An Ice River Ran Through It

Helping…hands…

I was going to blog today about my adventures with my snow blower (trust me, exciting stuff), but our temperature shot up 40 degrees over night. Add in a high wind, and we went from buried into snow to …interesting.

I took some video, which you can view here, but if you want the quick version, in one short day, we went from this:

To this:

When we moved to almost the driest state in our fine Union, I did not think water would be a problem. Keep in mind we spent eighteen years below sea level (in New Orleans), then moved to Houston in time to welcome Hurricane Ike ashore. So I know about water and flooding.

Or so I thought.

When the day started, I was happily at my desk working on my new Project Enterprise book (yay!). All was going well (for me, my characters were getting hosed), when about mid-day my neighbor pounded on my door. That was my first indication that something was wrong, the second being the more than knee-high rubber boots he wore and the shovel he carried. He might have looked a bit frantic, too.

Yup, a shovel. He was frantically digging a trench through the piles of snow, so that water wouldn’t run into our yards and basements. This is our first basement. If you dig a basement below sea level, you get a swimming pool. Or a river complete with falls.

I’m starting to think that a river will always run through our lives.  Actually, feeling a bit stalked. People who have lived here for forever keep telling me that this is the most snow they’ve seen in 20-30 years.

My first impulse has been to object. I grew up here and in my mind, all our winters had snow for building forts and snow people and stockpiling snowballs for epic battles.

Then I did some math.

Current age minus 30 years, yeah.

So now I feel old AND wet.

Thanks to the assistance of many neighbors and the city sending a back hoe in, my basement is low and dry. Looking ahead on my weather app, I see temps that bump around but no snowflakes in the forecast. So perhaps the piles of snow will melt away before the next snowfall. At least the water is down to manageable level!

I’m all for fresh starts and I still need to tell you about my adventures in snow removal.

And just in case you thought I might be bored without piles of snow to marvel at, another neighbor told me we have a mountain lion in the neighborhood. Life is always interesting when you’re #CodyLiving.

How are things in your neck of the world? Any reoccurring weather themes in your life?

I love comments so much that I pick a favorite to receive my monthly AnaBanana gift basket ($25 value).  (And don’t forget that once a quarter I’ll be tossing in something fun from the Perilously Fun Shop!) Recipient is announced the first blog post of the new month.

Perilously yours,

Pauline