We finally received some actual, honest to goodness snow in Topeka this week. It waited until Saturday, which I believe was awfully thoughtful of it. It teased us last week with a load of ice, and gave most of the surrounding area some inches of snow, but had, until now, bypassed Topeka so far this year.
It started about mid-afternoon Saturday. In the morning Little Sister had a basketball game at the community center, we all went there to watch and support her...well,...most of us did. The boys like to go because there are pool tables and ping pong tables at the centers, so they get their pool time in. She did well in her basketball even though she had never really played before, and she had missed last weeks practice.
Back to the snow. It started coming down in what seemed like flurries mostly on Saturday early afternoon. Little tiny flakes that blew and whirled and twirled in the wind rising and floating back down before they finally lighted on the ground. As the afternoon progressed, the snow flakes thickened and got bigger. Little Sister took a bucked outside to catch the snow. She likes to make snow ice cream with a fresh snowfall.
Sunday morning we awoke to about 2 inches of nice, pack snow. The type of snow that sticks together well, and is exeptional for the construction of snowmen...or snowwomen...or snowpersons(whatever). Not only snow people but also forts and snowballs. About mid-morning I ventured out into the snow. I had too. My driveway was full of snow and it needed removing. A lesson one learns while living in Alaska, is that one must keep on top of the snow. One must be diligent in the removal of snow from where it needs removing. Otherwise, the snow will get ahead of you, and you can never catch up.
I have let that lesson slide somehwat since returning to the lower 48. Heck, I didn't even go out and shovel while the snow was still falling, nor even the same day it fell. In Alaska, I would never have let myself not start shoveling while the snow was still falling. It is simply better to shovel the paths 10 times in a day, then to wait and try to shovel 23 inch deep snow all at once.
It was quiet outside. Normally it is fairly quiet on a Sunday, but this day it was more quiet than usual. Everything seems quieter in the snow. Part of it I suppose is much less activity. Kids aren't running and riding their bikes or scooters or skateboards all around the neighborhood. Cars travelling the wide street we live on are few and very far between. But I think mostly it seems almost as if the snow acts as a sound insulator. Like it dampens everything and makes the sounds softer and somewhat more hollow than normal.
One could hear that distinct scratchy-scraping sound that a snow shovel makes as it grinds along concrete. The sounds differ depending on what type of shovel is used. One could easily tell which neighbors had the plastic shovels (a lower, more growly scrape), the aluminim shovels (a higher, more whining scrape) and the heavy duty steel shovels which gave a full ring of a scrape sound. One could also hear the faint cries of glee and laughter which echoed from the children at the park.
They were sledding, and building forts in preperation for a snowball war. One team finished their fort, then went inside someone's house to play Xbox while the other team finished theirs. But then the first team came back out, they discovered that the second team had co-opted parts of the first teams for for their own. They weren't very happy, about it, but made due. The war was a draw.
Afterwards everyone gathered for hot chocolate (instant of course, no one makes actual hot chocolate with milk anymore). All in all it was a nice ending to a sometimes hectic week. And at least we finally received some snow, if only for a few days (supposed to be in the 40's by the end of the week).
23 January 2007
15 January 2007
Winter has arrived (finally)
The almost snow finally came to Topeka this weekend. I say almost snow because it was quite almost, but not exactly, like snow. Basically what we recieved from the great sky was sleet. And lots of it. It was cold enough that the sleep pellets just piled up.
Looking out on the lawn through the window, from the warmth of the living room, with a cup of coffee in my hands...a cup where the steam was still rising, making ghostly cloud-like swirls in the air, it looked like it had snowed. But stepping out into the cold and into the 'snow' one realized that it was not snow. But something else...almost like tiny bits of hail that had piled up. Which, if one thinks about it, is pretty much what sleet is amlost...but not quite.
It was cold enough that when one stepped out into the frigid air, there was a tendency for the dampness in one's nose to freeze after only one or two breaths. It's the kind of cold that makes one want to breath through their mouth, to save the freezing of nasal moisture.
It had gotten progressively colder throughout the week. Culminating on Friday with the beginning of the sleet storm. The storm, according to the vaulted and learned weather people, was promised to land us five or more inches of snow throughout the weekend. I didn't believe it for minute. I didn't think we would get five inches of anything, not even snow. And we didn't.
But as Sunday afternoon approached, there were those that were beginning to worry about the promised five inches. "If it hadn't even started snowing yet, that means we'll get those five inches all over night. That means the road will be horrible, just horrible tomorrow. Thank goodness it's a federal holiday, and most people won't have to go to work." That's true for the most of Topeka. Topeka is a government town. Just about everybody works for either the City, County, State or Federal government - which means aobut 75% of the population of Topeka didn't have to go to work today.
Friday was the first day Little Sister's brownie troop could sell their cookies. I had to work late and didn't get home until after dark, close to seven. But Saturday morning I took her around the neighborhood. She has set a goal for herself of 200 boxes of cookies. Last year she sold 180 or so, and this year she wanted to sell more. She is quite the go-getter. She wants to be better than everyone else. She wants to exceed and excel and show everyone how great she is. If she doesn't lose this drive and ambition, she will accomplish tremendous things.
She took orders for nearly 100 boxes that Saturday morning. I think she got a lot of sympathy orders. So many people commented on her dedication to be out on such a cold and gloomy day selling cookies. We got invited in to warm up at quite a few houses. But sadly, no one offered hot chocolate. After 1/2 the block we decided to head back home to warm up with some hot chocolate. That was probably a mistake because after the hot chocolate, we went back out, but only got to about 1/2 the number of houses we had visited earlier that morning before she got too cold to go on. Still, almost 100 orders for just a few hours on a cold and sleety and crappy Saturday morning.
Next week the boys have the Boy Scout Klondike Derby where they run a dog sled style sled loaded with all kinds of camping and survival stuff to different stations and perform different functions. Sometimes the stay the night, but this year they are only going for the day, them coming back. So probably I won't go with them. I'd certainly try my darndest to go if they were camping, but I'm not much for going out and standing around for a day then coming home cold and tired.
Looking out on the lawn through the window, from the warmth of the living room, with a cup of coffee in my hands...a cup where the steam was still rising, making ghostly cloud-like swirls in the air, it looked like it had snowed. But stepping out into the cold and into the 'snow' one realized that it was not snow. But something else...almost like tiny bits of hail that had piled up. Which, if one thinks about it, is pretty much what sleet is amlost...but not quite.
It was cold enough that when one stepped out into the frigid air, there was a tendency for the dampness in one's nose to freeze after only one or two breaths. It's the kind of cold that makes one want to breath through their mouth, to save the freezing of nasal moisture.
It had gotten progressively colder throughout the week. Culminating on Friday with the beginning of the sleet storm. The storm, according to the vaulted and learned weather people, was promised to land us five or more inches of snow throughout the weekend. I didn't believe it for minute. I didn't think we would get five inches of anything, not even snow. And we didn't.
But as Sunday afternoon approached, there were those that were beginning to worry about the promised five inches. "If it hadn't even started snowing yet, that means we'll get those five inches all over night. That means the road will be horrible, just horrible tomorrow. Thank goodness it's a federal holiday, and most people won't have to go to work." That's true for the most of Topeka. Topeka is a government town. Just about everybody works for either the City, County, State or Federal government - which means aobut 75% of the population of Topeka didn't have to go to work today.
Friday was the first day Little Sister's brownie troop could sell their cookies. I had to work late and didn't get home until after dark, close to seven. But Saturday morning I took her around the neighborhood. She has set a goal for herself of 200 boxes of cookies. Last year she sold 180 or so, and this year she wanted to sell more. She is quite the go-getter. She wants to be better than everyone else. She wants to exceed and excel and show everyone how great she is. If she doesn't lose this drive and ambition, she will accomplish tremendous things.
She took orders for nearly 100 boxes that Saturday morning. I think she got a lot of sympathy orders. So many people commented on her dedication to be out on such a cold and gloomy day selling cookies. We got invited in to warm up at quite a few houses. But sadly, no one offered hot chocolate. After 1/2 the block we decided to head back home to warm up with some hot chocolate. That was probably a mistake because after the hot chocolate, we went back out, but only got to about 1/2 the number of houses we had visited earlier that morning before she got too cold to go on. Still, almost 100 orders for just a few hours on a cold and sleety and crappy Saturday morning.
Next week the boys have the Boy Scout Klondike Derby where they run a dog sled style sled loaded with all kinds of camping and survival stuff to different stations and perform different functions. Sometimes the stay the night, but this year they are only going for the day, them coming back. So probably I won't go with them. I'd certainly try my darndest to go if they were camping, but I'm not much for going out and standing around for a day then coming home cold and tired.
10 January 2007
Waiting for the snow (still)
Christmas and New Years has come and gone here in northeast Kansas, and still we have no snow. Out west...out west we have lots of snow. Too much really. Almost greedily too much. They shouldn't have kept all that snow for themselves. They should have shared some, but they didn't and now look at the state of affairs they are in. Cattle are starving or dehydrating, or just generally down in the dumps.
The prez has finally declared the area a national disaster area. It should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but it takes time. We are, after all, midwesterners. We don't expect, nor desire, the federal government to swoop in and save us, or our cattle, just because we got stingy and held on to more snow that we should have and didn't let anyone east of us get any of the powdery white goodness.
New Years eve was an interesting night. An 8 year old beat us all at Monopoly. In my defense though, it was "Sponge Bob" Monopoly, and not the regular everyday Monopoly. Not that it should make that much difference. The game is the same, only the names - and the tokens - were changed to better match the kids show. I'm standing firm though, that since I could not be the shoe, is why I lost so miserably to a second grader.
And hey, thanks for visiting!
The prez has finally declared the area a national disaster area. It should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but it takes time. We are, after all, midwesterners. We don't expect, nor desire, the federal government to swoop in and save us, or our cattle, just because we got stingy and held on to more snow that we should have and didn't let anyone east of us get any of the powdery white goodness.
New Years eve was an interesting night. An 8 year old beat us all at Monopoly. In my defense though, it was "Sponge Bob" Monopoly, and not the regular everyday Monopoly. Not that it should make that much difference. The game is the same, only the names - and the tokens - were changed to better match the kids show. I'm standing firm though, that since I could not be the shoe, is why I lost so miserably to a second grader.
And hey, thanks for visiting!
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