Pow! Well, we didn’t get 2 feet of snow…exactly, but winter certainly arrived with a bang overnight. The snow we have gotten is the tiny and dry powdery crystal kind that swirls about and glitters in the streetlights without doing much about getting down to business and sticking. However, since the wind is blowing at blizzard strength, the snow we do have is piled in drifts here and there; up to 2 feet in places. In other places, not so much, just a dusty white coating.
Since the winds and the freezing temperatures had been polishing the surfaces of all the roads to a high icy gloss overnight, most people in the area stayed home from work today. Many of those who didn’t ended up in the ditches, on the side of the road, stuck in the cold for hours, or in the case of one unfortunate SUV that a colleague reported on to me, completely upside down on the highway. Anders and I didn’t even attempt to leave the house in the morning, though we both got up and got ready for work. I spent the day working from home on my laptop, but Anders hadn’t brought his home last night so he shoveled snow from the driveway and walked to the village store and the bakery to pick up some essentials and rolls for lunch.
We tossed the kids outside before lunchtime and they promptly rumpled and dredged up every bit of the sparkling pristine snow. There are snow angels all over the deck and the back yard. Martin made the injudicious decision at some point to jump into the snow-filled ditch which was well over his head, sending Karin careening with sharp shrieks for daddy to come and rescue him. Because of the icy road conditions, we had made the decision yesterday not to drive them the half hour to Anders’ parent’s house and I missed choir, besides. They were understandably disappointed and peppered the morning with questions about whether or not they would be able to go later. “We’ll see,” we said, “we’ll see.”
By mid-afternoon, the wind had dropped enough and the sky had lightened a bit, so Anders decided it was worth the risk and he drove to Oxie with the kids to drop them off. It’s Spring Break for the schools right now (it’s called Sportlov in Swedish, which literally translates as Sport Break, and is the week when many Swedish families take the opportunity to go skiing) so they have no school this week and we didn’t want them to have to go to daycare every day if we could avoid it. They will still get their 2 overnights at farmor and farfar’s since now they’ll be staying through to Saturday, and in fact, will be gone for 3 nights in a row as they are staying overnight Saturday with our friends Martin & Emily. It sure is quiet around here with no one singing show tunes in the playroom or carrying on a conversation between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker with Lego figures, or plucking out Frère Jacques on the piano keyboard.
Anders went in to work after dropping off the kids and then to the gym. While he was gone, I worked steadily until 5 p.m. and then, because my hands and feet were so cold, I went and climbed into bed to warm up, only to conk out for nearly an hour and a half. Now, refreshed, I’m zipping through stuff, and have already uploaded the AWC website for checking and translated 3 pages of the Swedish article. And it’s only 9:15! Rock on, Project Girl!
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