Snowstorm!

We had the first ice/snow storm of the year. It was massive, affecting the entire East Coast of the US for the most part.

Very fortunately, we didn't get a ton of nasty stuff here.

Yesterday, Friday, I tried to go for a walk early (earlier than usual) since it was predicted to get worse throughout the day. Even at 5:30 am, the roads were so slick and icy slush with the sleet and frozen rain that I couldn't get past my house without slipping. So I sent my boss a snow-day text and went back to bed.

This confused Thimble.

I did go for a walk later, about 10:30 am, since my road looked fairly clear. And it was. It was just the only road that was, since it's wide and not overshadowed by trees like the rest of the roads on my walking path. Walking in ice and slush, while maneuvering an umbrella and winds gusting so strong sometimes I had to stop and wait, was a bit of a challenge.

In the afternoon it got colder and turned to sleet.

Puzzled and not sure.

Thimble wasn't sure he liked the sound. Apricot was quite positive he didn't like the sound but he didn't disappear like he does for rain. He just stayed away from the windows, whereas Thimble kept staring out the windows trying to see what was making that sound. It wasn't sleeting hard, just constantly all day.

Last night after we all went to bed late, it snowed. About 2 or three inches, judging by my shoes this morning. Because I went for a walk again, as much to gauge the roads as to get a walk in, and discovered a number of things about snow I didn't know.

a tree on my walk with a street light illuminating it

• It squeaks when it's new and you walk on it.
• It's hard to walk on, like walking barefoot on a deep sandy beach.
• It builds up on your shoes and you have to knock it off them every so often.
• And in the very few car tracks, the snow was refreezing into ice, but not yet, since the temperature was hovering around freezing. So walking was a choice between wet sludge and squeaky, difficult snow. I alternated.

My tracks crossing a previously laid-down cat track

Since not many people had been out either, I saw all kinds of tracks. One or two people tracks with paw tracks beside them. That would be the person out walking their dog. One track was confusing till I figured out it was one person and two dogs, a dog on either side, who occasionally crossed back and forth. I saw cat tracks, which I found interesting because it looks like cats outside walk with all four feet almost in a straight line! And one track that didn't look like a dog or a cat; I think it might have been deer hooves.

Highly suspicious snow

The cats hadn't thought much about the snow one way or the other until I brought it inside on my shoes. (I didn't go for a walk in those boots--I went to my parents' house in my car for breakfast since the roads weren't icy.)

At the time of the photo, Colby was over eating the snow where it fell off my boots onto the carpet when I was turning off the house alarm after coming inside.

Thimble wouldn't get close to it but he certainly wasn't going to allow it to get away with anything, either, so he watched it until it was obvious it wasn't going anywhere. (Little did he know.) Then he wandered off and, to all appearances, forgot about it entirely. He didn't seem a bit upset when he came back in the kitchen later and it was gone.

There's snow on the patio, so when they walk by the patio door they will often stop, in such a manner as indicates it wasn't a planned pause, and look at it in astonishment, and then go on about their business without much else changing. 

I really don't think they care one way or the other about it. It was new and different out the window but now it's not, and they're bored with it again.