Snow Day

I snapped a few pictures of the season's first snow from last week.

Chris teaching Anya the proper way to build a snowman

giving it a go (before wandering off to do something else)

kid and dog

The storm was a bit of a doozy - very cold and windy. This was the nice, calm snow - the kind perfect for snowman building and snowball fights - before it got really nasty out. That night Chris was to pick up Grandma and Grandpa Lodwig from the airport, as they took a few extra days in Maui, and drop off some friends there too. Chris is not a snow-driving wuss (unlike his wife), but he was unable to drive all the way to the airport, there were so many accidents. I heard at one point it was a 7 hour drive to SeaTac from our area. But light rail in the International District came to the rescue - he could drop off and pick up there successfully. (on a side note, poor Grandma Lodwig only had shorts and sandals from Hawaii and wasn't expecting to get stuck riding the light rail in the snow and 20-some degrees, but she made it). Driving was pretty treacherous for a few days after and the city was more or less shut down. We don't deal well with ice here, partially because it's so darn hilly.

The next night it got so cold that our kitchen hot water pipe froze. Our 1928 house has no insulation in the walls, so it shouldn't have come as too much of a shock...even though it did, since I had some cooking to do. But Chris slowly heated up the pipes once he cut a hole in the wall behind the cabinets for access and they eventually (7.5 hours later) thawed. Phew. Now there's insulation back there, so *knock on wood* this won't happen again.

Now we have normal fall weather - gross, rainy, want-to-stay-indoors, but also not ridiculously cold (40's). I have to admit, thought, I'm looking forward to the next snow day.