Saturday, January 30, 2010

Snowed In

Currently Reading: The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Well, if you've been following the news or if you live anywhere along its path, you know about the snow/ice storm that's been moving across the country this weekend. It hit us Thursday night into Friday morning and then all of Friday. When I woke up this morning the snow had stopped and as far as I know we're not expecting any more though we will stay below freezing until Monday.

Have a look at this. This is how things progressed starting Friday morning at around 9:30 until late afternoon when was getting too dark to take clear photos. The last shot is from this morning. Yes, I know they're a little blurry. Low light pictures aren't as clear plus I'm shooting out of the bedroom window.



When I went out and walked the dogs last night, it was a very fluffy, loose snow that blew around in the wind fairly easily. This morning though, I'm not sure how to accurately describe it. It isn't really packed in but it does have a hard layer of ice on top of it. You step and if you're heavy enough, you sink.

The dogs weren't quite sure what to make of this. They've seen snow before but not THIS kind of snow. The snow THEY know is the kind where you step in and sink. They've never dealt with a snow that could actually SUPPORT them. Katya, the aussi, didn't have any problems adjusting to this. She pretty much did her business just fine and tried to avoid slipping. Jack on the other hand was NOT amused and quite confused. He ran out into the snow, expecting to sink and nothing happens. So now he's not sure if he's allowed to pee on this stuff or what. To him it must have been like a giant tile floor or something. Eventually I got him over to a grassy spot under a tree where he could tell that yes, it's ok to pee there.

As for the roads, well not covered in enough ice to SKATE on them but you'd sure have a hard time getting anywhere in anything lighter than an SUV. Crusty snow and most people stayed home last night so there were very few tracks in all that mess. In fact, the city and state authorities were telling everyone to just stay home.

I wonder. There was supposed to be a Twilight convention here this weekend. Did the sparkley boys and girls make it out to Opryland for that or was it called off? I never checked the closings list today though I do know everything was closed yesterday. Probably no convention today and since we're not getting above 30 until Monday, probably nothing tomorrow either. I guess it'll depend on whether or not the sun comes out and melts off the street snow.

We took advantage of the fact that we can't go anywhere and unpacked all but one of the boxes left laying around. I mentioned before that we had two areas of clutter. Well, now there's just ONE area of clutter. The bedroom is now all cleaned up (except for my desk which will take more time). That just leaves part of the dining area. I tried to take some pictures yesterday but due to the odd light from the snowfall, nothing came out all that well. We'll wait until we've got better, natural light and take more pictures. When we get something good, CC or I will post them.


Thursday, January 28, 2010

When was the last time I blogged?

Currently Reading: The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick

When WAS the last time I blogged? Mid-December? Wow, that's a VERY long time between posts. That's less than once a month. I guess the main problem is Facebook. Yeah, let's blame Facebook for this one. Why not? Though to be honest, I haven't really posted all that much on Facebook either.

I left off right before the big move to Nashville. I remember posting about the HUGE Great Dane that came in for a bath. I'm pretty sure I posted a picture or two of our new apartment complex from when CC and I visited it. This was all before Christmas of course.

No Christmas decorations or lights to photograph this year. Left them all in the bat cave, packed up and ready for the bit trip. Didn't make any sense to drag it all out for 2 days. That's right, we moved here right after Christmas. Spent New Years Eve sleeping here in our apartment in Nashville.

And what have I done SINCE then?

Let's see, first two weeks were spent unpacking. You'll no doubt recall seeing Facebook messages of mine bitching about the unpacking and how many boxes we had. Those are pretty much finished now. I did a little box juggling this morning and we now have the patio cleared off and ready for use if we ever thaw out. There are still a few rough spots though. We've got a clutter accumulation in the dining area and another in the bedroom. Once we untangle those we'll be all set and we'll take pictures.

I also got another job. This one came up VERY fast. I did my usual mass mailing and, I'm not kidding about this, 24 hours after I dropped them into the mailbox, I had a job. Apparently the post office here in Franklin processed the mail the day I sent it and since it was all local, a decent number of those letters were delivered the next day. A call was made. An interview was set up. And the next thing I know I'm the groomer at Noah's Ark Animal Hospital and Suites.

Now, this new clinic I'm working at, they haven't had grooming for a few years so things are starting off slow. Plus, you have to factor in that this is the slowest period in these parts for dog grooming. Most people who have dogs needing grooming had them done right before Christmas. And since it's now rather cold, they aren't looking to have their little angels shaved short. What I DO get a lot of are owners wanting a medium or long cut or they need matting removed. Doggie plus wet grass plus sweater equals nasty tummy matting.

And so there you go. CC and I have spent a relatively uneventful month unpacking things, putting things away and working. We really do like it up here. Less stressful for certain. We're about a mile or two from a very large mall so we have access to all of the major chain stores and restaurants. In fact, within a 10 minute drive from our apartment I have FOUR large bookstores. Seriously. There are two Borders stores, A Barnes & Noble, and another store that sells half-priced books.

It's funny, CC's birthday is coming up and I'm now facing a similar problem from our Memphis days: Where to take CC for her birthday to eat. The problem in Memphis was that we only had a handful of places to pick from. Now it's the opposite. We've got SO many places to pick from, and we're talking just in the neighborhood, that I'm not sure where we'll go yet.

It's certainly much colder up here and less humid. There's a large winter storm heading for us tonight/tomorrow which may shut things down all day. Supposed to snow too. Could get as much as 6 inches in fact. That would make it our SECOND snow of the year so far and we haven't been here a month yet.

All in all, we're happy here in Nashville :-)