Scott, your blog reporter-at-large, here. I asked for a white Christmas but this is getting ridiculous! It just keeps coming. Freya, Robbie and I have shoveled the front sidewalk and steps umpteen times, not that they mind one bit. While I toil with the shovel, they romp, chase squirrels, and eat snow.

With a break in the storm on Saturday and the next forecast sounding absolutely dire, people are flocking to the grocery stores in droves. We went across the street to Fred Meyer and found lines 50 people deep at the registers. So we bailed out and plan to come back later at night once the storm has arrived.

During the first few days of this Winter Wonderland, my preferred vehicle has been my ultra competent Honda Element with all wheel drive and ABS but as of Saturday night, the snow is deep enough to break out the serious hardware and fire up Inga’s Toyota Tacoma with 4WD, ABS, ample clearance and big ass tires. I push the 4 – 5″ blanket of snow off the truck and venture out into the empty fluffy white streets, the dark night filled with snowflakes. I tool around the neighborhood enjoying the beauty of it all and the simple pleasure of driving in snow for fun before ending up at Freddie’s across the street. As hoped, it is utterly empty of manic shoppers and I leisurely browse the aisles for a few extra supplies in case the power goes out.

It’s now Sunday afternoon and the storm warning has been extended into Monday morning. It’s been snowing on and off for hours and the sidewalk needs shoveling yet again. Robbie looks for squirrels in the trees and Freya plops down in the snow and starts eating it. The snow melts on Robbie’s back but Freya just looks like she’s been sprinkled with coconut flakes due to her super thick fur coat. Little birds are steadily chipping away at the suet. It’s only 30 degrees and the snow is going nowhere. Seeing how we have about 30 or so snow plows in all of Western Washington, getting to work tomorrow may be problematic. Thankfully, it’s very quiet at work right now due to the holidays so working from home is an excellent alternative. The weather people are saying that it will not get above freezing until Christmas Eve and Inga is now talking about moving to San Diego. */:-)