Appelt Adventures: Tall Tales & Short Tempers: Frosty's Delight

If you know the punch line to the joke "Why was Frosty the Snowman smiling?", then the title of this blog post will make perfect sense by the time you're done reading it. If not, well...cute title, huh? Anyway, most of you might have heard about the recent weather disturbance that passed through this area (among many other places). In fact, both our schools and Nathaniel's daycare were closed today in anticipation of the storm. Well, as advertised, it dumped a LOT of snow on us in a very short time. In fact, it was a "thunder snow" storm. Last night we watched the lightning and were rocked by the thunder.

Fast forward to this morning. We awoke to the aforementioned "LOT" of snow, but with no breeze and no more falling snow. It seemed to be with a trace of disappointment that Kristina said, "I thought it was supposed to be snowing until the afternoon." Within 30 minutes the wind was whipping around, and we got several more inches of snow within an hour or so. So, everyone can blame Kristina for "calling out" the snow gods!

Now, rewind about 2 weeks when my parents called us up and said that they really felt we should have a snow blower (justifiably) and wanted to purchase or contribute money toward one (Thank you!!). Being the dutiful son, I scoped out the best deals and bought one later that week. Over the last 2 weeks we've had very minor snows...certainly nothing to put it to the test. In fact, I felt assured that we had spared the rest of the region from significant snow by purchasing a snow blower. Well, SURPRISE, Chicago!!!

So, here are some photos of the storm's aftermath and the work of Frosty's new friend. ;-)

This is the view out our kitchen window. The bump in the lower left is the only sign of our bird bath, which is probably over 30 inches tall.

The snow was up to the windows of our sunporch

Getting ready to use the snow blower. Note that the snow is deeper than the machine is tall.

The results! (please note that Kristina was out using a shovel and broom while I used the snow blower.)

Here's some of Kristina's handiwork.

This provides an excellent perspective of how deep the snow got.

Who let the drunk guy run the snow blower?! (Actually, it was hard to tell where the sidewalk was because I had no frame of reference. It was solid snow)