snow dayz

I took these pictures yesterday and they are already out of date. The entire state shut down on Friday. The governor declared a snow day before even one snowflake fell. The impending storm and the desire to keep as many people off the road as possible resulted in a free play day for me. When I was a kid I loved snow days. No school! We had to make them up at the end of the year and that kind of sucked. Now that I am an adult and work at a college I love snow days 100%. I get the day off and I don't have to make it up.

I started snowing at about 1:15pm-ish on Friday and has not stopped for one minute. At various times it's snowed hard, snowed lightly, swirled snow and snowed sideways but it hasn't stopped. My apartment is on the 3rd floor so I've had a bird's eye view to the whole thing. My city seems to have had some trouble keeping up with the snow on the roads but the freeways are pretty clear. In a fit of last minute Christmas shopping and cabin fever I drove to the mall yesterday, about 20 miles away. The mall was not as crowded as I thought it would be only 5 days before Christmas. The 495 freeway was totally clear so I moved right along. The 190 freeway was less clear and I may have freaked out one or two times while driving. I snagged a covered parking space at the mall but at a store next to the mall I had to park in an open lot. In 30 minutes I got about an inch of snow on my car! Insane!! My point in sharing all this is to say that it has snowed a LOT. As you look at the following pictures I would suggest imagining another 6", 1' or 30' on top of the snow in the pictures.

Looking up Main St. Some kind soul has been snow-blowing parts of the sidewalks in downtown.
Looking into the heart of downtown. The plows have had it pretty rough. I've been wondering if it would be worth buying a plow, attaching it to the Jetta and getting in on the plowing action. Be an interesting way to make a little extra $$.
A ton of snow has piled up! It's been really windy so a lot of what's landed has blown somewhere else.
The sidewalk in front of the public library. There's a fine art to walking in another person's footsteps in snow. You've got to be able to take long strides and not lose your balance.
City Hall hasn't even bothered to shovel their stairs or sidewalks.
The newspaper boxes in front of the post office. The headline on the paper in the blue box reads "How now, plow?"
My first atttempt at a snow angel since grammer school. I got snow down my pants. Fun!
I think I actually like the snow but I am starting to worry that it's never going to stop. The heat in my apartment is really weird. It only comes on in the early morning and late evening. It's an old building and my windows are super drafty. It's actually windy in my bedroom as I type this and absolutely freezing. Guess another cup of tea is in store for me!