At least the fever seems to stay at bay for most of the day. So...she stayed home. We did manage to get her to rest and drink a lot of water today but that cough is still hanging on. I suspect that she may stay home tomorrow, which would be fine with me.

Why is that, you ask? Because tomorrow I have a dentist appointment - a two hour long (or possibly longer) dentist appointment. It is my first time going to this dentist so they have lots of things to do - pictures, x-rays, an assessment of my gums, teeth, facial muscles, etc. Sounds like fun, eh? All that and they won't actually be doing a cleaning at this appointment. That gets scheduled later. I hate going to the dentist. I was trying today to figure out why I hate it and it's because I've never had good appointments.

I think it started when I was young and the orthodontist put me in braces for FOUR years. Yeah, you read that right. FOUR YEARS. And that included one of those oh so attractive headgear things as well as retainers when I was finally done. Then as I got older there were three nasty root canals on two teeth - yeah, one tooth needed to have a second root canal. And then I ended up with major stomach problems from the antibiotic the oral surgeon gave me to help with second root canal on the same tooth. It took years to get my stomach back to normal.

I've had a strange deep cleaning where they pulled the gums back from the teeth slightly to clean below the gum line. Doesn't that sound fun? At least I was numbed up for that. And then there were the cavities the dentist said I had. I still question whether I actually had them or not. One thing I've had very few of is cavities at least until I started going to a dentist in Virginia. Then it was suddenly I had a bunch of cavities. It made me suspicious. And the more I went to this dentist, the more resistant I became to the Novocaine. The last time I went to have a cavity filled they had to give me 3 shots of Novocaine before I was finally numb. My mouth hurt so bad after that - not from the cavity being filled but the stupid shots.

So, if S is still sick tomorrow and needs to stay home, I'll have to reschedule my dentist appointment. And honestly, I won't mind rescheduling. I don't really want to go but I'm trying to set a good example for my kids. They have both been recently and they had very easy appointments. I doubt mine will be as easy as theirs, considering their appointments lasted 45 minutes at the most and that included a cleaning. But I will be good and go if I'm able. And if I can't I will be good and reschedule it for another day when hopefully both kids will be healthy. With things have been going, that may be a while!

An Exciting Saturday Night

It is Saturday night and I'm sitting at my computer. Yes, my life is that exciting. :-) Well, it could have been an exciting Saturday night but I decided helping to keep track of J's hockey team at a professional hockey game was a bit more than I was up to tonight. C got that job while I got to hang out with S. I just put her to bed, so the house is quiet for the moment. I shall enjoy it.

Normally I am up for watching a hockey game, but tonight I am glad to be home. It was a usual busy day. S was supposed to go to swimming but she seems to have lost interest in it and as I was having some bad vertigo spells this morning, I decided not to press the issue. Instead we all went to J's hockey practice. His practice was originally scheduled for 6 AM Sunday but it was rescheduled to today, not at 6 AM. Some of the local professional hockey players came out on the ice with J's team during practice, which I thought was really cool. The kids seemed excited to have the pros with them. I should clarify that these pros are in the major junior level - they are between 16 and 20 years of age (I think). But to 9 and 10 year olds who dream of being in the NHL one day, it is exciting to be on the ice with these guys.

After hockey we went out to lunch. I think it was the first time I went out to eat all week with the weather the way it has been and my lack of car most days. We went to one of our usual spots and had a good meal. S made a great picture of a tiger on the back of her kid's menu and wrote 'Thank you' on it for the server, which I thought was cute. The kids love to bring home their menus and then we end up with a big pile of them which then just gets tossed out. We decided writing a thank you note on them is a better way to use them. Hopefully our server enjoyed the picture.

Once we were home, we got to work on clearing snow. There is a chance of rain tomorrow and with all the snow we have, it's going to be a big wet sloppy mess. We have some drainage issues on the north side of the house, so we did our best to clear away a bunch of snow and then C put out sandbags to try to keep water out of the garage. We did the best we could so now we just need to wait and hope the sandbags work.

I probably shouldn't have been out shoveling with the way I've been feeling but I'm tired of feeling helpless because of being sick. I did what I could to help shovel - not as much as I could if I was healthy, but hey, every bit helps, right? After that I hung out with the neighbours while the kids played. I was outside for a long time and apparently my snow boots are not as insulated as I thought. By the time I came back in my toes felt frozen, even with toe warmers in them. I guess I'll be heading out for some new boots on Monday while the kids are in school. (I keep saying that because positive thinking!). 

Although it took forever, I have finally warmed up. My toes feel like toes again and I don't shiver every time I crawl out from under my blanket. S is tucked into bed and finally asleep and the boys aren't home yet. I think I will see what's on TV and work on my knitting and possibly jot down some notes for Monday's story writing session. Yes, I am planning on working on my story because the kids WILL be in school. Please, send positive thoughts this way that my kids WILL be in school Monday. Because if they aren't, the men in the nice white coats may be coming to take me away...

That's my exciting Saturday night. Hope yours is fun too. :-)

Storm Chips!

If you live in the Canadian Maritime area, you know that someone has left the freezer door open and it's bloody cold out there. You also know that snow is coming. Tonight. So if you're reading this now it's probably too late. All the storm chips are gone. But hopefully you knew about the storm before now and have already picked up your storm chips.

For those readers down in the States, you may not have heard about storm chips. I actually had never heard about them before the last storm we were in town for - we were out of town for this past weekend's storm. I had to do research to find out what storm chips were. Apparently last year a news reporter was asked what was on her essentials list for a winter storm and her reply was only ripple chips and dip. Since then, #stormchips have become A Thing. 

When a winter storm is coming, people on the island (and in the Maritimes) flock to the store and stock up on chips (okay, they do get other things but they get the chips first I bet). It is the Canadian version of BMTP in the states (that's bread, milk, and TP). We were actually out of storm chips two storms ago but we were smart when we were away and swung by the grocery store and picked up our supply of storm chips while we were out. We still have some left over from this weekend and we have a few extra bags that I picked up today. But alas, the store was all out of the good kind of french onion dip. I hope the dip in the fridge is still good because I wasn't going to buy the bad kind of french onion dip. I won't name names, but the good kind starts with an H. C'mon Sobeys, you need to keep the good kind in stock before storms!

If you think I'm kidding about people stocking up on chips, there was a news story during a recent storm that had shots of the chip aisle in Halifax (at least I think that's where it was). The shelves were EMPTY. The chips had been cleaned out. Gone. Like the bread aisle in the DC area before a storm.

And chips aren't just for storms either. People love to give out chips for Halloween. Last year was our first Halloween on the island and we ended up with one of those reusable shopping bags full of chips. I didn't have to buy chips for like 2 months because of all the single serving packs of chips the kids got. It was just very strange that people gave out chips instead of candy.

Now don't get me wrong - I actually love the fact that people give out chips for Halloween. We still have bags of Halloween candy sitting around, but all the Halloween chips have been gone for months. The chips are great for lunches - they are peanut-free (school rule) and don't take long to eat like some candy (taffy, lollipops). The hubby isn't a big fan of candy but he loves chips and enjoyed digging into the shopping bag of chips this year. It was a sad day when the last bag of chips went into a lunch box.

I decided to add to the storm chips craze this time around and buy a few bottles of wine. I bought a few because I'm just about out of wine and it was time to restock. I don't drink a whole lot of wine, but it is nice to have it in the house for when I want it. I think tonight I shall crack open one of the new bottles of red, curl up with a blanket and my knitting, and let the snow fall while I watch Gotham. I just hope the school board lets us know schools are closed tomorrow before I go to bed. I really don't want to have to get up at 6:15 to check their website if I don't have to.

And I was bad today. I had planned to work on the Kilynn story since I posted everything I had written over the weekend but I got sidetracked. I was busy surfing the web and then I went to a hair appointment so this is the only writing I've gotten done today. Maybe the hubby will take S to soccer tonight and I can drink some wine and write. I can hope, right? :-)

Hockey Tournament time!

Today I have been getting ready to travel to take J to an off-island hockey tournament (I hate packing!) . It should be an exciting time since the latest weather report says there's a snow storm coming Friday night into Saturday. Guess when most of our games are? Saturday! At least the hotel we're staying at has a pool and free breakfast. I'm not looking forward to spending a weekend at a hotel in a snow storm with two kids. I hadn't planned on taking their snow gear but I may have to.

Last night, when I was looking at the weather report it reminded me of a time long ago in my life BK (before kids). My in-laws lived down in Birmingham, AL. We lived in the DC area. We decided it would be fun (and cheaper) to drive down there to visit them rather than fly. This was a good plan in theory. Of course we got hit by an ice storm on the way down. Visibility was zero, the wipers kept icing up, and people were getting stuck everywhere. We someone how made it down there by it was a terrible drive.

After a week or so there it was time to drive back home. Guess what? We got hit by another ice storm on the way back up. We ended up stopping because it was just too dangerous to continue. We managed to find a hotel with a room but then they lost power. The only place to eat was a McDonalds next door which somehow had power. We went through the drive-thru and I got chicken nuggets. We ate when we got back to the room. I was disgusted to find that my chicken nuggets were only half cooked. While I didn't get sick (thankfully) I felt like I was going to be sick all night. I was very happy when we were able to get back on the road the next day and get home safely.

So,I am a little hesitant at being in a hotel in a snow storm. I'm sure it will be fine by I remember that horrible trip with the two ice storms. I should clarify that by saying the time with my in-laws wasn't terrible, just the travel part.

I am trying something new with the blog this weekend, since it will be tough for me to get time to post things this weekend. I have scheduled Friday and Saturday's posts to be published at a certain time. I hope it works! I will be back home on Sunday and back to writing then.

Have a good weekend!

Snow Day?

Woohoo! Both kids were healthy enough to go to school today. Of course when I woke up I wasn't sure if they were going to have school today. It was snowing pretty hard out there. I kept checking the various websites I have bookmarked to see if there were any announcements about school but nope, none. It was going to be a regular school day. But, my Washington, D.C. area brain thought, how can they have school? It's snoooooowing! Then I remembered, we live in Canada now. It takes a LOT to cancel school up here.

I grew up in the Washington D.C. area. That area doesn't know how to handle snow. A few snowflakes falling from the sky can cause a chain-reaction like you would not believe. The governments there do treat the roads and they have snow plows, but drivers in the area aren't used to snow so they don't really know how to drive in it. No one has snow tires on their cars because honestly, that area doesn't get that much snow to need them. But it is usually enough snow to cause traffic nightmares.

Like what you ask? Here's a good example. A few years ago, my husband was at work when it started snowing. On a good day he could make the drive home (a 10 mile drive at most) in 15-20 minutes. The snow started falling right before rush hour, which is totally misnamed. Seriously, it should be called sitting hour or creeping hour because that's pretty much what you do - sit in your car and creep along when the car in front of you moves, yelling curses at the drivers around you for not driving faster. And hour should most likely be hourS. It is a very angry time on the roads.

Anyway, the snow started falling and everyone freaked out and jumped in their cars to rush home before they got snowbound at work. Now, this wouldn't have been such a problem except with all these people rushing to get home the snow plows couldn't do their job. And with the snow plows unable to clear/treat the roads, people were getting stuck, which led to the snow plows unable to do their job...see the vicious cycle here? This led to it taking HOURS for people to get home. When the hubby left the office it took him 5 hours to get home. It should have been longer but he got sick of being stuck on a hill with a bunch of other people and drove on the wrong side of the road to get around them. 5 hours to go what should have taken 20 minutes.

This is why when it snows, the schools shut down. Can you imagine being stuck on a school bus for 5 hours with a bunch of rowdy kids? Sounds hellish to me too. Of course, closing school (or choosing not to) always results in criticism of the school system. Just last week they didn't close the schools when they should have and parents screamed about it. This week they closed the schools for snow and didn't really need to and parents screamed about it. And of course, after they miss so many days of school they have to make up those days, either by adding on time to the end of the year or taking away teacher work days/holidays. It's a no-win situation for the school districts. I am glad I am not the one who has to make that decision.

This is why when I got up this morning and saw it was snowing I expected schools to be closed. Even though I've been in Canada for a year and a half now and survived the worst winter in 20 years last year, I still expect school to shut down when it snows. The snow was coming down fast, the street hadn't been plowed, but the bus still came on time. And the kids went outside for recess while it was still snowing (they had a blast). They know how to handle snow up here. By noon the streets had been plowed and life was back to normal. And even last year, when we had blizzards, the kids were in school the next day, occasionally with an hour delay (usually not though). Oh, and there's no making up of school days. My friends up here looked at me funny when I asked about that last year.

Now, in D.C.'s defense, the area is a geographical nightmare for predicting snow. It often falls on the rain/snow line for storms and a slight shift in one direction or another can mean the area gets no snow or it gets 2 feet of snow. And since they get so little snow in the grand scheme of things, it would be a waste of money to keep a full-time road clearing staff like they do here.

I miss my friends and family back in the D.C. area, but I sure do not miss the traffic nightmares that occur when it snows. I do not miss having to make up snow days. I like living in a place where snow is a short inconvenience not a massive problem. And I like the fact that they put gravy on their fries up here. Try it sometime. You won't be disappointed.