Ice Age... the Meltdown!

So the "big melt" started today. I woke up around 7 to a temperature of 40 degrees! What a welcome sight after temps ranging from -13 to 15 degrees the last 2 weeks! I said to myself, "Self, now some of this dang snow will melt!" I am thinking that we got about 25-30 inches of snow in 4-5 inch increments in the last 2 weeks. I am thankful for it because as a teacher, I got rid of the "much anticipated" Christmas party due to a 1.5 day school week last week!

But now I am yearning for a road without snow where I can DRIVE THE SPEED LIMIT! Well today was that day! I went to Tri-Cities with a friend and sped a little... just because I could! But before I went...

I stopped by my house on the way to take my mom to her friends house. I picked up a couple of movies for them and raced back in to grab the pretzels that she needed to make white trash. (more about that delicious comfort food later)

As I went to grab the pretzels I stepped in a huge puddle of water. I stepped to the side and slipped a bit on the sopping wet door mat at the back door. I look up in the pantry and water is dripping at quite an impressive rate from the ceiling. I look to the side, next to the dining room table, and the sheet rock is bubbling out and has a softball sized pocket of water about to bust through!

Throughout the afternoon we noticed that all of our cookbooks, boxed and bagged foods, and linens are pretty much ruined. We called the landlord who is the HS basketball coach, but he was out of town. His wife sent over her father and he climbed up on the roof to shovel some of the snow off. Unfortunately he shoveled himself off and had to scrap himself off of the ground some 12 feet below. After he shoveled the roof off there was a sheet of ice left that will continue to melt and drip into my dining room. But the dripping slowed down quite a bit.

That was my afternoon in a nutshell. I need to take a picture of the wall that is all bubbly. It is SO wierd!

3 inches in an hour?

Sunday Morning- my mom misses church because she is shoveling the sidewalk in order to GET TO THE CAR. (not happy about this, it's Christmas Sunday!)

Sunday Afternoon- I have to pump up my tire with a BIKE PUMP because it is super flat. (not happy about this either, stupid Les Schwab!)

My sister and I head to my Aunt's in Hermiston to cook and bake for goodie baskets for the fam. We also made a delicious roast and potatoes, if I do say so myself!

Whilst we were there it started snowing super hard, you know, those big flakes that block your entire field of vision when you are looking out the window. We couldn't see the tree at the end of their pasture!

We tried to get the semi started so that we could spin some cookies in the pasture, but she was froze up, real dead. (bad grammar, I know)

My uncle jumped on the 4-wheeler and promptly got it high centered in the field. My sister had to go and join him on it to get it to move!

We got like 6 inches of snow this afternoon, 3 of which came down in that hour I believe.

Mark my words- I WILL be riding that 4-wheeler on Christmas Eve before dinner... I will!

We came home at about 6:30 pm to find my MOM cleaning off her mini-toyota puddle jumper of a car. This car WILL high center and/or get stuck in this snow. It practically high centers going up the curb into our driveway on a sunny August day. This is one impressive pile of snow!

This was like 4 days ago!

At least there is one road they are keeping clear! HWY 395!

What happens when you lose a key in the snow?

We discovered the answer to the above question last Sunday, December 14, 2008.

I got a call from a friend asking if we had a metal detector. I said no, but that we had a strong magnet. My dad headed up to the high school, in the frigid cold, at 8:30am in leiu of Sunday School. Mind you, it was still snowing out.

After church I headed into town to do some shopping and on the way back found this happening in the HS parking lot. It involved several people, a real metal detector, and a blow torch. This key was GOING TO BE FOUND!

Finally, after quite awhile, the key was found. It was like 10 degrees that day, with an arctic wind. This was the kick-off to the current storm we are having. This one's for you, Tara!