Blizzard of ’08 – Party Has To Wait

March 10th, 2008

Friday I left work early because the roads started to get slick and snow covered. What usually takes me about 45 minutes to drive, took a bit over 2 hours.

Central Ohio was hit Friday and Saturday with about 20.4 inches of snow, which broke a previous snow fall record of 15.3 inches for a single storm in this area, set in 1910 .

Large amounts of snow are not shocking to Momma and I because we lived in Colorado for about 4 years. It was nothing to get a couple feet of snow overnight and then be expected to be on time to work the next day. 😉

Here, the whole city tends to shut down if we get over 2-3 inches of snow, but I loaded up Ace and Momma into the truck and we slowly made our way across town to Grandma’s house. It was pretty nice to have hardly any traffic to deal with.

Since there was no traffic, and people without 4 wheel drive couldn’t really get around, there were tons of people walking down the middle of the road because the sidewalks were knee deep! I’m not talking about side streets here. I’m talking about the main routes through town! BRILLIANT! I did have to stop a few times and wait for people to get out of the middle of the road just to get through..!

Anyways, we made it to Grandma’s with no problem where Ace’s Uncle Mike and three year old cousin Olivia were waiting for us to take them sledding. It was way too cold for Ace to go with us, so he stayed home with Grandma.

We had a good time sledding. Olivia wiped out hard! Then Olivia and Momma sat in the truck, while Mike and I were trying to kill ourselves on the big hill. 😀

Here is a quick clip of Mike and Olivia’s wipe out…

[youtube 6NOHLkomItc]

Well, when we got back to Grandma’s, Momma took Ace sledding down the sidewalk. We just couldn’t have him miss out on all the fun. 😀 Here are a few pics…

So anyways, with all the snow and bad roads we decided to postpone Ace’s birthday party until next weekend. Hopefully the roads will be clear by then… 😀

PS: The prank caller returned tonight at about Midnight. Momma answered the phone this time. There were three young girls laughing in the background. Momma asked for their names and they said, “Guess!”. Momma let them know that they are disturbing a sleeping baby and to not call back here anymore…and so far they haven’t. 😀

Tags: fun, Pictures, video, winter
Posted in: Funny Stuff, Pictures, Videos |
Views: 6,713
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Big Heart and a Little Coat

March 5th, 2008

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ace-in-coat-smirk

ace-mountain-dew

Tags: Pictures, winter
Posted in: Pictures |
Views: 6,605
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I Wish I Was A Kid Again

December 5th, 2007

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We just got our first snow last night in central Ohio. I woke up this morning to a wonderful snow covered landscape. It was so peaceful, yet exciting at the same time.

Remember when we were kids? I remember waking up seeing the snow and before I was even out of bed, yelling, “Mom! Is school canceled?”

“Not yet!,” Mom replied, “Come get some breakfast!”

The entire time my brother and I were eating an entire loaf worth of cinnamon toast, we were planning what we were going to do with our snow day.

Should we build a snowman? Should we build a fort and have snowball fights? Should we dig tunnels into the snow drifts? Will anyone take us sledding?

After patiently waiting for the radio to go through all of the school cancellations we finally heard the name of our school. We would jump up and down and rejoice!

Diving into the closet we would break out our slew of winter clothes. Snow pants, coats, hats, gloves, long underwear, boots, and those thick socks.

Did you have multiple sets of winter clothes? Remember playing outside for so long that your gloves and the knees of your pants were just soaked! Snot was dried onto your face mask, and spit crystals formed around the mouth of it?

Mom would call us in for lunch. We would come inside and strip down to our skibbies. We scarfed down whatever she whipped up that day. Mom would put the snow clothes from the morning play session on top of the furnace ducts so that they would be dry if we needed to change yet again that day. Then we put on our second set of fresh, dry, snot free snow clothes. Then we put on our second set of fresh, dry, snot free snow clothes and ran outside to do it all over again!

*** At this point I leave dream world and snap back into reality ***

Well, today was nothing like that for me. I didn’t eat breakfast because that requires me to get up 15 minutes earlier. There was no getting excited about anything. I didn’t listen to the radio for a work cancellation…because that just doesn’t happen. Since work wasn’t cancelled I hopped in my truck and drove across town. The normal 45 minute drive turned into 2.5 hours.

I was THIIIS close to turning around, going home, and taking a ~~snow~~ sick day.

Man, I wish I was a kid again!

I guess I can wait until Ace is in school and starts getting snow days. Maybe then I could justify staying home from work and playing in the snow all day long. Snotty snow mask and all! 😀

Tags: snow, snow day, truck, winter, work
Posted in: Growing Up, Looking Back, Pictures |
Views: 5,700
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Getting Ready For Winter

November 5th, 2007

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Firewood After recovering from Halloween I have decided that it is time to get ready for winter! Many people do not like Winter, but I do! I would much rather be cold than be hot. When you are hot there is no escaping it. In the Winter you can always put on more clothes to keep warm. 🙂

Any other year I would stock up on firewood, sweep the chimney, clean out the shed, service the lawn mower, rake the yard, put up all of the patio furniture, clean up the flower beds, clean out the gutters, get out the snow shovel, buy some rock salt for the driveway and sidewalks, and sit back and wait for the snow!

Is there anything else I need to do because I am a Dad now? I mean, almost every other thing in my life has changed ever so slightly since Ace was born.

This summer was tough on me because I am an outdoors person, and I had to sit inside with Ace on the weekends when Momma was working. Instead of mowing in the morning I had to wait until the evening. Instead of sitting outside on the deck with the dog I sat in the couch with the dog and Ace. There were tons of weeds in the flower beds because I just didn’t have time to pull them. Things just didn’t get done around he house like they used to.

How will things be this Winter? There is not a lot to do outside in the Winter other than shoveling snow, spreading salt, carrying firewood. However last winter I spent a lot of time working in the house. Our basement was considered a “finished” basement, but was far from what we considered finished. So I spent a lot of time tearing down the paneling, the ceiling, patching the cement walls, peeling up the tile on the floors. I pretty much demolished the basement last year. This Winter my goal is to rebuild it…but will I have time? Been doing some research about water powered backup sump pumps, and considering installing one. Having a water powered sump pump can help avoid flooding of the basement when there is no power to run the electric one. I also demolished the upstairs bathroom a few weeks ago…will it get finished?

Either way, the basement and bathroom are not going anywhere. They will still be there next Winter. I’m just going to enjoy Ace’s first Winter and do my best to make sure that he does too! If I have some spare time…maybe, just maybe, some progress will be made on the basement and bathroom. 😉

Tags: house work, winter
Posted in: Ignorance Is Bliss, Misc Ramblings |
Views: 7,571
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