snow in NC!

I have other posts to get to.  I just don't have the time to finish them.   But, it snowed here last night so I figure I better put up some photos.  This storm - Leon is what The Weather Channel has named it - started yesterday.  We had no school due to the icy predictions.  That was definitely the right call.  We also knew at that point there would be no school today.  This afternoon, we got the call that there is no school tomorrow either.  See, we got a lot of ice and the temp never rose above freezing today.  Tonight, it is going down to the teens, so that ice is all going to be in place tomorrow morning as well.

So, Tuesday was supposed to get bad in the late morning.  So, we got a couple errands in before it started.  Carl got new lenses for his glasses.  Wow - his prescription changed a lot!  Then, we headed downtown to the warehouse where I pick up Girl Scout cookies.  I had an order of 56 cases waiting to be picked up.  I was 5th in line, but we ended up standing outside for about 10 minutes before they opened the warehouse.  It was 30*.  These other women had no hats or gloves.  Once they started filling orders, the 4 ladies in front of me and myself helped each other load our orders.  By then, it was filling up quickly and actually, some women were starting to fight over who was there first and who parked their cars in the wrong spot and too bad for you and I was here longer....  The original 5 of us thanked each other and headed out.  At that point, it started to rain.  So, the icy roads were coming pretty much on time.  Actually, Lew had gone to work on time, but at his end of town, things were rainy and icy much earlier.  He left at 12:30 and even took the whole day off today!  I ran out to the post office about 3:30 and the roads were wet, but not icy.

We expected to wake this morning to a few inches of snow.  The Weather Channel's graph showed 8-12" for us.  That was too much to hope for.  Our local report was for maybe 3-4".  But, we didn't even get that much.  We did however, get a little snow covered in a sheet of ice.  The road was an ice rink.

"There is snow on the road AND our driveway!"   - Carl

There were actually ice skating tracks on our street!  A neighbor said he saw 2 people skate up the street.  When we saw him - he was riding a bike and pulling his son behind him on a boogie board.  Surfers get creative in the snow!

We headed over to the pond to feed the Canada geese some cookies.  I know they thought they went far enough south to avoid this!  Or, at least there is one in the flock saying, "Dude!  I told you so!"

"Today is awesome!  This is the awesomest day of my life!"   - Carl

"This is going to be the best snow day ever!"  - Gretchen

"I can't believe it is snowing at our house today!"  - Carl

Back at home, we had a lot of fun peeling the ice leaves off the tops of the real leaves.  Some were close to 1/4" thick!

 Who can resist ice leaves?  Yum!

 Not even grown-ups!!

While Lew cleaned off the cars, we played out front for a while.

The street actually melted up just enough to not be able to slide the boxes on the ice.  Bummer.  They didn't care.

 On these 2, I smudged out our name, but it is carved into the ice and snow above the year.

 brrrr....

 and that is our snow fall of January 2014!

snowmen for Grampie

Saturday Evening Post

When I first edited the pictures from our Christmas at Mom's, I knew I had a shot that I wanted to call Couch Chaos.  It was my idea of a Norman Rockwell moment for our family.  But, it wasn't until I scrolled through the other pictures a little more closely that I realized, I had a much better (and less tongue in cheek) Rockwell equivalent.

First, I will share with you Freedom From Want, Norman Rockwell's 1943 oil painting.  It was third in his series of Four Freedoms, inspired by FDR's State of the Union address.

The description on that wikipedia page describes the items on the table.  The cranberry sauce is mentioned.  That silver dish is supposed to be one to hold potatoes.  The table cloth has creases in it, making it apparent that it is not an every day cloth.  This is a special occasion. The bright light outside shows this is a mid day meal.

Here is our 2013 version

We have 2 kinds of cranberry sauce, both homemade - not jelly, I may add.  We have a big silver container filled with potatoes.  We have mostly white dishes like they do, but clearly, our table cloth is well loved.  Look closely - those place mats are almost as old as I am.  They are Currier and Ives prints.  How is this for crazy?  You can buy these 1970s place mats on ebay now.

Our dishes and settings do not show the crisp whiteness of Rockwell's version.  The photo doesn't really convey a special occasion meal if you didn't know it.  But, it does show Corelle dishes that have withstood many meals.  The variety of silverware is everyday used and loved as well.  Perhaps, our settings show more of a feeling of "freedom from want" as they clearly have been used over the years to fill our bellies with simple goodness.  Meat and potatoes.  Look at that butter dish with the blue circle flowers.  Corelle Cornflower. You can find those on ebay, too.  They use the term "vintage".  The little kids are using jelly jars for cups with Tom & Jerry on them.  Yeah, ebay has those, too.  1990s - whoa, they might be the newest things on this table.

The lack of bright light shining in and the one little bulb showing through the window shows we ate in the evening.  Mom had a nightlight bulb sized candle in every front window on her house.  That is what you are seeing.  My photo has 1 person looking directly at the camera.  Rockwell has one person making eye contact as well.  In both, some people are looking at the food.  In ours, Joe and Annie are checking email or other social media things and Gretchen is watching them as in Rockwell's version, some of the people are looking to the other people.  Kenny is reading the card that Gretchen made for him.

I should probably try to crop mine tighter like his, but then you would lose the exterior room.  You'd lose the china closet, the silhouettes of Kenny and me - just things that capture a glimpse of the room as we know it.  Not all gussied up with the excess things removed so the photo wouldn't look cluttered.  I do that a lot.   Stash & Stuff.  Sometimes, I want to capture a memory, not what I want people to see.  Although, it was unintentional in this case.  Other times, it is perfectly acceptable to simplify the photo.  Remove the clutter and let the focus fall on the subject.

Sadly, Rockwell's family does not have mint pineapple jell-o.  or a fancy pitcher to keep their gravy warm throughout the entire meal.  Yup, sad.


Here's the other shot... Couch Chaos.  Looks like everyone has gotten gifts they love!  Gretchen's is a princess umbrella!  She has wanted an umbrella forever!!!   Joe's prized jar of Nutella is by the side of the couch there.  Katy is wearing new yellow jeans and has something in her hand she is happy to have.  Claire has just opened Ear Bags.  Mom loves those things!  You can probably find them on ebay, but I would draw the line on buying something used by another person on they ears.  I just checked Amazon for them.  (if you add "new" to your ebay search, you can find some without other people's DNA on them already.)  

One more 2013 Christmas day shot.  5 people on cell phones or electronic devices (Lew is on a tablet in a case - don't let the book-like appearance fool you).......  and, just moments before, Carl had just been sitting there playing on an ipod.

I have a couple more photos from Christmas Day, but I will put those in another post.  This one is just my little "Saturday Evening Post."