Well, as a friend of mine mentioned recently on her blog, everybody has a story related to the great "snow-pocalypse" or "snow-mageddon" of January 2014. Here is ours, documented for posterity:
It's a normal day. The forecast calls for the possibility of snow, but yeah right. We've all heard it before. We'll believe it when we see it. Around 10:00 am or so, Paul sends me a text in my windowless office at the hospital that simply says, "Snow!" I figure that means a few flurries. We get excited about that around here. About 10:30 am, we get the dreaded phone call/text message/e-mail from the daycare informing us that school will be closing at 11:30 due to the weather. We agree that Paul will go get the girls because he is working from home. I carry on with my day at work. Around 11:00, I finally make my way to a window and can see that we are definitely getting more than just flurries. Everything is turning white, even the roads. Uh-oh. By the time I make it back to my office around 11:30, there is news that suddenly there is no way off the hospital campus by car. Both entrances are blocked by wrecks caused by icy road conditions. Word is spreading that the traffic around the city is horrendous and quickly becoming dangerous. About that time, I get a call from Paul telling me that he has tried numerous ways out of our neighborhood (which is on a mountain) and every road is blocked or too treacherous. He doesn't think he can make it to the school to get the girls. We try calling, but are unable to get through because so many other parents are trying to do the same thing. Still, I carry on with my day at work. We stop for nothing at the hospital. :) Paul tries once again to rescue our children a couple of hours later to no avail. He calls me to say that he can see almost thirty cars that have run off the road ahead of him. I tell him to just turn around and go back home. He'll be of no use to anyone if he ends up stranded in a ditch somewhere. The work day wraps up. It is now clear that the only way off the hospital campus is to walk. I consider walking across Highway 31 to the DuMontiers' house, but by now it's almost 5:00 pm and it's very cold and my scrubs are thin and it's starting to get dark out. The girls at work and I decide to stick it out at the hospital for the night. We make pallets on the floor of our offices with mats we find in the PT gyms and sleep in our clothes without showers. They did at least hand out toothbrushes. :)
Meanwhile, I finally get in touch with the school. They are preparing to spend the night as well. They have sent someone to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market next to the school to buy groceries and also get pizza from the Little Caesar's nearby. They say that the kids (42 of them are left stranded there!) are having a blast at their "sleepover." They watch movies, eat pizza, sleep on their nap mats, have pancakes for breakfast and grilled cheese for lunch.
Meanwhile, Paul is enjoying a nice quiet evening at home with the house all to himself. No fair.
Back at the hospital, we get up and start back to work at 7:00 am. Management has told us that we can work until noon and then try to head out on the roads if it's safe. This is not satisfactory to my mother. She sends Don in the 4-wheel drive Jeep to rescue me from the hospital. He arrives at about 10:30 and then we're off to rescue the girls from school. It takes us three hours to get there. We try every route possible and they are all blocked by wrecked and abandoned cars. We finally make it at about 2:00 pm. Anna comes out of her classroom and promptly asks, "Can we do this again?" :) You're kidding, right?!?
Here are some pics from our play time at home after we are all reunited:
Sara was very cautious of the snow. Not scared really. Just cautious. She didn't really want to leave this spot on the deck.
Anna had a ball making snowballs and throwing them at Dad.
Here's what you look like after you've slept on your office floor with no shower. And I use the term "slept" very loosely.
Okay, well that was enough snow for one year! Is it spring yet?
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