Well, I guess you could say things are finally getting back to normal. All though it has been a bit painful. The kids were off on Monday for President's Day, and they closed school again on Tuesday. When they finally did get back to school, it was after a 2 hour delay in the morning. The counties were just having too much trouble moving all the snow. And schools were still not cleared, especially sidewalks. We actually have quite a few kids that walk to school, and it was just too dangerous to walk in the roads. For some reason, Maryland didn't build shoulders alongside the roads. So there really was no place to put all the snow. They had to bring in dump trucks in downtown Baltimore, scoop up the snow and dump it in the bay! It looked like a very big slushy! And the temperature is rising slowly, which is probably a good thing for us since the snow is melting slowly. If it melted all at once, we'd have to break out the life jackets and the Ark!
Our average snowfall in Maryland is apparently 18 inches for the entire Winter. This year we are around 73 inches and we haven't hit Spring yet! Needless to say, we surpassed a few old records. And we also discovered that the guys that measure the snowfall at the airport play a big role in the economy and how federal funding is determined. Looks like here in Baltimore, they opted to use one of their own technicians to measure snowfall rather than a meteorologist. Turns out both groups measure snowfall differently. Weather guys measure snow hourly, which has a lot to do with how compact the snow gets and how long it sits. The technicians at the airport just care about how much snow affects the operation of the airport. The government has set standards in determining how much snow equals how many federal dollars used to help clean up the snow. So there is a discrepancy between our airport people and our weather people. Looks like we hit around 63 inches all said and done over the last two weeks. Now the FAA and weather people are questioning the measurements dating all the way back to the early 1900s. Crazy stuff. We just know it was a ton of snow in a short period of time and that the roadbergs are going to be around until April it seems.
I was laughing at an article in the paper, an editorial discussing the joys of snow days. Including the mad rush to the stores to buy meat, milk and toilet paper. Then the need to cook huge chunks of meat which find their way into soups(mine end up in pot pies!) as well as lots of cookies. And the fun of picking up the excessive clutter in the house which occurs when children stay home from school for more than one day. Including all the wet mittens, hats, boots, snow pants and coats that are strewn from the garage all the way to the fireplace in the family room! And the shear excitement of watching front loaders push snow up out of the roads onto the neighbor's front yards. I actually took a video of the front loader cleaning up the extra snow on our street at night. Too bad we couldn't have sold some of this extra stuff to Vancouver. Baltimore actually had to buy more road salt from Mexico since the whole east coast ran out(or they were hoarding their supplies). And driving on our roads has been very interesting lately. I took the neighbor ladies and girls out to see Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief and as I was dropping everyone off, I drove up to about a dozen deer coming right at me down our road! They decided to jump over the 4ft snow bank and attempted to cross the neighbor's yard. The ladies were afraid they would get stuck in the snow and made me slow down to look!
So don't you wish you could all share in this fabulous experience? I got yelled at from my boss for having to adjust my work schedule because when the kids finally went back to school they had a two hour delay, and I had to drop them off before going into work. Tom finally ended up in California for his business trip. He needed to stay and work 2 weeks, so he decided it would be better to stay over the weekend rather than try to get home, only to go back to the airport and spend another day traveling. That worked fine for me since he mostly catches up on his sleep when he gets back from a trip. And I had a very busy weekend with the kids.
As I mentioned, all the activities that we planned several weekends ago were bumped to future weekends. Allison and I participated in a Girl Scout International Day on Saturday(that was already scheduled and ran on time). We were singing in the opening ceremony with the GS choir. The event was held at a local catholic high school this year, so Allison got a sneak peak into one our catholic schools(rather old and run down). She enjoyed listening to the speaker from the Peace Corps, and tasting a rice cake from the phillipines(more like a sweet cupcake with ground meat on the bottom). We also picked up some great handouts for her Health teacher on nutrition and exercise. In the meantime, I paid to have Scott stay with a babysitter at our neighbor's house since this was an all girl event. He certainly enjoyed his play date with the neighbor's son. On Sunday, after church in the morning and some intense homework and studying, we all joined Scott's school for an afternoon of bowling. The event had been scheduled several weeks earlier, but was canceled due to the snow. They had several kids cancel so I asked if Allison could come along. They asked if she could chaperone a lane of kids next to the lane I was watching, plus they let her bowl and eat pizza too. Worked for us. We all had a lot of fun and even saw our next door neighbor there celebrating their daughter's birthday. The place was packed. After bowling, I thought I could get the kids their haircuts that they desperately needed. However, when we arrived at the salon in the mall there was a 2hour wait, and the mall was closing before that! I guess everyone is still behind on their schedules! It was bad enough trying to find a parking place, so we just bought dinner at the Food Court and headed home to finish up our homework/studying.
My biggest challenge when Tom is out of town is getting the kids where they need to be. I managed to get Scott to gymnastics and Allison to piano, but her indoor Field Hockey is on hold due to damage to the building's roof from the snow. Not sure when it will be fixed.
I do try to get most of my errands run on Fridays. I discovered the Boy Scout store near the airport and was busy spending the afternoon buying Scott his new patches for his khaki shirt. This weekend he will celebrate his advancement from a cub scout to a Webelo Scout and switches from his blue shirt to his khaki shirt. So I had to get all new patches sewn on(but first I had to buy them!). I also picked up some supplies for cake decorating as he usually participates in the cake making contest for the blue and gold dinner. Boy Scouts is celebrating their 100th year so we will make the biggest birthday cake we can assemble(without tipping over!). There is a "tallest cake" category. Everything must be edible too. He also has a vest full of patches that I asked one of my girl scouts to sew on for him so he can wear it to the banquet. I also found the kids a new dentist office and scheduled them an appt in a few weeks. I signed up for a new insurance from my job since Tom's dental program has been sorely lacking. Limited choices and many dentists keep dropping the insurance(Cigna). So it will be interesting to see how the new dentist turns out(a woman who has an office right around the corner from us). I was impressed with the fact that when I stopped into the office, they were closed, but the receptionist opened the door and let me in to talk to me and make appointments. It is pretty hard to find decent service like that nowadays.
Other sad news, Linda Seitz lost her grandmother last week-she passed away at 101! She was still living in her own house in Michigan. I will really miss hearing Flossie stories!
My best (OT) friend Laura fell over some bowling ball bags while attending a fund raiser activity and broke her arm(shoulder area-neck of the humerus). She was busy celebrating her raffle win and ended up on the floor with a broken arm. She thought she would get away with a sling for 6 wks, and then lots of therapy, but the orthopedic MDs decided she required surgery. So in she went for surgery. On top of all that, her sister in law passed away. Our sympathy goes out to Dan and Laura. She had to decide between surgery or a funeral. Not a great choice. Hope you are taking it easy Laura and recuperating.
This has been quite a year so far. I will let you know how we survive all the snow and the threat of more to come! Kathleen and family