Ice Ice, Baby!

Well, this winter just goes on, and on, and on, and on...............The first picture is of the top of the rail on the kitchen steps. That is about a half an inch of ice, from the first wave we had on Tuesday. Opa went mushing off to work, and said that he's gone in worse.

But then came Tuesday afternoon. He sent everyone home from the office an hour early, because the storm was cranking up for phase II. Another brief round of freezing rain was followed by several hours of sleet, which came down as what you might call "micro-hail" - little tiny ice balls about the size of the head of one of my small sewing pins. That lasted until after midnight, when there was a temperature rise above freezing. This melted just enough of the little ice balls that they all melded together into one glassy, all-encompassing ice sheet. This morning when I let Sydney out at 8 am, she slid down the steps, could barely get enough footing to do her business, and then she almost couldn't get back up the steps. A little later Opa went out to try to clean off the steps:

That is 3 inches of solid ice that Opa is chopping through with his adz. After clearing off the steps he gave up, because he didn't figure he could hack through the whole driveway and barnyard.

He did chip a little path out by the stump for Sydney. That dog doesn't know how lucky she is.

This last picture is for the wimpy mail delivery people in Atlanta. This is the view out our bedroom window this morning. 5 inches of snow on the ground from last week, 1-3 inches of ice from the last 24 hours, 4o mph winds, more snow - and OUR mail still went today. Ha! Our carriers eat little girly men like you for breakfast!

Other than the weather, there isn't much going on here. Grandma 'Carty is about the same as usual. We went down to Jim and Anna's last Saturday, and got to see Eryn take some of her first solo steps.

I had someone come to check out our bathroom and give me an estimate on having some work done. It would include new wall board, a custom shower (no tub), ceiling vent fan and light plus wall switch, electical outlet, medicine cabinet and lighting, new flooring, and painting the cabinets. The custom shower is because our space is a little smaller than standard. I'll be interested to see his numbers. I'm praying that the postal service won't close my post office before I save enough paychecks to pay for this.

We are in negotiations to see if Jordan can come to stay with us the first week of March. I am really excited about that. Then we'll try to see if Grant can come in April or May.

Everyone keep warm and take care. Spring has to come sometime, right?