SNOW!

Growing up in Idaho we had snow. Lots of snow. And wind. And cold. Its how winter behaves there and I didn't know anything different until after college when I lived in Uruguay.  It doesn't snow in Uruguay, but its colder than I could have imagined. No central heating, cinder block homes with cement and or tile floors and a lot of humidity, makes even 45 or 50 degrees can feel really miserable. Add in some drizzling rain and the need to hang dry all of your laundry inside the house for weeks, and you have perfect conditions for a damp, cool experience. At least we had hot water. And a tiny space heater, just enough to huddle around as we studied in our coats and hats every morning. Good times, great memories, and I sure appreciate central heat a lot more now.

And this week we needed it! Winter found the sunny south and it actually snowed here!  Now we have seen snow two other times here. Each time it was an inch and melted within a day. But they still cancelled school for it. Seems they are not prepared for any amount of snow and prefer to be cautious when the white stuff starts flying.

So this week, when the "Snowpocalypse" was predicted, we watched in secret delight as people rushed the stores. Walmart had no milk or eggs. Gloves and boots and shovels were out of stock everywhere. School was cancelled before a flake even fell and all in all, people panicked. And it turns out they were right, it did snow. A whole 3-4 inches.

Back home we would have shoveled the walks, bundled up and gone on with our lives. Here, literally every store, school, office building, even the medical offices were closed.  Everything but the hospital was locked tight for two days!  And lucky for us, Sasha is working a clinical based rotation. So guess what? Two extra days off this week!! We had a blast on our Impromptu Winter Vacation!