Bristow, VA

Before our second round of killer snowstorms hits Bristow, Virginia, I got some work done this morning.  Just because there is white stuff on the ground doesn't mean that the wheels of the Northern Virginia real estate marketplace grind to a halt.  There are still short sale contracts to call Bank of America and Wells Fargo about, contract amendments to be signed, and brand new contracts that must get into the hands of settlement companies. 

After about two hours of faxing, and an hour of errands, it was time for fun. 

My husband James takes fun very seriously and had dug out a sledding path in our backyard. He even took the time to pack down the snow for faster sledding.

Eventually I grabbed my camera before my husband and I, and our nine year old neighbor Katerina turned into popsicles.  The picture of Katerina may be blurry, but it was right before she crashed into me.  You don't get a better action shot than that. 

I even made a video of our short sled run.  I hope you enjoy it.  It's shot over the head of Katerina as she steers the sled.

 

Northern Virginia area's like my own in Bristow, just got walloped with about two feet of snow. Probably more than that, but who can tell. You'd have to walk with the snow up to your thighs, into the middle of the yard to get a good measurement. And after shoveling out a two car width/two car length driveway, I would have to get there by hoisting myself over the snow mounds that frame the yard.

No thank you. I'll stand on the front porch and guesstimate by how bad my back hurts from shoveling.

Our biggest challenge beyond shoveling has been what to do with our semi-feral cat Gray Kitty. He's been locked in our garage, against his will since Friday afternoon. After only one accident, he's learned to use the litter box--a gigantic victory. Yet, he's been dying to get out. I'd harness him up and see what he would do in the snow that is three times or more as tall as he is. As soon as he started to dart away, I locked the leash and ended the bad decision. Back to the garage.

So, thinking after another day or two of melting, I could open the garage and let Gray Kitty rome free, I am told that tomorrow, Northern Virginia is getting hit with another major snowstorm. This time we expect ten to twenty inches of snow.

This is insanity!

Virginia is, after all, a southern state. And as such, we typically don't see much snow. Maybe a max of four inches per winter. As I lifetime resident of Northern Virginia I know that about once every ten or so years, we get hammered. And since our last mega snowstorm was 1996, it is fair to say we are overdue.

Even though Gray Kitty has learned to use a litter box while locked in our garage, his pleading meows are driving my husband and I mad. So, in light of the latest weather forecast, we have decided that Gray Kitty is going to say at the vet for the next four days. He'll be kept nice and warm, and given more attention than the two of us can manage. I sense a bit of emotional relief will be in store for James and I during Gray Kitty's stay at the vet. Let's hope for warm weather and some melting after this next storm.

Well, it looks like a sunny day coming up! Woohoo!

But not supposed to get very warm.

Hopefully things will begin to melt.

We cannot use either back door. So I will have to create a path to one of them the old fashioned way.

Here is the upper deck on our house. I was happy to see the underside of our grill! From above it is completely gone!

The dog is not happy going all the way to the basement door to get out, but IS happy to have the underside of the deck for her business!

The lower deck is the key. If only I can find the stair case to get up there to start cleaning them both!

My wife is worried the snow may be too much weight for the decks. Well, probably not, but this has been a good test!

I hope I don't have to dig a path to my daughter's play set! That would be quite the job...

Because of high winds and drifting it is hard to know how much snow we got. I think it is around 30".

When I heard the weather reports saying we were expecting up to two feet of snow in Northern Virginia, I was hoping they were overestimating because all local weather gurus boned the last snowfall predictions. That was earlier in the week when were in for a dusting and got four to six inches. Turns out, they boned this one too. I'm looking at getting three feet of snow before all is said and done.

My husband and I have been shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling. We are running out of place to put the stuff and now I hear it's supposed to snow more on Tuesday and Friday. You've got to be kidding. I don't care if it's an inch of snow each day. We have nowhere to put it!

And my poor Gray Kitty (our semi-feral that has a home base in our garage) is now locked up in the garage and has no idea what to do with a litter box. His incessant meowing at my mud room door tells me that he is continuing to "hold it" and nature has not yet taken it's course. Poor thing.

Luckily, my neighbors are great. We've been coming to each other's aide. And I'm having my next door neighbors over for dinner in a few hours. That will be a welcome diversion from this snowpocalypse.

Here we are in the middle of the deepest snow storm since 1922, and set to exceed even that. Think it will snow?

This was 9pm Friday night!

I had shoveled the sidewalk and driveway just an hour previous. The high winds make it impossible to keep things clean. And all night it snowed, they say, 2" per hour.

Tomorrow will probably find me shoveling three or four times!

This is the front sidewalk, and dog bathroom (lower right) at 4am Saturday morning.

It had been shoveled twice the night before, as late as 10pm.

So what you see filled in in 6 hours.

I woke up the dogs who wanted to go out, of course.

At that time I had not cleared a path for them to go.

Neither appreciated it at all.

By 7am Saturday it was 18" or so.

By this point, the bathroom, again seen lower right, had been remodeled three times. I had to enlarge it. The dog can be so picky...

By 9am, with the continued snow and blowing wind, this had disappeared completely!

Saturday morning at 11am.

This is only 20 minutes after shoveling.

No point in cleaning the cars off. We are expecting another 10-15" by tonight, when, they say, it is likely to stop!

You can't see this, but the snow plow has been by and the wall left behind the cars is 5' high! I will have to dig through that to get to my inspections on Monday, if I can find the houses...