Speaking of Winter

 A whole lot of what has been keeping me busy has been weather.

We had ice. 

And then about 8 inches of snow.

The Emperor had off school since snow in even small amounts tends to have a paralyzing effect in the DC area.

 This is partly because the people who plow the roads haven't had a lot of experience with snow, and partly because the people who use the roads haven't had a lot of experience with snow.

 At any rate, the plow drivers didn't realize that they needed to plow the corners of the intersections to prevent the intersections from becoming slushy narrow passages.

And then we got a cold snap which turned the slush to rock solid ice.

And then we got another 4 or 5 inches of heavy wet snow.

This hasn't been a problem for us, per se (unless you count the cycle of finding/recovering/drying hats, coats, scarves, gloves, boots, socks, pants, and snow pants each time the kids go outside).

We haven't really needed to go places because all the schools were shut down.  We also knew the storms were coming so we stocked up at the library.  Some people grab milk and toilet paper, but we go for the important stuff!

Generally snow, even large amounts of snow, disappears within three days, but the cold continued for a week, and we are only melting off now.

Alas, our plowers inadvertently dammed up the storm drains, so we are getting a lot of flooding on the roads, which of course, turns to ice each night.  I am thinking that all snow plowers should be required to intern in Minnesota.

I do love snow, but even I am starting to yearn for some green!  It's nice, actually, I think I will appreciate spring much more this year than I did after the past two mild winters.

And I'm really ready for it to be Lent!