Rained In

As I mentioned the other day, it snowed on Monday night/Tuesday morning and me and about 15 other people made it in to work. My weight training class was cancelled for the night and I was anxious to get home and let Pip play in the snow. Oh, who am I kidding, I was looking forward to playing in the snow. However, much to my chagrin, all the snow was melted by the time I got home. I also wasn't feeling great, in that I felt like a cold was coming on and so I took my trusted stand-by, Alka-Seltzer cold medicine around 5:30 p.m. and was asleep about an hour later. 

The weather folks were predicting more snow for Wednesday so it was going to be another wait and see situation. I woke up Wednesday morning to a very light rain and listed to what the meteorologists had to say. I watch Channel 19 in the mornings, and when Ben Smith took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, I felt certain it was about to get serious outside. I went ahead and took a shower and then listened to the news some more. After listening to the sheer paranoia of the newscasters and meteorologists, I decided I had better keep myself at home lest I get snowed in at work for the next 24 hours or more. 

I sent a text to Meri and let her know I was staying in. Meri chatted another girl we work with who also decided to stay home and I received a call from another co-worker who also decided to stay home. In short, the four of us girls, and loads of other people from what I understand, were snowed (pun intended) by the news into believing Huntsville was going to soon be a frozen tundra and so we all stayed home. 

Unfortunately, instead of of ice and snow, we received rain, and rain, and oh, did I mention it rained? I have never felt so stupid in my life. I rarely, and I mean rarely believe anything the weatherpeople say when it comes to snow and tornadoes because they love to get everyone in a tizzy and it usually amounts to nothing. So, why, I chose Wednesday to believe them, I will never know. Now, I'll be coming in for a few hours on Saturday to make up missed time for my rainy day at home. 

As it turns out, I ended up sleeping most of the day on Wednesday, and by most of the day, I mean I finally got up for more than 30 minutes around 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon. The cold medicine had a firm grip on me and my body apparently needed or wanted an enormous amount of rest. Thankfully, Pippa was rather cooperative and slept most of the time as well. I will make a lazy dog out of her yet!

Finally around 5:00 p.m. the rain became a rain/sleet mix and by 5:30 p.m. it was snowing, but not sticking. It started sticking about 30 minutes later and it piled up rather quickly. By 9:30 p.m. there were a few inches on the ground and it was still coming down. I took Pippa outside and we stopped and chatted with one of the neighbors for a few minutes. We walked out to the front as well because I wanted to see if there was a sheet of ice on the road and was glad to see that there was not. It was strangely quiet outside, which I often find to be the case when it snows at night, there's almost an eeriness about it and it seems as though you can hear the conversations of people down the street as if they were in the same yard as you. Do you all feel this way too? 

Thursday morning I woke up at my usual time and once again listened to the morning news to see how road conditions were before heading out on another snowy adventure. I took a shower, got ready, packed a lunch and then went to deal with the snow covered car. I had to let it warm up for quite a while before the sheet of ice on the windshield would break apart. While the car was warming up, I went outside with Pippa and let her off the leash to run around and enjoy the snow. She had a big time and was running all over the place and it looked like she was hopping like a rabbit at times as well. I finally managed to reign her in after about 10 minutes or so and then loaded up my things and hit the road. 

The roads were actually not terrible at all. In fact, I think they were in better condition on Thursday than they had been on Tuesday. I stopped by Maple Hill to take a photo because it was just too beautiful to pass up. It's one of my favorite spots in Huntsville anyway and it looked so gorgeous in the snow. In fact, the whole city looked so clean and beautiful covered in fresh snow. I was glad I had gotten out so early so I could enjoy all the beauty before it melted away. There were also a lot of snowmen out and about and it made me kind of melancholy that I didn't make one myself. 

I was one of the first people to arrive at work and Meri arrived about 20 minutes after I did. Throughout the day people trickled in. I suppose a lot of them had cabin fever and were ready to get out of the house after one or two days at home. Sadly, the snow will melt away by the end of the weekend and we are expected to have weather in the 60s next week. I, however, wouldn't mind another good snow before the winter passes us by, so long as it's on the weekend, that is. 

The snow was very heavy and caused this shrub to be droopy.
It's usually about as tall as the house.  

The back yard.  

Pippa getting a taste of the snow.  

The house - the snow and moon caused it to be very bright out. 

I think this might be one of my favorite photos of my house in the snow.  

My road

Pippa taking in the snow on Thursday morning.  

Maple Hill -so pretty!