LETS TALK ABOUT THE SNOW, SHALL WE?

The historic blizzard of 2010 has buried the DC area under a record-breaking two to three feet of snow. The storm, which President Obama referred to as "Snowmageddon" in a speech before the Democratic National Committee winter meeting, set records right and left.

Lets talk about snow, shall we? As I write this we have been snowed in for perhaps the third, and definitely the most impressive time this winter. It started during the week. At work people were whispering about how "this was going to be the big one." Then everyone got sent home Thursday night. I worked at home on Friday, and the snow didn't really start falling until that evening.

By Friday night we had maybe a foot of snow. By Saturday morning twice that. By the time we were done we had almost a yard of heavy thick white stuff, and it piled up everywhere.

People down in Virginia are funny. Growing up we had snow like this pretty commonly, but we also had lots of four wheel drives, and snowplows for the roads. Down here snow literally paralyzes everyone. It is Sunday afternoon and I still cannot get out of the driveway. They haven't plowed our street yet.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. Not that that is a big deal, both Kathleen and I are not very big football fans. But our cable tv, internet, and phone went out with the blizzard, leaving us disconnected. Kathleen had bought a 550 piece jigsaw puzzle and laid it out on the dining room table on a big sheet of white posterboard. We worked on it over the weekend. Otherwise we shovelled and spent time watching tv and lookingn around at the snow that never seemed to stop falling.

The kids played out in the snow. We shovelled and shovelled and shovelled. It was nice, getting stuck in together in relative comfort and quiet.

I took a bunch of photos, those will be going up on the blog next.

another pretty snowfall

We have gotten a fair share of snow for Virginia this year, and tonight we had that wet, clumpy snow that sticks to the branches and makes everything pretty.

letter from Sandy Point

We go every year up to Sandy Point Beach up in Schroon Lake NY. Its a gorgeous place, and the kids really love it. Unfortunately, it is run by this group of people that have odd ideas about how to make people feel welcome. Check out this letter, written a full six months after our stay. I really have no idea what they are talking about. I asked the kids if they remembered breaking anyone's inflatable raft six months ago, and they didn't. Oh well. Some people are just miserable.

waking up the children on a schoolday

Kath has been substitute teaching, so these mornings are hectic. We
all need to get out the door by seven. First we wake up the boys.
Its dark in their room, until the light flickers on. PJ is lying in
his bed in the fetal position, a checkered green blanket covering him
from head to toe. I tell him to wake up. No response. I start to
pull the covers off of his head. He fights me, holding the sheets
down. His grip is surprisingly strong. I say "PJ!" annd he starts
laughing at the game of it now, although he still really doesn't want
to get out of bed. Once his head has been revealed, I move on to
Sam. It is the same story again.

I yell "feet on the floor, guys!" and move on to Anna's room.
"Morning sunshine! -- Its time to wake up!"

"I know!" Anna yells, in a voice twisted with a tired, wretched,
eleven year old anger. she does not move.

"You need to get out of bed." I offer.

"I," big pause "know!"

"I'll give you a five minutes to get dressed and come back and see how
you are doing." I might as well have told her to get started on some
impressionist painting, it was about as likely.

The boys go downstairs before they get dressed downstairs, so they are
first to arrive, sort of tumbling down the stairs. PJ makes a run for
the coveted heater vent, and curls up on top of it, his blanket making
a tent over him. Its difficult to get the boys to get dressed, but
not because they don't want to get dressed. More so like they have
the attention span of gnats, and they just sort of fumble around in a
sleepy haze.

"Two minutes, Anna" I yell up the stairs. I really don't know if its
been three minutes since her first warning or not, but what they hey.

PJ has his pants and shirt on, but can't find his shoes. Nor can he
remember ever wearing any. Ever. Its as though he has never even
seen a shoe.

I have to go upstairs to check on Anna.

"Are you all dressed yet? You need to get ready for school." I say
while I walk up the stairs to her room.

"I know!" She yells, more angry then ever.

"Anna! Now you're going to be late. You need to wash your hair. Get
out of bed."

As I come around the bend to her the doorway to her room I see her
perched like a griffin on top of her bed, her blanket draped over her.
"I know!" She says, repeating her mantra.

"All right two minutes, dressed and down stairs or you lose privileges today.

"I know."

I go back downstairs.

The boys are playing a game that involves getting the other person to
follow your fingers through the air and then clapping your hands at
the last minute, surprising them. But their clothes are on. Kathleen
is making them breakfast. PJ gets waffles, Sam gets the generic
cinnamon squares, having never known there real name. I look at the
clock. It is 6:40, time to leave for my bus. Strangely, the last
twenty minutes have seemed like an hour. But I have to go. I say
goodbye to everyone and head out to my car, waves of relief spreading
over me as I drive for my bus.

Fanaticism, and Bears

A conversation I had with PJ tonight:

"Dad, what's a fan - attic?"

"Do you mean a fanatic? "f - a - n - a - t- i - c?"

"Yes."

"Well, a fanatic is a person who can't get enough of something. Like
you might say that I am a poker fanatic."

"And I am video game fanatic?"

"Well, yes."

"But I guess you are hoping for me to stop being a video game fanatic,
aren't you?"

"Well, not necessarily, you see there are good addictions and bad
addictions. Like some people are addicted to running."

"And that is a good addiction?"

"Yes, as long as you don't go overboard, running is really healthy.
And some people can't get enough of the outdoors, and camping."

"Except then you can get eaten by a bear. That would be a downside,
to that, wouldn't it?"

"A bear?"

"Yes."

"Yes, PJ, that's right. Getting eaten by a bear would be a downside.

Happy New Years, everyone!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

The Blizzard of '09

The plan was this:  

Now that we have this new tradition of spending the weekend prior to Christmas at Ed and Rita's cow house, along with all of Kathleen's brothers and sisters and there extended clan, the house down in Swoope, Virginia was going to be a little crowded.  So we thought we would bring our trailer down there.  So one week prior, I took the explorer, complete with its new 3K transmission, over to Vienna and picked up the trailer from its storage place, and parked it over by our house.

The plan was to pick up the trailer and bring it down to Swoope.  Then we could stay in it, and afterwards, we could store it down by the barn for the rest of the winter.  

That was what we had planned.   Instead what happened was this:

Skip forward to this Friday.  Now I am at work, and as I am leaving someone tells me that it has already started to snow down in Roanoke.  I take the bus home.  By this time it is around 6pm.  I pack up everything in a hurry and get in the trailer and start to make my way through the neighborhood to the main road.  I call Kathleen on my cell phone (I have a headset).  Anna answers the phone and says that Kathleen can not talk right now.  Kathleen says that I should speak to her mom, they are getting a lot of snow down there and it might not be a good idea to drive down.  So I call Rita, and speak to a bunch of people, and yes, it is snowing like cats and dogs down there.  So I turn around, and bring the trailer back to Vienna.

I get home around Ten PM, and Kathleen hasn't made it down to Swoope yet, which mildly concerns me.  I check out www.511virginia.org, which has a nifty map showing the conditions of all of the roads in the state, color coded.  Blue means moderately bad.  Pink means severe.  All the roads are either pink or blue.  There aren't any roads that are green.  We are getting walloped with a snowstorm and I have been stranded in my house.  On the other hand, Kathleen and the rest made it safely to Swoope half an hour later, and Sam gets to have the white Christmas he was pining for.  So it isn't all bad.  

Making Cookies!

PJ hurt himself

So the other night PJ was brushing his teeth before bed.  Of course, he had to go to the bathroom.  As is his custom, he just takes his pants off when he goes to the bathroom.

But he's brushing his teeth so I cut him some slack.  Anyway, I am standing in the hallway waiting for him to finish, and he is wailing, holding his side, and walking out into the hallway, in pain, with just a shirt on.

"PJ, what's wrong?"  I ask him.

"Oh, I hurt myself."  He is obviously in some kind of pain, 'duh' I think to myself.

"No, I mean, what happened?"

"I don't know, I hit something."

"Well where does it hurt?"

"Oh, I don't know."  He shambles off to his bedroom.

Later on, Kathleen is tucking him in, he says he still hurts."

"What happened, lovey?"  Kathleen asks him.

"I just went through all this with dad, why don't you just ask him."

first snowfall

We got a dusting of snow last weekend, and the Starlings descended upon us, it was strangely reminiscent of The Birds

Monster under the Bed

The other morning, Kathleen got up and was getting dressed.  As she left the room I was sure I heard some rustling.

"Honey, is that you?"  I asked.

""What?"

"I hear a noise in here."

"Are you sure?  I'm in the bathroom."

I heard the noise again.  Then I looked over and saw Sam crawling out from under the bed.

"Sam, what are you doing."

"Oh, hi dad, I was just going to trick you." Sam said with a smile.

(Or give me a heart attack! )

... AND ONE OF PJ

Kathleen wanted me to find a cute old picture of PJ too.

PHOTOS FROM ANNA'S FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL 9/8/2004

I am going through all of my old blog posts and fixing the photo links, which is a generally slow and tedious thing to do. However, the payoff is that I get to rediscover cute old photos. Here are a couple.



HEY! how come I can't go to school!

Anna and her volleyball team - The Blast!

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Anna serving at Volleyball

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Scouting for food November 14, 2009

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Originally uploaded by bkale

Sam is right in front of the flag, PJ is in the back blowing a bubble. All told, we collected some 4000 pounds of food, and had a lot of fun, too.

home from the hospital!

And not a moment too soon, Kathleen came home from the hospital today at 4PM.  Some antibiotics and rest and she'll be a good as new.  Happy times!

Kathleen is Sick - putting the kids on the bus

Kathleen was sick at home yesterday, with stomach pains, and I spent the day at home watching her and trying to get her into the doctor.  Finally at 4PM we had an appointment.  The doctor prescribed a CT Scan, so from there we had to swing home, make sure that the kids were all taken care of, and then go back to the hospital and wait for a scan.  This turned out to involve hours of waiting, so I picked up the kids and went home.  Sometime later on Kathleen was admitted to the hospital for observation, and that is where we are now.  I'll try and post updates here and to facebook, its so much easier than actually *talking* to people LOL!

On a lighter note, I am playing Mr. Mom at home now.  This morning, I had to get the boy's ready for school.  Sam had after school gym class, and he needed to put on socks and sneakers.  I said "Okay Sam, you need to put your socks on now."

"I don't want to dad."

"Why not."

"I have sock issues."

I pause, and mull that over for a second.  "Okay fine, Sam, no socks."

Sam then wants to put on his red sneakers, which have laces, so I had to tie them for him.  After I did that, he said, "Dad, you tied these way to tight, but its okay, I'll just deal with it."  :^)

Wow this is november?

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

My mom visited this weekend, and we had a beautiful Sunday afternoon, which the kids and some friends got a chance to enjoy. It was nice to be outside.

my favorite frank zappa quote

"The more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive adulation for being good parents — because they have a tame child-creature in their house."

--"Ben Watson interviews Frank Zappa" October 1993 (Mojo Magazine)

Happy Halloween 2009

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Halloween this year was cold and rainy, but luckily we dodged the worst parts of the weather.  We all made it to the Leesburg Halloween parade, and after everyone went trick-or reating and got lots of candy.  This year everyone sported home made costume's courtesy of mom.  Anna was Cleopatra, PJ was a mummy, and Sam was count Dracula! 

Happy Halloween 2009

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

Happy Halloween 2009

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

From Tony's Wedding

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Originally uploaded by peteshaw

This photo was taken with my phone at the House my cousin Karen rented for her son Tony's wedding.

L to R - My mom at the edge there, then Molly, Kellen, Sierra, Kathleen, and Flip.