Greetings from Snowmageddon!

It's Sunday morning and so far we have survived the big storm. The media started predicting the Nemo blizzard early in the week, so by Thursday evening I couldn't sleep because I was so nervous. That was weird because I'm normally not like that. I'm a native New Englander and snow is a regular occurrence. In addition, Michael and I had gone out on Wednesday evening and purchased groceries, filled the car with gas and gotten money from the ATM, so we were pretty prepared. On Friday, Mike's company gave everyone the day off and I worked from home. It was snowing lightly in the morning. Mike and I went out quickly before lunch to CVS to pick up a prescription and the roads weren't too bad. By 3:30 pm, it was a whole different story, there were white-out conditions and high winds. After dinner, Mike went out and shoveled for about an hour to clear our pathways, hoping that it might make a difference when we woke up on Saturday. We had no land line phone service starting at about 2:30 pm and lost our electrical power for about an hour on Friday night, but by late Friday evening, both phone and electricity had returned.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to this.

Snow is level with the top step of the front door.

The view from our front door.

Our front yard. Fence in the photo is 4 feet high.

Our back yard patio area. Fence in the photo is six feet high.

Our back yard and garage. No way to get to the quilting studio!

All the windows were coated with snow and ice so you couldn't look outside.

Our side yard. Nowhere for the pugs to walk.

Our weeping Atlas, buried in snow.

Larry Pug ready to take on the weather.

We have spent the weekend indoors. I took advantage of my enforced inside time by organizing with a vengeance. I got started on Friday evening by cleaning out the junk drawer in the kitchen and sorting through my gardening bucket--not that I'll need it for at least a few months. I "containerized" everything in the junk drawer so I now have a separate container for rubber bands (amazing how many you can accumulate by throwing them in the same drawer for 14 years), paper clips and matches. Pens, markers, and pencils have been sorted and banded together. I discovered that we owned at least seven Allen wrenches (or hex keys) in assorted sizes, so I kept two in the drawer and put the rest in the toolbox downstairs. I threw away the mysterious flotsam and jetsam. I put all the corn holders in a container and moved them to the top cabinet, since they don't get used very often and I tend to poke my hand with them every time I open the drawer.

Saturday, I started organizing the pantry closet. I made a good dent, but I definitely need to buy some more containers for all of Michael's cooking staples. The pantry closet has deep shelves, and if the items are in plastic bags, as they are now, they get all jumbled together. If I put them in a container, then at least I can stack them. I also cleaned off the kitchen counter and obliterated the three piles of paper that had been cluttering my stairs. I threw out at least two bags of trash and put out an additional two bags of recyclables. Among my piles, I found my quilting UFO list from 2003. I was amazed (shocked, dismayed, appalled) at how many of the same items are still on my list ten years later. Might be time for a UFO purge later this month!

Saturday afternoon, Mike and I went out and shoveled. I helped Mike for about an hour. Mike was outside for about 3 hours and he dug out all our pathways. It looked like there was no end in sight. Fortunately our next door neighbor flagged down two guys with a plow and a snow blower. After a little urging, Mike agreed that it would be a good idea to hire them to do our driveway.

Now we can make it to the gate.

Larry Pug

Elvis and Romeo

Romeo in his winter finery.

Elvis says he's just fine on the couch, surrounded by quilts, no need to go outside.

Elvis and Larry

Indoor playtime for Larry!

Here is our driveway after it has been plowed. They couldn't do the whole thing, so we just had them plow out in front of the garage. I think the snow will be there until June.

At least we can get the cars out, not that there's anywhere to go!

And we have a path to the house!

This is my neighbor's driveway. Not sure if they'll ever be able to get out.

A view from our house. Not all of the neighbors have cleared their sidewalks, so it is hard to take the dogs for a walk.

Larry Pug and I went to the park.

I've done enough cleaning for now, so I'm hoping to spend my afternoon sewing in the quilt studio. I want to cut the binding for Anna's wedding quilt as well as cut out the quilt for my class next Friday and get started on the birthday blocks.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy