Snowness and sickness

OK, here's a normal post, my usual week's roundup. It's been a funny week, with very little accomplished, but some weeks are like that.

Last weekend, I think Saturday night, Kid B complained of a sore throat, and by Sunday he was full-on sick with a coronavirus. Not THE coronavirus, just a regular one. (Now that I know that word, it's so much more fun to say than just boring old "cold.") I kept him home both Monday and Tuesday, but made him go back to school on Wednesday, possibly too early. I sent Kid A to school on Monday, thinking he was fine, but kept him home on Tuesday because it was really cold and snowy, and he turned out to be very sick too. He also stayed home on Wednesday and Thursday, back to school on Friday.

So, if you're keeping track, that means I had one kid home Monday, two kids home Tuesday, one kid home Wednesday, and one kid home Thursday. As I said, not much got done. I don't let them play on devices or watch TV during the hours they would have been in school, so I was kept busy making citrus tea with honey and playing board games and whatnot. I did go out for coffee with a friend on Thursday, leaving Kid A alone, which boosted my spirits.

In addition to sick kids, we had a ton of snow. Thirteen inches from Monday to Tuesday, and all the school district did was start classes two hours late on Tuesday (and cancel after-school stuff). It was this very light fluffy snow, which compressed pretty quickly, so it didn't really look like 13 inches, it looked more like -- 8? You tell me, what does this look like? I've gotten pretty good at estimating snowfall (I compare my guesses with whoever reports snow depth across the street from us at NOAA and it's usually very close). But it's hard to guess at compacted snow. You can't use my car to help guess, because a lot of the snow just fell off the car, too fluffy. Anyway, this is the lawn that I was complaining about being too dry last week. The January drought is definitely over.

It was very cold Wednesday and Thursday and then snowed again on Friday, about 5 more inches, and now today, Sunday, we're getting another dump -- they're saying 2-4 inches for today, and I don't know how much last night. I think we already have at least 4, maybe more. I haven't been out in it yet, except to grab the newspaper, although I'm planning on a walk after I finish this post. So it's close to 2 feet for the week, maybe a little less. It's busily compacting, but still, a significant amount of snow. This photo is from the walk to the park I took on Tuesday -- a very slow walk, because at this point most people had shoveled, so I had to be careful of ice. In a lot of ways it's easier to walk in just plain old snow.

However, Boulder has rules about shoveling sidewalks. I shoveled on Friday morning before I even got the twins up, but then I didn't shovel again on Saturday until late afternoon, and by then the remaining snow on the walks had turned to soft ice, so I really had to work to get it off the pavement. I was using our icebreaker to cut lines in the ice and then the regular shovel to scoop the ice, and I was making very little progress. Then someone came across the street -- I looked up, and a familiar looking man holding two snow shovels said to me, "Hey neighbor, you look like you could use some help. Try this shovel -- it should work better than the one you're using." I was skeptical, but he was right, it got the ice up more easily. "I'm going to work on my sidewalk too," he said, lifting the other shovel. "Just drop that one back near our front door when you're done." I still had to use the icebreaker, but the job became do-able. After another 45 minutes or so, another man rode by on a bike, stopped, and actually offered to help shovel. I said "Oh, no, it's fine," and he said, "Are you sure? I just live right on the corner." (I could not remember ever having seen him before, but I'm not great with faces.) I thanked him but said no -- I was close to done -- and he rode off to his house. I was very cheered by these two examples of neighborliness -- especially since my own lazy children refused to help!

Of course, today the snow is back in force. However, I looked out a little while ago, and someone had done our sidewalk for us -- I don't know who. It could have been Aspen next door, it could have been one of those men, it could have been the guy down the street who has a snowblower (who I also wouldn't recognize if I saw him). Someone nice, anyway. And because I got all that ice up last night, the walks are really clear, not lumpy with old ice. However, it is still snowing! So at some point I'll have to shovel. It's fine. I like February snow. It seems entirely appropriate for it to snow around Valentine's Day.

The kitties are funny in the snow. Pie Bear does not like it at all -- he likes sunshine and dryness. Yesterday it was warmer and he went out for a little while, but today after breakfast he curled up on my bed and showed zero interest when I opened the back door to look out. Chester, on the other hand, perhaps because he isn't allowed outside on his own, thinks snow is interesting. Yesterday he even started walking in it, but I shooed him back inside -- we'd lose him in an instant in the whiteness. The kids and I joke about all of Chester's friends and relations being out in the yard when we have a heavy snowfall. This photo is from this morning -- he's just looking and looking at the wondrous snow.

This week, I'll have to get things done because Rocket Boy arrives Friday night for the long weekend. I've already made a cleaning schedule -- have to have the house clean and tidy enough that he won't say, "We need a house cleaner," the moment he walks through the door. That's not a good start to a visit. But the twins seem pretty healthy now, and I, somehow, haven't caught what they had. Unless it has a REALLY long incubation period, I'd say I'm in the clear. Lots of sleep and healthy meals probably helped. Early in the week I made a cauliflower-cheddar soup, which everyone ate for a few days, and on Friday a Moroccan sweet potato stew, which the kids didn't like but I did (I'll be eating the leftovers for a while).

Now I'm going to go for a little walk and then maybe spend some time working on a puzzle that Kid B and I started last Monday and have made no progress on since. Sitting in the cozy living room, sipping tea, looking out at the snow falling -- it's really hard to beat that.