Snow, snow and more snow

Rain turned into snow at about 7:30pm last night.

By 1 a.m, we knew this was not going to be one of those storms that just miss us resulting in barely an inch or two, even a dusting. Nope.

My dogwood was already bending over under the weight of the wet snow. Since neither of us was in the mood to bundle up and step out to shake the trees, we threw several things at the tree: a basketball, a sled, a stick, anything that was within reach in the garage.

We heard several branches come down during the night; one was so close that I thought it had come through the roof. A rough night and an overly snoozed alarm saw us scrambling at 8 a.m. to get Medha to school until I saw the high-schooler next door shoveling his driveway. I wondered if it was a Snow Day but dismissed the thought rather grudgingly, since our school district hardly ever closes for snow. Then I realized that the high school has a late start on Wednesdays. We returned to scrambling: brush your teeth, have hot lunch, money, give her money, wake up, the driveway needs to be shoveled, I need socks. There was about 8-9 inches of snow on the ground then.

Something sent me to my computer and I checked the web site for our school district - it was indeed a Snow Day. But the phone hadn't rung, not once and not on any landline, VoIP or cell phone. None of my Inboxes were overflowing with email message saying Snow Day. I'm not sure where the communications broke down or if this is the new way of doing things - where we have to be proactive, which is fine by me. We whooped in delight, each of us looking longingly at our warm beds but our joy was shortlived when we remembered that we had trees to take of.

One of my dogwood had lost 3 branches and my aspen had lost its tallest branch. 2 more branches snapped and fell later during the day as the snow was relentless. It was a good thing that the snow changed from wet and heavy to light and fluffy.

By 5 p.m. we had a total accumulation of 18 inches but very little wind and no white-out conditions like those of the blizzard of Dec 2006. Just relentless snow.

We now have 20 inches on the ground and more coming through the night. Tomorrow is also a Snow Day, making the kids a little anxious about their Hallowe'en parades in school on Friday. We expect to warm up to the 50s on Saturday and we're hoping that will mean clean sidewalks for trick-or-treating. But there is still tonight to go through and tomorrow.

I am exhausted from the thrill of the snow, beating of trees with large sticks, biting my nails as my husband climbed up to the roof and a lot of pain at all the fallen branches. But, we still have the Internet and power. Fingers crossed that this night does not bring more surprises.