They forecasted it for about a week: “Large snow storm will be coming into the Triangle area this weekend…” and of course, everyone was skeptical. I mean, they’ve predicted a couple of these this year and all of them have ended up being rain or a dusting at best. Nothing to worry about and certainly nothing compared to the storm we had the first year we moved down here (14 inches I think). So when they said it would start at around 6:00PM Friday evening and at around 6:30 we saw this:

And then an hour later saw this:

… this weather suddenly had our attention! The local reports said this would continue until midnight the next day and that travel would be “impossible”. So we dug in and ate lots of comfort food!

We woke the next morning we saw this:

And before we knew it, the snow turned completely from big heavy flakes into a bajillion little ice marbles. It continued that way for the next 8 hours.

Now before my northern brethren scoff at what they consider a “dusting”, please consider that this much snow and ice hardly gets touched when it lands. NC has an incredibly small road crew, so whenever enough falls so that it actually sticks, everyone stays home until it melts, which is usually the next day ;).  This time around it stayed below freezing for two days after, so none of it went away really until today. The sun came out (the sky was SO blue) and it was a little warmer, so, needless to say, the neighborhood kids had a blast!

North Carolina kids don’t get to see this stuff very often.  So whenever it does come, it’s somewhat blog-worthy!

So now the real question.  Has enough melted today to make it Durham tomorrow for work?

We’ll see…

Tags: events, winter

Hey all,

Hope you had safe and warm holidays with you and yours!  Ours took us up north where, as you can see, we saw a good amount of snow and bitter, bitter cold weather.  Luckily we had the warmth of family to stave off the chill.  It was SO good seeing everyone!  Especially my niece and nephew (who Mel got to see and hold for the very first time!) A.B. and little Timmy (affectionately known as L.T.).

The trip home went well, though the way out of New England provided a good amount of white-knuckle driving.  We went slow and everything went fine but it was a pretty stark reminder that we’re not moving north again any time soon. LOL!  As much as we’d love to see friends and family much more than we currently do.

We got home just in time for New Years which turned out to be quite uneventful which was just perfect honestly, because we were both battling off minor colds and a pretty hefty sleep deficit.  We were both asleep by the time any cheers and noise makers went off welcoming the New Year.  I know, I know, pretty lame.

Mel and I both focused on this last year and decade here and here.  Needless to say, we’re completely different people than when we were cheering in Y2K in downtown Keene, NH.  It’s been interesting for both of us to reflect on the last decade.  We learned, lost and gained a lot.

So what’s next for the two of us?  Good things!

We’re just putting the final touches on plans to go over seas for a few weeks in the fall.  More on that soon I promise.  It’s either gonna be Scandinavia or South America.

Our jobs still appear to be really solid, though you can never be sure nowadays.  The mere fact that we still have steady paychecks through this epic mess our country is going through, is something we don’t take lightly. We continue to reduce all the “stuff” we’ve amassed for the last 17 years, selling and Freecycling a lot.  We’re still looking at selling our place in a year or two as well, reducing even further.  Sense a pattern with us?  So do we.

The mad gardening experiment continues with us planting garlic next month and potatoes in the very near future.  The beds look so cold and empty right now.  It’ll be great to see them overflowing with food in the spring and summer!

I’m also planning on redoing this site you’re currently looking at completely. New code, new coat of paint, new layout, new everything.  I’ve already sketched out the layout and  have a great custom made theme setup; I just need to dress it up and launch it! I hope to have all of that done by the end of February.  We’ll see. The freelance web work also soldiers on though I think it’s coming to a lull.

I’m sure I’ll have completely different view of it next month! ;)  It sure has treated me well this last year and I’ve met/helped out some really amazing people!  Hopefully it’ll continue to evolve.

Other stuff?

My writing partner and I just started the 2nd draft of our screenplay we wrote together and we’re excited to see it evolve even further.  We hope folks like it!  We sure do.

Mel’s really attached herself to her trusty camera lately and of course the needles knit on!

So, that’s all pretty exciting stuff!  We’ve done so much and we still have so much to do!

Thanks for coming by and happy new year!

Tad (and Mel)

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Now playing: Counting Crows – A Murder Of One
via FoxyTunes

Tags: A.B., events, Family News, Little Timmy, purlingplans.com, Tad's Section, vacations