Brrrr (Updated with more pictures)

Well, we're officially snowed in. We went to the store last night for groceries and such, and I'm glad we did! We also got a copy of The Dark Knight, because it was $6 and really you cannot have too much Batman with your snow.

I was going to take a picture of what it looks like outside for you, but I'd have to get up, and right now I am under an electric blanket with a snuggled Monkey next to me, and you've all seen what snow looks like. Rest assured that it's still white.  

...Oh all right, I'll go take some. Here you go:

Right side of the backyard, with the shed and grill. So glad we got that grill cover...

Left side of the backyard. Looks like about 6.5", judging by the amount piled up on the bench. I was going to make a benchmark pun, but that seemed too easy.

Snow is continuing to fall as I type this. It began snowing as we were leaving the store last night to go home, around 6:30, but then it stopped for a few hours and didn't begin in earnest until around midnight or so. At least I assume that's what happened. I fell asleep, but the news seemed pretty sure that it was going to start around that time, so I'll go ahead and believe them.

We have some icicles lining the backside of our roof, not terribly impressive. It's amazing how much darker it is in this house with the skylights covered up by snow. I think we've gotten 5 or 6 inches so far, and it shows no signs of stopping. Thursday's only supposed to get up to 34 or so, and I'm betting it won't be warm enough to thaw this mess. Fortunately for me, I have a giant pile of vacation time, so I am going to stay home and off the road! I will also forcibly restrain Patrick to keep him from venturing out if I have to. There is no work important enough for me to risk injury of my trombonist.

Speaking of trombones (although we really weren't), he's playing Peter and the Wolf on the 22nd with the Tacoma Symphony, so we watched the Disney cartoon version all the way through. Wow, was that a blast from the past! I haven't seen that in probably 25 years. I am OLD, y'all! Good lord. And by the way, that wolf was seriously freaky. Disney was a lot less milquetoast back in the day. It's no wonder we all grew up warped, hah.

Supposedly we're going to get a bunch of gusty weather tonight, not as much as Laramie (poor J, I feel for you), in Wyoming. Apparently this storm has affected 8 states! That's impressive. And this is why we didn't even try to drive today: There were 95 accidents in an eight-hour period in Pierce and Thurston counties, which include Tacoma and Olympia, State Trooper Guy Gill said Wednesday morning. Most were spinouts.

And that's with the vast majority of people staying off the roads. (There were only like 10 people out, I'm sure, so that's 9.5 accidents per person! That's what I told Patrick, anyway. He looked skeptical, but I'm firm on this point.) WSDOT's (Washington State Dept of Transportation) traffic map has been showing green (wide open) lanes all day, so this is just the few who felt it necessary to attempt the roads. I have absolutely no desire to be one of them. This is bathrobe and cat weather!

There's this tree in our yard that wasn't particularly upright anyway (I don't think they planted it right, and they don't seem to understand how trees work - they get bigger all the way around, so don't plant them right next to a fence), and now it's at about a 45-degree angle from the ground with the weight of all that snow. Sigh. A while ago I tied it to the fence with a piece of rope I found around here, but it looks like my rope was no match for the weight of all this frozen water. Thanks a lot, weather. You ruined my ghetto tree solution. FINE. I'll just move it, or think about it, or maybe cantankerously mumble to myself about it a lot. Or something.

Addendum: we were watching a live newsfeed from one of the local stations, and it's hilarious listening to people complain about the snow. Most of the complaints went something like this: "Ah don't know why we wound up in this hyar ditch! Grampy said ah was only goin' thirty miles per hour or some such, and then this ditch done appeared and we got stuck. We've even got faur-wheel DRAHVE! This is supposed to be a ditch-free CAHR!" And so forth. Awesome.

Update: We went out and got some more pictures of what it looks like around here when it snows. Chilly!

Patrick got a better picture of our backyard.

Front yard, out toward the main road. See that nearly horizontal tree? Yeah.

Side of the house. Look, we have another Christmas tree!

More side of the house, toward the back. As you can see, bamboo doesn't like snow very much. Fortunately it's springy and really hard to kill. It'll be fine.