It’s snowmageddon in the Sierras this week.
On Sunday, I did some yard work and cleaned our lot. Lots of pine needles on the ground, so I figured I’d get a head start on spring cleaning. We're that serious about fire prevention here. My fingering-weight sweater was a little warm then but I kept it on. It is February, after all.
Two days later, the temperatures dropped and it’s snowmageddon. Over four feet of snow have fallen in the past few days. Schools are shut. Streets haven’t been plowed. The highway is closed. Even the ski resorts have too much snow (!).
At home, we’re keeping up with keeping our driveway plowed, even though there’s nowhere for us to go because there’s two feet of snow in the street. When the county plowers go through, they'll deliver a berm that's over 6 feet high, just to keep us on our toes.
The power ran out Sunday night. All night. Came back at some point, don’t remember when. Then blacked out again on Monday. We haven’t had power since. PG and E say they hope it’ll be back tonight. We shall see. I wouldn’t put my full trust in them, even though I’m sure the crews working outside are doing their best.
Luckily, we have a generator, so we’re all good and safely tucked in our Sierra home. It feels like time has stopped, if only for a little while, and that brings peace, and some eerie magic to this place.
Of course, the magic stops when you realize you work from home and are still expected to do your job. Working the grind and stuff. But at least I can experience the joy of taking things slow at night.
The dog is in husky heaven. She spent all day yesterday gallivanting around, and no amount of treat bribing was enough to keep her cooped up inside. Some well-intentioned but ill-informed people would call it animal abuse, I guess, but to her it’s true happiness. She is living her best life right now. We keep the entrance to her doghouse clear of snow, but she hasn’t used the thing in years. She’d rather sleep outside on the porch, and begs us to get out as soon as 9 PM rolls around. Some dogs are indoor dogs, while others beg to sleep in the snow. That’s nature for you.
Speaking of nature, my kids are true to themselves. As soon as the generator starts roaring, they’re all in on TV hogging. You’d think it’ll be the next Olympic sport. What happened to the joy of playing in the snow on snow days? I guess they think it’s better when you watch it on TV rather than experiencing it IRL.
I sound like a grumpy old lady when I tell them: “Kids have it too easy nowadays. When I was young, we’d walk to school in the blizzard in sub-zero temperatures, stopping midway at the pharmacy to warm up or else we’d freeze to death.” It sounds like bullshit, but let me tell you, it’s all true, and I’m not that old.
What’s also true is that my parents didn’t put a stop to our TV watching when we were home — nobody knew about the downsides of too much screen time then— so we’d spend never-ending hours watching the damn thing. The apples don’t fall too far from the tree, I guess.
When I can, I work on my knitting. I’ve dug out some yarn I bought on a trip to Canada a couple years ago, and casted on a simple sweater. It used to be a shawl in progress, but I got tired of it and honestly, I have about 10 shawls I never wear in my closet so why add another to the pile? So I frogged it and started fresh.
I have four skeins of it in various shades of light gray speckled with purple/burgundy, and one full burgundy skein that I keep for the bottom of the garment so it looks like the gradual color change was intentional. Honestly, I had no idea what I was gonna do with the yarn when I bought it firsthand, or I would’ve bought more of the same color, but I like to pretend that I’ve got my sh*t together so don't mention it. Here is the project in all its glory, unblocked and all because I like to keep it real in this space.
We shovel the driveway every couple of hours to keep up with the snow, so I don’t need to hit the gym. My upper back and arms are sore, but it’s a good feeling. I’m glad I hit the gym regularly so I can keep up with the snowplowing demands of this storm without injury. Stay in shape, people. You never know when you’re gonna need it.
My cat has stayed warm during this whole ordeal. She’s sleeping on my handmade quilt right now, without a bother. Sometimes I wonder who’s the master and who’s the pet. I don’t want an answer to that; it would probably bruise my ego.
I sleep like a baby while we’re power-less. It’s crazy how magical it feels when it's pitch black out and there are no sounds to wake you up. The dishwasher isn’t running, the fridge isn’t cooling, there are no lights illuminating the hallway. It's like the world has stopped for once, and in this era of social media and 24/7 news, this is nothing short of a miracle.
When I’m not dreaming, I think about my life, and my knitting. The yarn I ordered with the hope it would match my Marius sweater has made it to my post office, but with the storm here I won’t be able to put my paws on it for a little while. It would be inconsiderate, and potentially dangerous, to ask Paula to make the drive to the post office so she can open the store so I can get my yarn right now. I guess it can wait. It’ll just feel sweeter to open the package once we make it to the other side of this storm.
Stay safe, folks. If you place an order, know that it won’t ship straightaway through no fault of mine. Mother Nature has a mind of her own, and we ought to respect that.
In the meantime, slow down and grab your knitting.
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