Derek got home a little before midnight last night, but he still needed to deal with parking the car before he could come inside. We got a 2nd car this fall which is the one he uses for work, so the van was nestled in a huge snowbank in our driveway. He let me know once he got home and then headed back out in the blizzard to park the car. At least a foot of snow had accumulated by this point and he couldn't even turn down the side street where our neighbor friends live and had offered parking. Wearing his fluorescent EMS coat he flagged down a snow plow and asked him the plow a few hundred feet so that he could at least turn down the street. The guy was nice enough to help, but Derek still had to shovel a good chunk of the way to Alex & Tracy's driveway. There was no way he could get up into the driveway at that point, so he dug out a spot directly in front of their driveway on the street. It was after 1am when he got inside, soaking wet and exhausted. And this is all after a super stressful night at work dealing with stuck ambulances, employees who couldn't get to their satellites, and a fire downtown.
Needless to say, he slept in this morning while the kids and I started surveying the damage.
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| The van in the driveway |
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| Looking out the front door |
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| The backyard |
Considering that Derek had to be back at work 3:30 today, he started snow blowing at 10:30. The kids and I also got bundled up and headed outside to get some fresh air.
He had already plowed through a 6' high snowdrift and was working on the driveway by the time we got outside.
Seriously, thank god that Mike got a snowblower for the house this year.
S&Z just watched until Derek made enough headway to start working on the sidewalk.
A few people were out and walking on the street (the travel ban was still in effect until 4pm today). Our poor neighbor was trying to shovel her way out.
Once D shut the snowblower off the kids had more fun playing in the mound of snow at the foot of the driveway.
They started trying to help Daddy by digging out the driveway.
Around this time the snowblower ran out of gas, and the shed with a full gas can in it was frozen shut. Derek started shoveling to get the van out, since the driveway was already halfway done. This is what the van looked like.
The kids were freezing and needed to go inside for lunch and hot chocolate. It took Derek another 1.5 hours to unbury the car. During lunch I looked outside and saw that our upstairs neighbor was out there helping him work on the driveway. I started bawling at this point, and felt really thankful that he was getting some help. He was out the door before 3:00 and the kids took a nice long nap.
The rest of the day was spent doing snow day sorts of activities. We watched the original "Muppet Movie" and ate popcorn when they got up.
We had Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup by candlelight for supper, and the day ended with TRAINS.
Derek has two well-deserved days off starting tomorrow. The unburying will continue, as we need to get the car moved from blocking the neighbor's driveway.
Growing up in North Dakota, I am no stranger to blizzards. But even for me this felt like a historic storm!
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