The Blizzard of ‘07
House on Red Corner · 2007-02-17
*[photo — not archived by Wayback]*We thought that there was going to be no snow all year long, and then during the week that we went on a family vacation to Maryland, a huge storm swept across the nation. Well, not really that huge, I have seen worse, much worse but enough of the old man stuff. What made this storm really neat, at least for me, was the amount of ice and freezing rain which was included with the snow. The result was a layer of ice on the ground, with snow on top of that, and covered by a crust of ice; sort of like a candybar with the creamy nugget center. Once all the energy had passed by and we were left with the results it became quite easy and fun to get around by walking on top of this confectionery delight.
*[photo — not archived by Wayback]*Our visit to the nation’s capital was made easy to tromp about because we did not have to slip and slide in the slushy footprints of others, but were able to easily walk across the surface of the National Mall. There were even moments of skating and sliding just to have some child like glee in our day. Yesterday, we went sledding on the hills of the farm in Darlington. EJ went down first in a cardboard box, with me running after her. She was quite happy until the very end when she got a greater distance away from me. Sixty seconds after she stopped, I was able to trot up and scoop her into my arms and everything was just fine then. The majority of the ride down she was quite happy, it was just the last thirty meters that she got a little upset.
*[photo — not archived by Wayback]*After that, Oma broke out the real sliders and EJ didn’t ride down anymore because we were dealing with real speed at this point. A Plastic toboggan on a sheet of ice over rolling hills can gather quite a bit of speed, so that we had to bail out at the end in order to stop. It was major fast and way cool and I can see the excitement of the rush that luge sliders must feel as they go down a run. EJ really warmed up to the conditions at the top of the hill and even tried to head down the hill to catch up with Steph, as her Mommy hiked up the hill.
We did not play outside for a long time, but it was quite fun - the hardest part was coming back up the hill at the end. Now, I can hear water dropping off the eaves as everything melts away. Perfect time to take a vacation, if you ask me.