The Great Blizzard of 2013

We had a winter weather event here in North Carolina last night. The day started with the temperature around 50 and rainy. It got colder and colder through the day so that by the time I took Oreo out after dinner it was in the low 40s and pouring (he worked fast). By the time Amanda and I went to bed it was sleeting pretty heavily.

We woke up this morning to...about an inch of snow on the grass and some ice on the deck. I don't think it ever got below freezing last night either. It was 33 at 5:00 AM, so I went out for a run. I hit a couple of patches of ice, but it was mostly just cool and wet.

Lily and Noah were excited because last night they called a 2-hour delay on Wake County Schools. It's easy to play the arrogant Yankee talking about how Southerners can't handle snow, but I think that was wise. I'm just glad that they didn't call school off completely because there is a Teachers' Workday scheduled for next Tuesday. The kids (and Amanda) don't really need a 5-day weekend.

They played out in the snow a little bit. Lily and Katie had a very small snowball fight. I was glad that today was my work from home day so I could be around for some of this. I put them on the bus around 10:20 (after Lily warmed her gloves in the dryer for a minute) and off they went to their very short day at school.

Snow Day

We had our first snowfall of the winter Sunday night. Amanda and I were watching some Star Trek and the rain started sounding really intense. Turns out that is because it was transforming from rain to sleet to ice pellets to snow. By the morning we had upwards of a half-inch of snow on the grass.

The kids were off school anyway for President's Day, but were still thrilled with the snow. They ate breakfast as quickly as they could so they could enjoy it. Lily begged me to get a fire going, so we had one as early as 8:30 AM. I got a bunch of wood from our neighbor, so we kept a fire going all day, though I had a couple of times when it needed to be resurrected. I never had to add paper though!

Lily enjoys the snow, but as with many things lacks a certain amount of toughness. She compensated by doubling-up her cloth gloves. She then kept coming in to rotate them. She would put 2 pairs on the fireplace glass to warm up and then wear the other 2 pairs. Meanwhile, Noah just went with his one pair. I don't know if that is being tough or just a boy who doesn't realize that you can address discomfort.

The big drama came when Noah got Lily in the face with a snowball. We explained to her that is the ideal shot in a snowball fight. Amanda then went on to explain how the worst is when someone puts a snowball down your collar. Lily took this information, made a snowball. pulled Noah's hood off, and jammed a snowball down his neck. Amanda was a little upset, but as I thought about it I defended Lily's ignorance to a degree. We forgot to tell her that it is a really rotten thing to do. She was sorry about it and Noah was then done with the snow.

The day ended up being sunny with a high around 50, so the only snow left was behind the house on the north side. It was fun while it lasted. I'll take that over lingering ice anytime.