Not much happened on Monday, VK and I met up for pie late, otherwise it was work and chores. On Tuesday I almost finished my Christmas shopping. The weather prediction of icemeggedon on Wednesday didn't come to pass, but now one for snowmeggon II, predicted for Christmas Eve and Day was all that.
And yes, it was every bit of snowmeggedon that the first one was. I got off work at 1800 on Christmas Eve. Naturally the car wouldn't start. I waited it out, and it fired up after about ten minutes and I headed over through the drifts to VK's house. Within a few seconds of me showing up Bente pulled up, then their brother Isaac and his roommate, Matt. We got everything indoors and were just about ready to eat when Ben A. showed up.
VK prepared the spread, not shown is the asparagus on the counter, I did the eating.
After dinner, we sat down and played a game of Taboo waiting for VK's other brother, Caleb to show up.
This is exactly what VK looks like playing this game, every time.
Despite the snow, eventually Caleb showed up, he ate a late dinner, and the gift frenzy began.
OMG! He got me a new laptop! ... Actually I warned her beforehand it was just a box.
It appears that this gift was appreciated...
...and this one too...
...um, well, you probably had to be there.
Caleb, Isaac, and Matt took off shortly after this. Lisa showed back up, and Ben and I waited around and chitchatted for an hour or so, and that hour sealed our fate for the weekend.
I made it out of the driveway, but couldn't make it out of the neighborhood, trying three different times two different ways. Every path out of the neighborhood is uphill. When it became apparent that I couldn't make it out of the neighborhood, I put the car on the next street down, in as sheltered of a spot as I could find and walked back to VK's house. I wasn't alone, Ben got his car stuck too, in front of the neighbors house
It was just after this that VK asked me "Is the furnace working?". I looked at the thermostat and said yeah, went into the basement, it seemed like it was firing up, said so, went to bed and forgot about it ... until I woke up and could see my breath. Turns out I wasn't the only one in the house a little cold. After investigation it turned out that the furnace vent had been covered in a snow drift. No exhaust, no heat. Ben went out and uncovered it, I power cycled the furnace, and tada! Heat!
With that emergency averted, it was time for breakfast.
I got dressed and went out to shovel some snow. Maybe my scarf is a little tighter than I meant to have it.
These pictures are only meant for people outside of Omaha. Those in the Omaha metro, you've seen plenty of this in December.
I calculated Ben and I shoveled or snowblew (?) 1500 cubic feet of snow, when it was all said and done, we got Ben and Bente's cars off the street (which didn't get plowed until Sunday).
The snowblower was out of gas (takes 40:1 gas/oil mixture), and I was almost out of caffeine. So VK and I went to walk up to the corner gas station. However when we got out the 129th street, it had been plowed by the city (who knew). So we walked down to my car, shoveled it out, got it fired up, and drove to the corner store. They were out of two cycle oil, so we ended up going down to the next C-store. We got what we needed there. I briefly entertained the notion of driving home, but VK talked me out of it, correctly pointing out that the road conditions were bad, and not going to get any better now that it was dark. I drove back to the spot where my car was before, and parked. We walked back to the house and settled in for the night with chili, the game Sequence, Bente's yoga class, and hey look, a Mythbusters Christmas day marathon.
Saturday dawned to much warmer conditions ... in the house. I had a breakfast of a banana and cookies (does anyone have a problem with this?). About 1100 I walked down to my car and shoveled myself out yet again.
It sure seemed like about 50% of my waking hours over the holiday weekend were dealing with snow, cars, or both.
When I got home, I shoveled the snow out the front of my garage. Went in, shaved (alleluia!) and showered, and then went over to Troy & Merinda's to hang out. I gave them the gift from the group of us, and I got a nice boxed party game, Things. The oddest creature showed up while I was there...
It's more than just a little creepy.
Finally I was home and asleep early.
After much sleep Sunday morning. I got up early ... in the afternoon ... and went to run some errands. As I left the house, VK called, she got stuck at the end of her driveway. I headed over to her house. By the time I got there she was unstuck. I parked a block over, walked down, and we went out to the mall in her car. In the future I will let her drive her . It was her first time out of the house since the proceeding Sunday ... I did the boyfriend thing, someone has to carry bags after all. We had dinner, then headed back to the house for more shoveling and car rearranging.
Finally, the holiday weekend was over, and with everything I had done, I headed home and off to sleep.
Next week: Happy New Year!
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