It snowed overnight. A lot. A LOT. Like several inches, although the official tally is somewhere around 3" but since it blows into drifts my back yard is actually several inches deep in the stuff.
It's taller than a beagle belly! Maggie Moo actually swims when she goes outside, Frasier is tall enough to bound through it like he normally does but the poor beagle has no option but to risk frostbite belly! Lets just say that she makes her necessity runs outside as quickly as she can. :)
Bill was off today, the school district called it officially last night. Otter's store was open and she had to go in at 8:00. We started that way about 7:20, after a lot of work to de-ice and de-snow the car. We got her there about 10 minutes to 8:00, it normally takes less than 10 minutes to get from home to her job. Her boss wasn't even in yet, the (few who actually showed up) warehouse workers were unloading the delivery trucks (Friday is truck day) and she had to go in the back entrance because she was the first non-stock employee there. Then we headed to my office, I am feeling a lot better but I'm still tired. If I'd managed to get in earlier in the week I would have just called in today, but I had to process checks today (amazing how people like to get paid) so we braved the elements, frozen streets and dumb drivers. I don't know what time it was when we got to my office but it was probably close to 9:00 or maybe a little before. Younger boss came in, he signed the checks and then he left - he would probably not have come in if I hadn't. We left shortly after that. The streets were bad to start with but they were even worse when we left.
We went to the post office, the box was full since it hadn't been emptied since Monday and the parking lot didn't look like there had been more than a couple of cars in it. That was shortly after 10:00.. We also went to the bank, but it was on the way home. We got home around 11:00 I guess. Bill got a fire started and I got lunch started. I also refilled the two birdfeeders that were out and put out two more. There have been many feathered visitors to our yard. Doves, cardinals of both genders, chickadees and two varieties of sparrows. At one point, a sparrow attacked a chickadee but the chickadee fought back and escaped. People think that sparrows are nice birds, but they are actually pretty fierce predators and will kill any other bird that they feel like it - they have been known to gang up and kill birds as big as blue jays or mockingbirds. Usually, they are calm but they have anger issues! I guess that makes them Angry Birds?!
The dogsters were put out in the garage when we left this morning, I put their indoor water dish out with them since their outside water dish was probably frozen over. We removed the block that kept them from the rest of the garage yesterday and will probably just leave it down. Frasier could pretty much step over it if he wanted to and Maggie had finally realized that she could jump it. Since it wasn't keeping them out, and it was a hazard for us to cross over, we just left it down. Bill made sure that there is nothing that they can get to like rodent poison. They still have their carpeted area, and I think that they probably spent most of their time curled up on it because they did not feel particularly cold when we got home and let them in. They went out when I got the birdfeeders taken care of, which is when we realized that Maggie is too short for the snow! They didn't stay out long, sometimes they have convenient hearing when we call them to come in but not today. Frasier ran from the far corner of the yard to the back door in about 2 seconds, Maggie was a little bit slower to say the least but she did come swimming when I called them. Then, they ran around in the living room for several minutes and had a good time. After that, they collapsed on their blankets and have been snoozing since then. Every so often, one of them will get up and move. Maggie did briefly back up to the fireplace and park her behind against the warm rock.
Bill went to get Otter, she got off at 1:00 so he left at 12:30. I think he got there shortly after she got off because she texted me about 1:05, looking for me/him/us. They got back close to 1:30. She said that they weren't very busy, which is not a surprise, and that quite a few employees had called in. Her boss was supposed to be there at 7:00 but it took him until close to 8:30 to make it in. She works tomorrow, same hours as today. Bill will take her since the road conditions are expected to be very bad, I may go with him to pick her up but I don't think I'll go with him when he takes her.
The water heater seems to be working fine and there have been no signs of any leaks. It was really nice to take a shower yesterday afternoon, since I was the only one who hadn't before we discovered the leak. It might be set slightly higher than the old one, but it's at a good temperature. There are a couple of things we bought in the second trip to Lowe's that we didn't need, I was going to take them back today but obviously that is going to wait. Maybe Sunday, but that is to be determined later.
The snow continued most of the day, it finally stopped but I think we might get more tonight. It has been well below freezing and not a lot of people have ventured out. We wouldn't have today, other than to take Otter to work, if I'd managed to get in earlier in the week. The traffic was heaviest this morning, but it wasn't really what I would call heavy. Bill said that when he went to get Otter from work the roads were getting snow and ice packed and that they were much slicker than they had been earlier. Road conditions are expected to be really bad tomorrow, especially in the morning. I might suggest that Otter consider calling in, she hasn't missed any days yet and it would make her work hours short this week but safety needs to be the first concern. I really think that her boss would understand, given the weather and the things he's said about how responsible/trustworthy she is. We'll be below freezing for several days yet. Tulsa issued an emergency conditions warning this morning, asking people to stay off the roads if they could. Like I said, we would have stayed home if we could. A lot of people did stay home, which means that the roads will probably be even worse tomorrow since there hasn't been traffic to help clear the ice.
Well, we have plenty of firewood. And marshmallows!
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