Open Road Song

Figured being snowed in for four days was a good enough reason to actually post something here. Hi! I missed you!

So yeah, Winter Storm Jonas (known 'round these parts as "Snowzilla") came rolling in at 1:00pm on Friday. My boss was out of town, but he knew about the storm and told my coworker Nick and I to work from home on Friday. So I got a nice view into the backyard as the snow started. And then didn't let up for 36 hours. YAY!

We got a bit above 2 feet in our neighborhood, though with the drifts it felt like a lot more. On Friday night Palmer and I ventured out with Coco to get her some exercise and it wasn't too bad then. Snowing hard, but about 5 inches on the ground. But like I said, it kept going. So Saturday we take her out again (cause dogs need to pee, its a thing) and it was miserable. Coco had no idea what to do with that much snow, we had to break a path through the snow pretty much the whole way, and it was STILL SNOWING. Lucky for Coco, we bumped into her doggy friend Maxine, so they got to romp in the snow for a bit. That is, until we saw that Coco was literally shivering from the cold. Then it was time to take her inside, dry her off, and cocoon her in a nest of blankets to get her warmed up again.

Here's her and Maxine in the snow:

Coco and her bestie playing in the snow. #blizzard2016 #snowzilla #dogsofinstagram

A video posted by Suze (@suzefrost) on Jan 23, 2016 at 12:05pm PST

The rest of Saturday we just lounged about. We were a bit worried we'd lose power, but luckily the snow was the light dry kind, so we were good. We basically started drinking early, played a lot of video games (Super Mario World FTW!) and began watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

Sunday we began the process of digging out. Our neighbor owns a plow, so he'd already done our driveway, which was AMAZING of him. But we still had to clear our walkway and the sidewalk in front of our house, plus ATTEMPT to start getting the cars out. Couldn't get my car all the way out before we had to stop and rest, but made a good start. Then it was football and video games for the rest of the night. Plus pupusas that our OTHER awesome neighbor made us!

Today Palmer and I both worked from home. Everything is closed, and residents are urged to stay off the roads to let the plows do their work. So that's what we did. Around 1:30 I went out to finish digging out my car. And succeeded! Then Palmer came out and we got his car dug out too. They're now safe and sound in our very clean driveway. AND! As Palmer went off to grab some more wine (priorities, we have them) I decided to try to clear the side exit of our house. I thought I'd just get the stoop cleared so we could access the trash cans, but ended up shoveling out a path to the cleared driveway. Did I mention the huge berm I had to shovel through to do so? I'm proud of what I accomplished, but ouch. My everything hurts.

So! Tomorrow I will attempt to go into work, we'll see how I fare. I will be glad to get out of the house. Less glad to have to put on real clothes. As I said on Twitter, you know what makes pajamas work appropriate? A bra. But tomorrow I'll have to do more than that. Sigh.

Anyhow, hope everyone in the path of the storm stayed safe, hope everyone else had a great weekend, kisses! MWAH!

So, a few of you may have heard that DC got 3 feet of snow dumped on it Friday night and Saturday day. That's a lot for here! And I had to work!

It started snowing around noon on Friday, and I had to be at work at 1:30. I had made arrangements with my parents to bring Loki over and spend the night there, so once I got there with cat and clothes my dad was nice enough to drive me to work. People are ridiculous, just so you know. Everyone was asking whether or not we'd be open Saturday, the implication being that if we were they would make the trek through several feet of snow to come and get their coffee. We were hearing reports of grocery stores being completely bare, and apparently the line in the liquor store wrapped around the store twice. Our music player started skipping, so we switched on the radio around 4:30, and listened to the local DJs bitching about the weather conditions and the idiots stupid enough to drive recklessly in them. Quote of the night being, "Just because you have 4-wheel drive doesn't mean you have 4-wheel STOP!" Our female owner called several times during the evening to ask how busy it was/what road conditions were. She finally told us to close an hour early, and after we had finished closing came by in her Suburban to drive us home. Which was nice of her! She dropped me at my parents place and said that they would be calling around in the morning to let us know whether we were open or not. I went inside and proceeded to drink and have dinner with my parents while sitting in front of the fire. Good times! Had some good wine, a delicious roasting chicken, and some yummy eggnog. Granted, the eggnog was the premade stuff, but it was nicely alcoholic and not too sweet.

Woke up around 8 on Saturday and hopped in the shower. My manager called while I was in there (of course), so I called him back once I was dressed. The store was closed! I was supposed to keep my phone on though, because he was supposed to call the owners at 11 and see if things had changed. I never received that 11am call, so I assume the store was closed all day. :D The unfortunate part was this- my parents phone, television, and internet went out at 10am. And I hadn't brought any books with me because I thought I'd either be at work or watching tv. So I was INCREDIBLY bored all day. I shoveled a few times, cleared the patio by the firewood and a path around to the driveway. Also helped my dad clear out the cars, but didn't get very far. I then tormented Loki by taking him outside into the snow a few times. He actually didn't mind walking on the snow too much, but he wasn't a fan of the large flakes falling on his face. My dad took a couple of adorable pictures of him, I'll post them once Dad sends them to me. Around 430 I decided to walk around the neighborhood. Got to one of the main roads to discover it had been plowed, so texted Palmer to see if he'd be willing to come get me. He was! He started shoveling around 6, and I told him to call me when he got close and I'd walk to the main road to meet him. In the meantime, my parents and I started drinking, and talked about Glee. I kind of love sharing a fandom with my parents, cause I got to geek out about casting spoilers and early episode jokes. Palmer texted me to tell me he was close, so I got my stuff together and walked down to meet him. We got back to his neighborhood just fine, but had some difficulty getting back into the parking space that Palmer had previously cleared. Luckily, someone else came along who was trying to drive out of the neighborhood, so with his help we pushed the car back into the parking spot. Then we just hang out, drank beers, watched Repo Man, and eventually passed out.

Today I get to do homework! Yay! Which I will do once I get caught up on the internet. But I honestly can't imagine that school will be open tomorrow, so I'm not all that pressed. Even more fun? We're supposed to get another 6-10 inches of snow on Tuesday. Good times!

Until later, my lovelies!