First Snow of the Season

Today I ran errands with Cat after work (and she worked from home because a wind storm caused a power outage at her workplace yesterday, and her boss is letting her work from home the rest of the week.)

I needed to pick up medication and go grocery shopping. Our first snow of the season is expected this coming weekend and into the beginning of next week. Temps are set to plunge from the upper 40 and low 50s into the 20s for the next few days.

Living in the valleys and coastlines of the Pacific Northwest, we don’t get much snow– so when we do, it’s always an event. Schools and businesses shut down, and roads are closed. We don’t have a lot of salt trucks or snow plows (although where we live NOW we do, but in general, most locations barely have any) because most years we get one to two snowfalls of about one to two inches. That’s still enough to close things, but it’s not really a big deal– a day off of school or work once or twice a year.

However, our second winter here we had almost two FEET of snow, setting records. I took lots of photos, when I’m not much of a photo taker. The current forecast is for three or four inches– right by the water. Most areas further from the sound are getting eight or nine inches! That’s enough of a real snowfall for everyone to make sure they prepare.

I even joked about it with my cousin Lisa, which is nice to do after so long. We’re slowly building up a relationship again, keeping things light and humorous when possible. Winterizing for the plunging temps was important. I only got around to it a couple days ago! But it’s been a really mild winter so far with just rain mostly– 50s temps during the day and 40s at night. Who needs to winterize? But now winter is hitting for real, at least for a few days, so people joke about it, because we all know how dramatic the population here gets with a rare snowfall.

I’m feeling good to be all set for at least 3 weeks, supplies-wise! I prefer to be over-prepared and to buy a lot at once so I can reduce trips to the store. I hate shopping anyways, so getting it over with for a long time to come feels great.