Snow Day

What a day it was yesterday! As of today, Spokane has gotten between 15-20 inches of snow! It all started yesterday morning. I was getting the kids all ready for school, and looked out the window. It wasn't snowing to hard, my car was not covered (I didn't have to scrape windows) Luckily I decided to put Emma in her snowsuit! I also made Tolkien wear his snow boots. I took the kids to school, and told them that I would see them later that afternoon. I pick them up from school everyday. I went to work, and decided that I should park on 7th street. Sometimes I park on Cowley, but I didn't want to risk it. I didn't want someone to accidentally hit my car, plus Cowley is a somewhat steep hill, so anyway, I didn't park there. I went inside and logged onto my computer. I had a message from my boss waiting for me to read. She told me that she was running late, waiting for AAA to come and jump start her car. Later that morning, she called me and asked me how my drive was this morning. I told her I did fine, but that I was worried about this afternoon, as the snow was really coming down by that point. She told me that I didn't need to come back to work, after getting the kids from school. That was music to my ears!! I went to the news website, to check out the weather report. I got even more worried as I read people were having a really hard time getting up the South Hill. I live on the South Hill, and the kids go to school, even further up the South Hill! Cheryl and I went outside, and noticed that cars could not even make it up the hill. There was a city bus that had was turned sideways on the street. We were freaked out! We went back inside, and I was racking my brains trying to figure out how I was going to get my kids from school. I checked the new report again, and they were now saying that only people with 4-wheel-drive should be on the South Hill. I was getting panicky now, because I have a car. I don't even have snow tires. I emailed Jeremy and told him the situation. Initially he replied with, "Well you do have new tires, you should be fine." I didn't like that answer. I sat at work for another 1/2 an hour, debating on what I should do. My husband emailed me back, and said, "Lucky for you, I am getting off work, I will pick up the kids, and you, if you want me to." Again, music to my ears!

I decided that I should just go home, and let Jeremy do the upper South Hill driving. As I was walking out the building, Jessie, our PBX operator asked me if I was leaving. I said, "Yes." She joked about using me as her "crutch" to get her across the parking lot. I told her that I was parked on the street. She said, "What kind of car do you have??" I sighed, "Oh its just a piece of crap car." She said, "No, what kind is it?" I gave her the description of my car and she said, "Didn't you hear my call over the loud speaker?" "Someone hit your car!" My heart sank....this was the last thing that I wanted to deal with. The snow was coming down so hard. I wanted to cry, right then and there....I walked out to my car, hoping that maybe it was someone else's car that was hit, and they had mistaken it for mine. I was wrong. I swept off the snow and notice that the entire front end of my car, was smashed in. Luckily, the person that hit my car, called the police, and left all their insurance information. I went back in side work and waited for Jeremy to call me. Jeremy called and told me that he didn't have much trouble getting the kids. I filled him in on the accident, and called our insurance company. Jeremy and the kids showed up at my work, and assessed the damage. We had a plan. We just needed to get home.

Jeremy and I decided to drive downtown first, then go up Maple. We sat on 2nd Avenue for over an hour. We didn't have far to go, but traffic was gridlocked! I decided to turn on the radio, and listen to the news. They were commenting on the streets that were closed. I also caught the part when they announced that were not letting ANYONE up the South Hill, unless they had CHAINS! Jeremy and I tried to call each other several times on our cellphones, but the calls kept dropping. After many broken phone calls we decided to head north, park in the parkade, and go eat at Red Robin. We sat and sat...they had the news on in the restaurant. Then it was confirmed. Chains required for the South Hill. We had to get home! Jeremy looked at me from across the table and said, "I will go to Wal-Mart, in Airway Heights, and get us some chains." So he left. The kids and I sat at Red Robin for another hour and a half. Jeremy finally made it back, and we met him in the parking garage.

We got to the garage and got to work, putting the chains on our tires. I had issues with my chains, it took us about 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot. My chains kept falling off and we had to keep stopping to obviously put them back on. Finally we made it out of the parkade. I drove cautiously, in front of Jeremy. We approached Maple, and it was blocked by two police cars. They were not letting anyone up the hill alright! I got closer and rolled down my window. I asked the officer, if Maple was closed. He said, "It is, but you have chains, so you can go on up." I was scared. Plain and simple...scared. The road was deserted, dark and deep with snow. I got all the courage that I had left and pressed on the gas. I was so amazed at how well my POS of a car did once it had chains on! It was kind of fun, driving up, with no other cars around. Jeremy followed at a safe distance behind me. We pulled up in front of our house, and had to shovel a walk way to the door. Reci was barking on the inside of the house, anxiously awaiting our arrival. Oh we were finally home!!!! We got home around 8 pm. Mind you...we left my office at 3:30pm. Crazy huh?

This brings us to today....I took some pictures, to show you how much snow we had this morning. These were taken at about 7am, this morning. Since then...it has continued to snow, we have another 3 inches on top of what we had this morning...More snow to come!!! Did I mention that I HATE the snow? Good for me, the kids didn't have school. It was cancelled.

This is a picture of a snow covered steel flower, that is sitting on our front porch.

One of our bushes outside of our house.

Can you see the back end of my car?? Its there!

A view from our porch. I tried to get a shot, showing the walk way that my husband shoveled.

Jeremy's car in the back ground. He had to go to work this morning. I was amazed that he got off the hill!

See how covered my car is? That is how much MORE snow we got overnight. So, I told you Jeremy had to go into work, well he was nearly half way there, and they told him to go back home. He did make it back up the hill to our house. He has chains too. He told me that he was getting looks of amazement, as he drove back up to our house. People in their 4-wheel drives, wondering how the heck a little car, could do so well in the snow. Pretty funny.

A view of our back yard.

All the snow, on our garbage can. Garbage day is tomorrow. I wonder if they will be able to make it.

My super snow covered car.

Jeremy's "cleaned off" car.

You can barely see my car.

And now the snow covered steel flower has been moved.

I don't know how long this is going to last. I hear that we are supposed to get more, and if we aren't getting more, we are getting Arctic cold weather, so...no sign of this snow going anywhere soon. I think what sucks the most, is that my car is wrecked...so trying to find time to get it
for an appraisal is a whole other project in itself. I will have to get a rental car, while its being repaired. Sigh....I'll keep ya posted.