SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!

Yippee! I have a snow day today! Last night at about 10 p.m. I found out that our school would be canceled for today. The snow in Abbotsford is even worse than Coquitlam, which is hard for me to imagine because there is a lot of it here. I was planning to sleep in this morning, but my plans were changed.

My hubby still had school, so I decided to get up with him to help him clean off the car, make him coffee, and drive him to work so I could have the car. His car is not really capable of getting around in this kind of weather, so the plan was to drop him off and come back to meet him for lunch, and then later in the day to come back and pick him up. As we made our way through the slippery, icy streets, however, I began to change my mind.

His school is about 2 and 1/2 miles from our house and it is at the top of the mountain. The roads seemed to get worse the further we went, and I began to think about driving back up there at noon and decided I didn't really want to do it. We couldn't park his car in his school lot so we parked at a shopping center just down from the school. I decided to walk home and leave the car with him so he could just come home after school and I wouldn't have to venture back out.

I figured the walk home would cure any cabin fever I might get and I was right! The snow was just coming down gently, and I was dressed pretty warmly. I had on my Columbia coat that I bought while attending university in South Dakota, so I knew that would be warm enough. I also had on some lined track pants, my Columbia fleece mittens that Kev bought me two years ago, and a toque that one of my students made me. The only part I thought might get a little cold was my feet, because all I had were runners. They did all right though!

As I made my way down the mountain and back up the mountain to our house, I made some observations.
1. There is nothing more beautiful than the sun breaking through the clouds and shining on the beautiful white world. It makes everything gorgeous. I remember when I lived back home the first morning after a big storm was always the best. Everything is covered in sparkly, white snow! Even a car can look beautiful when it is covered with glistening, white snow!

2. Boots are a good idea. When you are tromping through inches of snow in nothing but runners, your feet tend to get cold and wet. I have been home for several hours now, taken a warm shower and even sat by the fire place for awhile and my feet are STILL cold! However, it wasn't a bad walk.

3. BC snow is definitely different than South Dakota snow! It is wetter, heavier, and eventually, icier. Because it is so wet, it gets slushy and when the air cools down it turns to ice on the roads pretty quickly. I thought I was a great driver in snow, but this stuff is different. After watching people slip and slide around corners and through intersections on the way to Kev's school, I decided walking would be a better course of action.

4. 22 pounds is heavy! I stopped at Rona to buy some sidewalk salt for our landlords. The smallest bag they had was 22 pounds. I thought I was tough, and I was enjoying the walk and figured adding 22 pounds would make it more of a workout...well, I was right. I was huffing and puffing carrying that big bag up the hill! Thank goodness for the kind Coquitlam bus driver that stopped and offered me a ride. I didn't have change to pay him but he said that was fine and gave me a ride for about a block-the most uphill section-and helped me out a lot!

5. Walking just over 2 miles in the snow is fun! I found myself with time to think, and time to enjoy all that was around me. I watched people, smiled at those that passed me, and took in a lot of fresh air. I also realized that I could walk it a lot faster than I thought! I guess I'm in a little better shape than I thought.

All in all, it has been a great day so far! I'm going to clean my bathroom, maybe do some baking, change the sheets, cook a delicious dinner, and just enjoy doing all of those things around the house that I have been putting off! Yay snow day!