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.
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