Blizzard, day 1: update 2
Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 - 19:42

Still blizzarding. I'm not sure if it's an official blizzard yet or not - we're on a blizzard watch through tomorrow, and it's definitely blustery, but I don't know if it's 30 mph winds or what. But whatever. It's still blizzarding and is going to continue through the night. The temperature is dropping and should get to zero or below.

I have never seen this much snow in this town - we've got two feet and in some places four feet drifts or higher. Our piles of shoveled snow are six feet or taller. I went for a walk around the house to check things out. Drifts are beautiful. The roads are not beautiful.

There was a fucking avalanche in town. I'm weirded out by it. Shit like that happens in the backcountry, in other places. In town? We run by there all the time - I used to live a couple blocks away from where it happened. They found everyone who was buried, and hopefully they're okay. So weird, so crazy.

I like this blizzard but I hope everything goes okay. You're supposed to stay in your house but what if your house isn't safe? Also, of course, what if you don't have a house? I know there are people staying in tents up the river trail. The weather service did a good job warning us about this blizzard but how do those people out on the trail find out about incoming weather?

I made cookie dough and it's pretty farmy. I used this fresh local butter that smells really farmy. I don't like it. I know it's better butter than the butter I get at the store, but... it's so farmy smelling. Kind of gross. Also, in my first attempt at the dough, I used eggs from a friend's chickens, and - take a deep breath before you read this - one of the eggs had blood in it. Chicken period. I was quite displeased. I flushed it all down the toilet and started over. I am not having good experiences with fresh local farm products today. I may start eating margarine and dehydrated eggs for a while, just to help me get over today.

My back is a little sore from shoveling but I am so strong and have these huge muscles now so it's not much of a chore for me. I'll go shovel again tonight at least once, and the yahoos downstairs can shovel as well. I'm glad there's three of us to share the shoveling, and I'm glad we don't have much sidewalk area to shovel. Because what we do have is enough.

Puppy update: The puppy still loves snow, loves eating snow, loves jumping in snow, loves everything about snow and snow shoveling. After the unpleasantness of the other day, when the puppy so jubilantly greeted me while his angry roommate was yelling at him to come, and he ignored his roommate to say hi to me, and his roommate nearly blew a gasket, and who could blame the little pup? Today, the puppy and his roommate came driving up in the Jeep while I was shoveling the driveway, and the puppy saw me before they were even parked and got excited, and then he bounded out of the Jeep to say hi to me. I tried to get him to calm down by telling him to sit, but instead of sitting, he would anti-sit, which is the same thing as standing on his back legs, which is exactly what he's not supposed to do. But he was able to calm down enough to sit, and his roommate was in a better mood, and things were fine. The puppy's roommate is strict and wants his dog to behave, and I suppose I encourage misbehavior because I like the dog so much and I like that he likes me so much, but I should respect his roommate's training and not let the puppy take advantage of our love for each other. He really shouldn't be jumping up on me. I can have him sit when we first see each other, and then after he sits I'll pet him and stuff.

I'm sure I'll have more blizzard updates, but hopefully this is the last for today.