Sick in snowpocalypse

I opened the door to take this. It is very pretty, but very cold.

The danger of naming yesterday/today's storm a snow-pocalypse... is nature could take it as a challenge. Truly, there is only a foot of snow on the ground, but the temperature has been -9 for 24 hours straight. And I've been in bed sick. On Internet Black-Out Day.

The view out one of my bathroom windows. I was going to lie and say,
"look, the snow is above the windows!" but really, my shed it there, so, it's not THAT high.

Things I have learned about living in snow include the following:

1. No matter how crappy you feel, you should take out the trash. Because tomorrow, it might turn -9 degrees and drop a foot of snow. Then you will have to take out the trash AND shovel your way to the can.

I love the texture of the snow on the deck. It's fallen through or
possibly melted... And the tables I left out look like cakes.

2. The mailman really does still deliver the mail. It's so cold, I won't even open my door to reach out and get the mail, and he still delivered it. I don't think this is necessary.

I was trying to capture the dramatic sweep of snow as it mounded on the deck, then dipped toward the house.
It's very subtle though, as snow is all about preventing light and shadow from capturing it.
I like the detail on the railing!

2. People still go for walks when there is snow and it's -9. It's harder to shovel the sidewalks when they walk on it first. As much as I'd like to throw rocks at these people, it means, earlier shoveling is easier shoveling. But I'm sick, so I'm doing as little of my civic duty as possible today. (Luckily, at -9, it won't compact into ice quite as easily.)

3. If you have well-shoveled sidewalks (throughout the neighborhood), it is less work to walk to work than shovel. That is, if you live in Indiana. In Montana, the roads are not really plowed, so even if your neighbors all shoveled (including me, see #2), you will still have to climb the snow berms left by the plow (on the roads they plow) or the chaotic ones left by the cars (on most roads).

4. If you do decide to drive, be prepared for your vehicle to get stuck in deep rivets of sloppy snow at intersections. TG44WD. The normally limited parking will not be a problem, as everyone will have created spaces at the end of each row, since there is no way to see the painted lines. Of course, the rows of parking spaces do push into the road going past them, making the normally-wide-two-lane street into a claustrophobic one-lane thing, hugging the edge of the ditch.

I know it's hokey, but I love my oak tree-with-a-face. I think it is my standard image for how the weather is looking outside.

6. No one understands how cold it is when the numbers become negative. No one. You go outside, and you think, "Minus 9 feels kind of the same as 9." That's what it wants you to think. It is already killing you, but trying to convince you everything is OK.

My mom called yesterday. In my fever-riddled state, I just kept mumbling "Minus nine." My mom asks, "So are you running the heater, or are you conserving energy and just adding an extra blanket?" "MINUS NINE," I began screaming like a loon. Then I tried to compose myself and pointed out it would be difficult to walk around the house if I let it get that cold, and sit on the toilet, and flush the toilet when the pipes all froze, and then there are the cats. Ah, that's what happens in minus nine.

Minus nine is also great for figuring out which of your windows are good, high quality ones (most of them), and which suck (the ones the previous owner chose in the sunroom, which don't match the rest). There is a find lace of ice around the drafty parts.

This last picture is dumb, but I wanted to relate some stories. This shed (I assume from the previous owner... there were only two other owners, and this shed reeks of a younger owner's bad decisions) was not installed on a level foundation, so the doors don't properly close. At some point, it was on fire too, which made a 1' hole in the corner. Anyway, I stacked bricks in that corner, and set rocks against the door to keep it closed. It's hard to open and closed, but I kept finding it open. So I used rocks. It's been closed the last few times I looked at it. This morning, it was open. So the mystery of who/what opens it begins. I imagine there are five deer in there right now, huddled against the cold. I already blogged in the past about the bunnies that live in the original shed (to the right, above). I hope it's full of bunnies.