It’s been a while since Pennsyltucky has had a massive snowfall event. Like, about ten years.
Well, Mother Nature is socking it to us today!
The long-range forecast has called for a major snow event this weekend for about a week now, and the snow totals have ranged from about 12 inches to about 30 inches. Yesterday, the numbers came down a bit, into the 12-14 inch range, and I’m not really sure how much I’ll have when all is said and done.
This is how it looked yesterday afternoon. It was bitterly cold, in the teens, and the snow on the ground was the last remnants of what fell last weekend.
Eagle-eyed observers will notice a bird’s nest on the ground right. It was in the parking lot yesterday morning, and I picked it up so it wouldn’t get run over by a car or something. Foolishly, I tossed it into the yard, where it slowly disappeared beneath the snow…
It had not disappeared yet when I rolled out of bed about 7:30.
The bird’s nest was still visible. And the parking lot had been plowed, though it was difficult to tell.
By 9:30, the bird’s nest was gone.
Around 10:30, some kids went out with sleds. They were never heard from again.
For reasons unknown, about quarter past 11 I decided to shovel the sidewalk. It was bitterly cold — about 11 degrees — and the snow was very dry and easy to move, but it was also thick and heavy.
An hour and a half later, I must ask. Why did I ever bother?
This storm is supposed to wrap up about midnight, I think. The snow is going to linger on the ground, though; it’s not supposed to get out of the teens and twenties this week.
Sometime in November, I stopped at Five Below and bought a LEGO-like Care Bears building set. Specifically, of Cheer Bear, which was the Care Bear stuffed toy I had as a child. (I also had a Tenderheart Lion.) It’s pink and it has a rainbow, and I don’t care. I’m a straight male, and if I want a LEGO-like Care Bear that’s pink and has a rainbow, I will, dammit!
After shoveling the walk, I made some tea and sat down to build this. I had some difficulty reading the instructions, even with glasses on, and I often resorted to using my phone to magnify the pages. The construction was a bit on the intricate side, and it’s a very solid model, but also a bit fragile; the legs break off easily, and I broke the ears off affixing the stickers, which is why they look weird.
It has an internal light feature, which you can sort of see in the picture above, though it’s not especially impressive as it only functions on one side.
Still, it was a cute, inexpensive thing, perfect for building on a snow (Sun)day.
I’m going to make another cup of tea, put on some classical music, and get back to reading Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, which I started and then got sidetracked.