A Winter Wonderland

With all the trials and tribulations that the snow has brought with it this weekend it's nice to see that we can still get the munchkins outside and have some fun. Well, fun with a whole lot of hard work on the part of their parents that is. There was a whole lot of shovelin' goin' on around here today, and not a whole lot to show for it. Without further ado... today in pictures...

The three amigos getting ready to face the blizzard head on-

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Fun times were had by all... wish I could have grabbed more of it before the camera card filled up. :)

As I was just about ready to go in JAM saw that his friend from next door was coming outside so they played for a few minutes, which was cool. He said goodbye pretty soon though as his hands were blue. He had gone through three pairs of gloves by the time he finally called it quits.

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Not a lot of pics taken during play time though because while the kids were having fun Wifey and I were working out butts off trying to shovel out at least the first 8 inches or so. We knew it was going to continue to snow but I don't think we expected it to wipe away our hard work so quickly. Here's a couple pics of the area right after we got done shoveling. Notice the nice layer of snow already covering everything?

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Now, check these before/after pics out. I've never seen so much snow come down so quickly here in DC. The before pics were taken right around 11am and the after were at about 3:30.

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These were taken around 1pm with the snow really coming down. Notice the larger piles of shoveled snow? Yeah, this is after the second shoveling. And notice the layer of snow on the ground again? It was just disheartening, that's what it was.

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By 3:30 the accumulation really showed. Remember our "cleaned off" car from a few hours before in the pic above? Notice the difference between our van (the one on the right of the two) vs. our neighbor's car? We'd cleaned about 8 inches off of it already but you'd never know it until you looked in comparison to the other.

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After nap the kids were itching to get back outside. While I stayed in to fight with Air Tran (their automated system hung up on me more than 2 dozen times and their web site refused to let me reschedule!) Wifey brought the amigos out to try a little sledding. And by little I mean LITTLE.

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Some other random pics of the day... and bear with me, I'm feeling artsy. You'll see...

- I call this one "Forgotten" - looks like a toy that belongs on the island of misfit toys.

- A pic of the ol' homestead. Quite different from this one taken in April huh?


- Our road, all peaceful in the snow.

- I call this one - "Freaking Nuts" :) What were these people thinking??? You know what? We saw people out walking all day! Most of them were coming down the road with shopping bags from K-Mart. Guess they didn't get the memo - you're supposed to stock up on TP and milk the day BEFORE the storm.

- Our little home, all decked out in snow.

Here's another before/after, taken today vs. in April. This is looking down our road from the middle of the intersection, normally a VERY busy 6-lane highway. It was surreal standing in the middle of this intersection on a Saturday afternoon, without a car in sight.
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More from the intersection - the quiet was just eery.

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- I call this one "Potential"

- and this one "Alone"

I love how these trees look when it snows. I think about getting a picture of them every year but I never do. Well - guess I can cross that off my list now.
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My poor lights got absolutely buried. I knew they would, but I didn't really think it would get so deep. Still, it looks pretty cool.
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There you have it, the day in pictures. It's now 12:30 and the snow has stopped. Let's hope the hard working snow plow drivers at National Airport can get their runways cleaned off by noon tomorrow huh?

New flight - fingers crossed

We've got a new flight booked for tomorrow morning but that brings up all sorts of new issues. All the flights today were non-stop - apparently Saturday is a good day to fly to DC from Disney - but there aren't any NS flights from ORL to anywhere in the DC area on a Sunday. Going into BWI tomorrow was going to require a huge layover in Milwaukee and bring K in later than 9:30 at night so that was not an option. I'm glad I had a light bulb go off though - why not check National? So there we go, she's got a short layover in Atlanta but if all goes well she'll be in before 1pm. If all doesn't go well, and she gets on that first flight in Orlando but something is wrong in DC she'll be stuck in Atlanta.

I'm getting an ulcer.

Update - plane is canceled and Air Tran sucks

Yup, all flights have now been canceled. Can't say as I didn't see this coming but it still sucks to see it finally happen. I've been on the phone trying to get through to Air Tran for the last 30 minutes but I keep getting hung up on after ~2:55 into my call. I tried going online to switch my flight but there's a problem with their site and it won't let me choose a city in the departing cities list so then it yells at me and says I need to choose a departing city in order to make a change to the flight. I'm so mad right now. I need to get her on the first plane tomorrow but I CAN'T GET THROUGH TO THESE PEOPLE!!!!!

I hate Air Tran now.

Blizzard? Are you kidding me?

Dear God-

Why do you hate me? I try to be a good person, really I do. I pay my taxes, I hug my kids, I go to work almost every day and I haven't put salt on any slugs in at least 3 years. Or is it sugar? YOU SEE!!! I'm such a good person I don't even know what to do to slugs!

Now that we've established what a good person I am... I have to ask... a BLIZZARD??? SERIOUSLY? When's the last time PG County saw a blizzard? It had to be this weekend didn't it. Now THAT is holding with the tradition of my luck. If it's going to be strange and happen to someone it's definitely going to be me.

Thanks to this crazy storm K's second plane has been canceled and she's now booked on the fourth plane of the day. I decided to skip getting a seat for her on the third plane - the snow definitely won't be over by the time it was supposed to land. 50 fingers are crossed around here hoping that everything works out for tonight. Do you think you can wink or whatever it is you do in order to make things happen for us? We'd really appreciate it!

Thanks!!!

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Yessireebob, we've got ourselves an honest to goodness wimpy blizzard. People from Syracuse or Oswego (look it up) would be laughing at us right now. At last check we're at 11 inches at the ol' homestead. This is a normal Tuesday for them. The kids loved it though. After breakfast we (Wifey) bundled them up and out we went into the snow. I think Red might remember last year's snow storm but I know this is really a first for Pudge - he didn't want any part of it and he slept through the whole sledding event last year. JAM, of course, was in his element. And I loved how the snow muffled all his crazy yelling! :) He can go as wild as he wants out there and not only is there no one around to hear him, they wouldn't be able to hear anything even if they wanted to. NICE!

I don't mind telling you that we were the only idiots out there shoveling right in the middle of a storm. Most of our sane neighbors were smart enough to be inside, cozy under some blankets while we were out with the kids. Wifey even took the lead with the shovel so I could go knock the car off. I knew it wouldn't matter but it helped to think that I'd only have to shovel out 1/2 of what everyone else was when it finally came to a stop.

Now we're getting ready to walk out the door, the sledding hill is calling. Can't drive there because apparently things are so bad out there that the county executive has said that all county roads are closed and police have been given the power to turn people around if they're out without dire need. Marylanders are funny.

Pictures forthcoming...

Never been so sad to see snow

I love snow. I absolutely love everything about it - from sledding to shoveling, having snow on the ground is better, to me, than lying on a beach any day. Living in the DC area is tough for a guy who likes the snow so much. We usually have to suffer through all the cold without anything to show for it. I'm pretty sure we went two straight years without even enough to go sledding on. Yup, cold and rainy is about all we get to look forward to. With this in mind, to say I was excited to hear about this impending snowstorm we're now enjoying was an understatement - that is until I realized its implications. You see, my oldest daughter, K, was scheduled to fly in tomorrow morning to spend 5 whole days in our little home with us. Yes, apart from our brief trip down to Pawley's Island some 4 years or so ago when we hadn't even yet met Red or Pudge, this would be the first time she's spent with our whole family.

Then... the snow. As the week progressed the reports went opposite of the norm - they kept getting worse and worse. Wifey was telling me this evening that some people on the news were calling this the storm of the century. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? On the weekend that we're finally going to get to have K come visit? I'm as bad as Alanis when it comes to knowing what constitutes irony - is this it? It certainly feels like Karma is kicking me in the head irony or no. I've been a good boy - I promise!

We knew the snow was coming, and I spent most of this afternoon preparing for it outside the house - getting rid of all the leaves that have blown back up onto the lawn, cutting up a big pile of pallet wood for the stove, fixing up the new wood rack, and finally putting up the x-mas lights, just in time for K's visit. Poor Wifey has been working like a maniac for days trying to get the house into just the right shape too, so much effort has gone into getting ready for this visit and I've been so excited to have her actually see our home. So imagine my reaction when Wifey logged on to the Air Tran site then and found out that K's flight had been canceled. Yeah, sad doesn't begin to cover it. But we got in gear, went online to find out what to do and I quickly called the company while Wifey got the munchkins in a bath. It turns out that they must be shuffling their planes because K's now got a seat on a later plane that should put her into BWI around noon - this gives them a few extra hours to clear up the runways so I'm hoping that all will go according to plan.

So here we are, almost midnight, and the snow is falling, Wifey and I can hear the plows on the street outside, and I'm almost scared of what I'll find when I wake up. Again, I love the snow!!! But I can't help but wish it could have held off for 12 more hours.

Fox Fail

I hate Fox, so any chance I can to stick it to them I'll take gladly. The fact that I kind of enjoy their NFL and MLB coverage only slightly lessens my urge to point out that the general level of ineptitude in their organization is tipping the scales - witness...

Did you see it? I know, there's a lot of crap on that screen, so let me give you a hint.... the numbers don't add up. Alright, here's a more helpful hint....

Yessiree folks, only at Fox will you find that 9 really does equal 8. In the immortal words of Barbie - "Math is hard!" (well, she didn't really say that but you'll have to read more in order to learn more about that.)

I know, it's petty and you can't believe I wasted my time pointing all this out. Well, in my defense... you read it didn't you?

I'm angry

I know this post is going to be pitiful/a less-than-satisfying waste of time even as I start to write it but I've got no other outlet for my anger. Two things are on my mind, and in typical guy fashion I want to take steps to either fix the problems or at least lessen the pain but I can't do a damn thing about either. I'm going to be purposefully abbreviated (i.e. not go into huge detail) because this isn't about letting everyone else know all the dirty details, it is purely about me starting to get things off my chest.

First, my mother. I don't have words or emotions to adequately explain how much she continues to hurt me. I don't even think she's trying to, or at least I hope to God that her nastiness and back handedness are unintentional. We got her semi-traditional holiday letter and Christmas card in the mail today and it was chock full of happy bullshit - letting everyone know how much they (her and her drill Sergeant husband) loved spending time with their kids... how they loved making special time for their grand kids. Excuse me? I'm wondering exactly when she's ever made special time to be around my kids? THAT was at the heart of my issues with her and she never even acknowledged it, no matter how hard I tried. Yup, my JAM has well documented difficulties that made it tougher to spend relaxing time at the beach with him but it was always my thought that family was supposed to be able to deal with that - they were supposed to find a way to support the parents and shower the kids with love - no matter what the difficulties were. Lord knows we did it for other people's kids. But the same could never be said for little JAM. He was always the odd one out and our "peculiar" or "strict" way of raising him didn't help any. I know - not letting a two year old watch Star Wars or drink beer is just too outrageous to comprehend. And I can really understand how much of a burden it must have been for us to have asked for some help, or at least a visit, after her granddaughter and subsequent grandson were born. Yup, it was very rude of us to think they'd maybe reschedule a trip out west, or maybe just cut it short or something, in order to be here with us. No, that's too much like selflessness and the only "self" that works in this family is selfish.

I'm digressing... so the first thing that got to me tonight was her bat-shit crazy letter and her little personalized note saying how next year she hoped that she'd have more to say about spending time with us. Yeah, as soon as she makes the least bit of an effort to say she hears our message and she's going to work on not treating us like second class citizens...

The second thing that happened tonight, as if I really needed a second thing, happened at JAM's school. We've been lucky enough to have JAM attend his school even though we live about 18 feet past the boundary into another horrible district. Yup, that huge ugly highway right outside our door? That's the boundary between the have's and the have-not's. In the beginning, JAM was going to before and after care at his old babysitter's place in the "good" district so we were able to get a special transfer for him to go to the "good" school. It didn't hurt that I was working in the school system at the time so getting the transfer was easy. In the three years since we've had really great relationships with the Vice Principals at the school and continuing the transfer has never been an issue. We've been involved, we've volunteered and donated (even more than we really should have money-wise) and been supportive of the school and the teachers the whole time. We thought we'd earned some credit.

Now though, the system is making noise about not allowing special transfers anymore. None. Not for any reason that I know of although I'm sure there are special-special transfers that will be allowed to continue. I mean, some boys just need to continue putting ball through hoop at certain schools right? So anyhow, we're at the school again tonight, supporting and participating in the book sale and art night when Wifey makes a comment to the Principal about her fears re: the transfers. The Principal's response? Paraphrased - "Oh - that school isn't so bad!" Yup, no concern about our little boy having to pull up roots, lose all his friends, go out of his neighborhood to another school... just - "don't worry - I'm sure he won't get shived."

So there you have it. I felt just fine until right after dinner when the shitstorm hit. And I'm not sure if you've noticed but I've made it a point of pride not to have cursed - at all - ever - on my blog. I'm making a special exception just for tonight.