Holidays and Snow Days

Gung hee fatt choi and happy Valentine's day!! We here in the Hollow sincerely wish you peace, love, prosperity, and happiness this year! And NO MORE SNOW! -- Yeah, right. Seems that Mother Nature has other ideas in mind . . .

Today was a bit of a recovery day; we got home very late last night as George and I went to the first annual Tanner's Touch Valentine Gala -- more on all that on another post. Sylv and SG stayed at my mom's in Taneytown for the evening with my niece and nephew while we parents had a little grown-up fun with a whole lotta Stambaughs at the Inn at Roop's Mill for Tanner. We all had a great time, but the drive home was killer. Both Crouse Mill Road and Route 340 were drifting a bit and it was late and cold . . . and I had to drive. Ugh. But we made it safely. The cut-through drifts on Route 340 are absolutely impressive; I mean, they are worth the drive just to see themselves -- especially now on the westbound side. Apparently, they had to bring in Idaho snowblowers from Garrett County to get through the 15 feet drifts. Many people were stranded, but no one was seriously hurt. Even G was told not to come into work either Wed. or Thu., which is incredibly unusual. As a matter of fact, there was a state of emergency on Thu. in the county and no one was allowed on county roads except in the cases of emergency vehicles - pretty hard core.

Tomorrow we have off for Presidents' Day and then we're supposed to be back in school for Fat Tuesday a.k.a. Mardi Gras, but that is now in question . . . And next week is my birthday . . . it ALWAYS snows around my birthday . . .

Here are my Valentines and some shots from our short trip today to Shepherdstown for Chinese and groceries.

Making the Best of It

We made some Valentines yesterday and this morning.

We finally let the girls go out today.

Notice G in the hammock.

We have been told by officials not to go out on the roads unless it's an emergency, and yet my work is still open . . . something is just not jiving with me. Actually, I'm quite angry about it . . .

Schools are officially closed until next Tuesday (we have Monday off for President's Day).

Frederick County seems to have been hit very badly by this last storm. As far as I can tell Routes 340 and 15 are still closed. They are even sending helicopters out to rescue stranded motorists. The drifting is causing a lot of problems for local roadways at this point. They even called the plows off the roads last night in many surrounding areas.

Unfortunately, my new friend Mr. Foot doesn't have good news for our near future; I think we may lose a few to insanity over this one.

Cabin Fever 1.0

Sick of it! Another 12" at least! Blah!!!!!

Here is my husband plowing . . . again.

Here are my girls making Valentines. Yes, SG is in her bathing suit. And Sylv is in a witch's costume.

Here is our daily stink bug. More about them later. I HATE them . . .

So, do you feel like reading? Here's what I've been reading today:

• an article about how global warming might be causing storms like these
• a better article about the same
• Oh, there's another one
• this is where we're going this weekend for Tanner's gala!
• ummm, the reason why I shouldn't have to go to work . . . yet, I have to take a couple of vacation days in order to stay out of danger . . .
• aren't these the CUTEST Valentine's you've ever seen??
• and finally, have you seen this weather blog? Seriously, if you live in the mid-Atlantic, you must come to read them!