That's A LOT of Snow

So sending the Princess out to measure the snow with my 18" ruler wasn't so smart.

How was I supposed to know the snow was so deep, 

the ruler would get lost and take 3 people to find it?

With all the snow we've gotten in Denver lately, I can't imagine being stuck without cable. The kids have been on fall break all week, making alcohol drugs cable a necessity. (The only reason I'm not in jail at this point.) Even with cable, they were getting a little stir crazy (and making me flat crazy) after the second full day of being in the house. Our homeowner's association hires a crew that shovels our sidewalks and plows our streets - but it usually takes them forever to get here to do it. The snow was so wet and heavy this week, they were even later than usual. In an attempt to stop the fighting (and protect my very last fragment atom of sanity), I sent them over to shovel the sidewalk of an elderly neighbor. She asked them to knock the wet, heavy snow off her satellite dish - the snow knocked out her satellite connection, meaning she couldn't watch television. Neither of us had a ladder big enough to reach the dish, so the poor woman was out of luck for about 72 hours. We have cable - and had it gone out, I would have frantically pounded on every door in the state - taking hostages until I acquired enough chemicals to be comfortably numb. Then I would have checked myself inot the loony bin.

Oh wait.

 
My house = loony bin. Insane asylum. Circus town. Mental institution. Nut house. Sanitarium. Funny farm. Madhouse. Zoo. Padded cell. Sanatorium. Rubber room. Booby hatch.

We got about 3 1/2 feet of snow with really deep drifts. It was miserable. The 'beasts even got tired of being stuck in the house - they love playing in the snow, but the wind was blowing so hard that the snow came down sideways most of the time. Since the snow was literally blinding, the 'beasts were forced to come up with inventive ways to spend their time - without doing anything illegal...which included an assortment of...umm...things.


For example, our indoor cat Princess, loves to go outside...even though she's not supposed to. Lately, we've been letting her out for short periods of time so she can sun herself on our small front stoop and the sidewalk. Since we've been letting her out, she hasn't gone far - and she comes right back in when you call her.


Princess is not an outdoor cat, though. She likes being warm and comfortable. She's basically my a lap cat. So when it snows, she stays inside...no desire to go outside. She'll sit at the storm door and look out - but that's it. Well, that's it...when the kids aren't on fall break.


Middle son thought it would be fun to have her experience drop her in the snow - and watch her reaction. I could have told you before they even did this that her reaction would not be positive. That she would not find a dunk in the snow enjoyable. However, no one asked me before they did it...and I wasn't aware of the "plan" prior to it happening. I'm in the kitchen piddling around when I hear the front door open. No big deal - the kids had been in and out all morning. No big deal until I see the cat in middle son's arms. I didn't have time to yell "STOP!" - I only got my mouth open...where it stayed, while they proceeded to hold her out straight...and drop her.


One minute there was a kitty. The next there was nothing but a hole in the snow. Make that a moving hole. I'd never seen snow move quite that way. And as I'm open mouthed gaping looking out the window, wondering where the cat is - but knowing she's in the snow, but not believing it - I see it happen.


Princess pulls off the seemingly impossible. She jumps straight up. Horizontally. No vertical definition whatsoever. Totally perpendicular to where the ground would be if it wasn't covered in snow. And not only did she accomplish that, she actually began moving toward the front door...in one very swift movement. Think of the cartoon Scooby Doo and the way Shaggy and Scooby run when a ghost is after them. That's exactly how Princess moved. Home girl shot straight up and toward the safety of the front door. The kids laughed hysterically - and Princess gave them the evil eye for the next two days. She still won't let them touch her.

Doing things like that is what entertained them. I had no idea how many things like that there are to do around here!



We got so much snow. How much snow did you get? We got so much, I almost lost the Princess. 

The Princess is almost 5' tall. She is standing at the end of our street, on the snow that's accumulated on the grass - right behind one of the drifts we have around here.

 

 She had a horrible time getting behind the drift - she had to find a point where the snow wasn't as deep so she could walk through it without sinking into it. It came up to her hips - and who can walk in hip-deep snow? Then again, who wants to??

Just in case you're worried, don't be. The snow didn't get her.

This time.

At one point I sent the Princess out to measure the snow. I gave her an 18" ruler since one of the 'beasts apparently ate the yardstick. See the first set of three pictures to see how well that went.


All-in-all, over three days of constant snow, we got a total of about 40" of snow. The drifts got much deeper than that. Most of the local schools closed all three days - which is basically unheard of. DIA averaged a three-and-a-half hour delay. Businesses closed. I know because there was a constant crawl on the bottom of the tv screen. Twenty-four hours a day. They broke into regularly-scheduled programming. Once they were sure this wasn't the end of it all, they took over commercial breaks in the programming. (I'm sure the advertisers really appreciated that.)


I did get a little vengeance, tho. They spent some of the time highly annoyed. Since they were on fall break, they didn't have school. However, the school districts all around us were out for three days. They miss a lot of snow days - because they are already out of school for some other reason. For example, they return to school Monday...and they're out next Friday for parent-teacher conferences.

Yeah, my heart really aches for them.

And today? Today it's going to be 57. The snow on the streets is now melted. They'll have to walk around huge snow piles while they trick or treat...but it's Colorado, so they're used to it.

I think I'll be adding just a bit of Bailey's to my hot cocoa.

Happy Halloween.


xx,