Outside My Window ~ 1.31.10

Outside My Window…is sunshine, beautiful blue skies…..and oh yea ~ lots of snow!!  I took a ruler out this morning in the front, 6 inches.  But I have to agree with neighbor, I think there was more yesterday before the sleet came in the early evening.  It did sleet for a little while, then we got maybe another inch on top of that.  If you walk out on the roadway, you can hear the ice crunching underneath your feet.  Authorities are still recommending everyone to stay off the roadways unless you need to travel.  I have no need to travel that badly!   Many places were closed yesterday, including the mall where Alanna works.  It is not that the city can’t handle things when we get snow, the problem is we rarely get snow storms like this so the city doesn’t keep a huge fleet of snow removal vehicles.  The main streets will all eventually get plowed, but travel is still hazardous because they do not plow the residential or side streets.  Right now at 10:50 a.m., we are at 22ºF with a wind chill temp of 12ºF.  It actually isn’t that awful outside because the humidity is fairly low….something quite unusual for our area.  Our high today is only forecast to reach 31ºF with a low tonight of  15ºF so I don’t anticipate too much snow melt occurring.  Cailin is out of school tomorrow for a teacher work day….I may be staying home with her as well, or at the very least going in late and leaving early.  There is no way I want to be in rush hour traffic on frozen roads.  Been there, done that and I don’t want that kind of stress to start out my week!!  

I am thinking…about how badly I want to go wake the girls up so we can get some photos in the snow.  If I burst into their room and announced they needed to get out of their warm beds to go out in the freezing cold to take photos….I’m betting I would not have happy smiles in those photos.  🙂  And yes, if I sound a bit excited (and maybe kind of weird) over all the snow, you must remember we rarely get snow like this. 

I am thankful for…my fireplace.  It was very nice to have a warm fire going yesterday during the storm.   It kept us all nice and toasty warm plus provided a wonderful glow in the living room as we lounged about.

From the kitchen…is a cup of hot Cinnamon Hazelnut coffee at the moment.  I’m also slow cooking a spicy pork roast so we can enjoy some pulled pork sandwiches this evening.  Yesterday I made peanut butter cookies.  The girls wanted some cookies….little did I know the recipe I was using was going to make about 75 of these little suckers!  So….if you are in the neighborhood ~ drop in for cookies, we have plenty!  🙂

I am creating…a better filing system on my external hard drive for my images and textures.  I have gotten some incredible textures from Shadowhouse Creations but they are everywhere….external hard drive and several flash drives I have.  I need to put them all together in one file so I don’t spend so much time looking for them when I’m processing my photos.  I’m also working on tagging my photos so they will be easier to find when I open PSE7 looking for a specific image.

I am going…to get some more photos of the snow in a little while ~ wake up kiddies, mommy wants to play with her camera!!  🙂

I am reading…basically the blogs I follow, my PSE7 book and that is about it.  I’m beginning to wonder when (or if) I will get back into reading mode because right now, the desire is not there.

I am hoping…the roads will be cleared by tomorrow morning, but I’m not too optimistic about that.  I just saw a video on The Weather Channel showing an aerial view of many of our interstates and they were snow packed, icy and scary looking!  I talked with a woman that was delivering papers this morning at around 9:30 while I was out taking photos and she said the roads were horrible.  I did bring some work home with me on Friday just in case the storm was as they were predicting, so I may be working at home again tomorrow ~ unless they close the campus then I will have a free day to play.  🙂

I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks…..the Weather Channel….my wind chimes singing to me.

Around the house…a snow shovel that is soon going to get a workout…..snow boots…..warm coats……and lots of clutter from a day spent in the house watching movies.  Yes, even though we generally don’t get a lot of snow, I did purchase a snow shovel years back after we got a snow storm similar to this that dumped 12 inches on us.  I had to shovel that with a regular shovel…I thought I would die that day!  The next winter, I bought a snow shovel….and if I remember, we didn’t get any snow that year.  But I was ready….and have been ever since!  🙂

Plans for the week include…organizing my files and folders on the external hard drive…..taking a lot more photos of the snow….scanning some old photos to archive them on disks. 

One of my favorite things…is a snow day.  I love to look outside after a snow storm and see the winter wonderland left behind when the storm exits the area.  I suppose it is because I know the snow will not hang around very long.  If I had to deal with it on a regular basis it may not thrill me so but because I don’t, I’m like a little kid when I wake up to a sunshiny day and there is snow everywhere. 

A picture I’d like to share with you…I have a few to share with you right now ~ I will post more later.  First, a scene from my backyard.  If you notice the clay bowl on the black table…..I emptied that twice yesterday!  You can see it in my Outside My Window photo as well….in the bottom left.

I opened the sliding glass door out back and took this next image at about ground level from inside the house.  This isthe chair I sit in during the spring and summer months and type this message……ummm, not today…….

And finally………..and unofficial measurement…….