Last weekend we got hit with a serious blizzard. As a longtime Wisconsinite snow storms don’t take me by surprise. It was forecast. On Saturday we were able to get out to go to lunch at the restaurant about a mile from our house. We hung out with friends there, ate, and went home. Earlier in the day I had posted on facebook that we were able to get out. If anyone needed anything we could get it too them. Wisconsin is a neighborly place. We help each other out. We are also a hearty place, no one took us up on it.
On Sunday morning, I left for work earlier than usual to deal with the ongoing storm. We live on a dead end road. There is only one way in and out. We also live at the bottom of a hill. Our house faces WSW and is built into a hill that blocks the north winds. Thick trees shelter us from the east. A storm could be raging a half mile from our house and we can be relatively oblivious as to its severity. This was the case on Sunday morning. I surveyed the driveway and the road directly in front of the house – not too bad. My pickup truck had no problem climbing the hill. Then there was a solid six foot drift across the road. There was no way to get through it. I went home and for the first time in 25 years, called in to the company and told them that I was snowed in. They added me to the list.
It still bothers me to miss work. It took a few hours to adjust to the fact that my load would not get delivered on time. I kept thinking that the county plow might make it to our “low priority” road. Funny, we aren’t low priority when they collect our taxes. The plow made it through sometime around noon on Monday.
We have a six month old puppy. She could not have been more pleased. Gracie is a mix somewhere between German Shepherd and Saint Bernard. Not only were both “mom and dad” home, but she could play in the snow. She loves the snow. She loves kids even more than snow. Gracie and I were out in the drive working when a couple of neighbor kids walked by and called out her name. She immediately went to them. They have more energy than I do.
The kids, Gracie and I decided to walk up the hill and check out this massive drift that had all of us snowed in. The kids and Gracie thought that this was the coolest thing. I was still not happy about missing work. Then I watched as the kids and Gracie played in the snow. They had a blast. Truth is that I had fun just watching them. Getting snowed in for a couple of days isn’t that bad. The kids and the puppy showed me that.