I’ll see your polar vortext, atmospheric river, bomb cyclone – whatever – and raise you four feet of snow and ten below. All before 12/15 mind you! Does that make the national news? Of course not. So long as Californians keep getting North Slope oil and market-priced wild salmon appear on dinner plates, who cares about Alaska.
That was after plowing, such as it was. City “planners” were supposedly given advanced warning of the shortage of plows, and people to drive and fix them, weeks before winter began here. Shrug. The mayor and his henchman hate the assembly, and vice-versa. Because it’s dark outside and some of the folks are clinically SAD, even infighting is not unknown. Alas, the people’s business goes undone.
Three closely spaced storms in eleven days dumped about four feet. As much as I’ve seen in December in thirty plus years here. Schools, businesses, pretty much everything, closed for days. Moose are exhausted. Dogs are lethargic. The birds, though, seem undaunted. Outside my office window I see dozens of Bohemian Waxwings and American Robins light on the hoar-frosted branches of our choke cherry trees, plucking frozen berries. And as usual the Ravens thrive. So long as discarded pizza boxes stick out of frozen garbage overflowing curbside trash containers, the Ravens are content. Seriously. I saw one the other day single-beakedly pull a box from the neighbor’s trash, open it, and fly off with a half-eaten slice of Papa Johns.
Then, after the storms moved off, guess what, we get a cold snap, and it’s dark nineteen hours a day now, and HW broke her wrist before Snowmageddon arrived (needed surgery), and – and! – now Black Dog is gimpy. He tried to navigate some deep snow at the Dog Park and just failed completely. Rimadyl and Gabapentin will help him heal, from what I guess is a torn ligament, pulled muscle, inflamed joint, who knows. Ask a dog where it hurts – vapid stare. Breaks our hearts.
The same neighbor who generously shared produce with us hand-delivered another care package. Not really my go to but much appreciated. Just to get up our driveway he needed to follow behind his snow blower. Lol. 1.75 Liter – should tide us over a week or so. But just in case I managed a slog to Costco for additional reinforcements. They recently combined the Pharmacy and Liquor departments, a seasonal decision by store managers to group items by purpose. 😬 Let it snow!
