Time for an Update

Isn't it ironic that when you have time to blog, there's nothing worth posting, but when there's lots worth posting, you don't have time?

Well, that's my excuse. The last couple of months have been very fun and very, very busy. I'll post links to photos and events below, for those who are interested. In the meantime, what's going on right now is actually pretty noteworthy. When we moved to Virginia, we were told that the winters would be "mild". I remember talking to one guy about a rental property before we moved, and when I asked him who was responsible for snow removal in the winter, he said, "You would be, but it's really nothing to worry about. Last year it only snowed a couple of times, and it had melted before anyone had to worry about shoveling it." I'm sure this is true, normally. But we have been lucky enough to move here right before the most severe winter Virginia has experienced in decades!

It started with a fairly mild snowstorm on the first Saturday in December. We only got four or five inches, but it was enough for church the following day to be canceled. I can't be sure, but I think that's the first time in my life I've ever seen church canceled because of snow! Being from Utah, we thought it was pretty funny.

The next storm hit the Saturday before Christmas. This one was much more significant--two feet of snow fell, and we weren't at all surprised when church was canceled the next day. What we did still find amusing was the widespread panic. You would have sworn that the end of the world was coming...the shelves at the grocery stores were stripped down to nothing! Our neighbor told us she had spent $200 at the grocery store in preparation for the storm. We loved it though...the kids were in heaven playing around in the snow, and it set us up perfectly for our first white Christmas in 5 years.

When we got back from our Christmas travels, all that snow had melted. It was really cold for about a week, and then it warmed up nicely. I wondered if "winter" was over. Couldn't have been farther from the truth! In the last week and a half, we've seen three more snowstorms. The most recent hit last Friday afternoon and lasted until Saturday evening. When all was said and done, we had 32 inches of snow on the ground. Church was canceled again on Sunday, and what's more, the whole area seems to have shut down. Brian didn't have to go to work yesterday or today (PAR-TAY!) and it seems likely he won't have to go in tomorrow either, because...believe it or not, it's snowing AGAIN. This storm is forecasted to drop another 10 to 20 inches.

Having grown up in an area where snow all winter is common, it has seemed to me that people are overreacting to the situation. However, when we have gotten out of the house, I've realized that there are a lot of problems that arise here that don't in Utah, because this area is so unaccustomed to this much snow. The biggest of these is the fact that they're unequipped to clear the roads in a timely manner. It's been more than two days now since the big snowfall, and yet even the main highways still have big stretches covered with slush and snow that make the road dangerous. And those are the biggest highways. The smaller, but still regularly traveled roads are a disaster. We went to the grocery store today and were shocked to find that the road that goes into this huge shopping center was still completely covered with slushy snow, and rutted from all the cars that still use it. We were lucky not to get stuck in the snow!

So now I understand a little better why the prospects of 10-20 more inches of snow are so daunting. We're still a long way from cleaning up the mess from the last storm. I can't imagine what this one's going to do to the situation! We were scheduled to have Stake Conference this weekend (one of those broadcast from SLC to multiple stakes in the area) and I just got an e-mail today that it's been postponed until further notice because of weather problems, so we may actually have two weeks in a row with no church.

What a change from our lives in sunny Southern California! It was good timing for us, though. We're eating it all up after so many years of snow deprivation. So far none of us are really sick of it. It's only January, though...winter's not over yet! On the downside, some shady character stole our snow shovel right off our front porch after the last storm, and when we went to Lowe's today to buy a new one, they were sold out. Hopefully our neighbors will take pity on us and let us borrow one, because we're going to need it.

I'm going to go ahead and post pictures separately, so stay tuned!