Heidi-Ho, Neighbor!

Note to self: Don't move to Canada.

Brian and I woke up this morning around 7:30, and found -- you guessed it -- EVEN MORE SNOW on the ground.

We didn't realize how MUCH there was until we actually went out to dig ourselves out. On the north side of the house, the snow drifted a good 30+ inches -- basically waist-deep. The south side had a scant 24 inches at its lowest point.

This is a very bad day to own a house on the corner, as it means twice as much shoveling.

I'm not certain what the law is around here, but the general consensus in the neighborhood is that you have 24 hours to clear the snow off of YOUR sidewalk before, I don't know, The Snow Police ticket you for failing to do so.

I've never seen The Snow Police, so I'm skeptical that they exist.

But like ants after someone floods their farm, we all saw blue skies around 2 p.m. today, and we all headed out with shovels in hand, and started digging out. The cool thing was that we saw Anna, Mike & Dan, and we all had our good shared misery over the snow.

It was Bonding Day with the neighbors. As I trudged up the walk with my shovel, decked out in ski pants, gators and boots, Dan hollered hello, and in true Lutheran/Simpsons fashion, I said "Heidi-Ho, Neighbor" as we shared a laugh.

Another neighbor across the street was joking with us that he had MORE snow on the west side. Mike laughed at him and said "Everyone knows there's more snow over here on the east side. Look at how many more of us it's taking to dig out."

A man on a snowmobile went down the street a couple of times.

Now that's a storm.

Our dog Lucy bounded through all that snow to play with Mike's kids, who delighted in being run over by our black Lab who normally isn't free to play. We all commented on how it was a relief that the snow wasn't wet compared to the spring storm in '04, so it was an easier job. Nonetheless, I'm exhausted from shoveling tonight.

DIA is still closed.

Mom & Joel were supposed to fly in tonight, but both their flights were cancelled, of course. It's looking sketchy as to when/if they arrive, but I'm trying to remain hopeful. I don't look forward to a Christmas without them after anticipating their visits for so long, but I'd rather have them safe in their home cities than trying to land on ice.

Brian dug out the car tonight and did a bang-up job of clearing himself a "runway" of his own to get into the street.

Wow, storms like this are hard to get through, but they're harder when you're waiting for family to arrive for Christmas. It's a special day that deserves to be spent with family, and it's hard to imagine them not being here.

Let's just pray the guys at DIA are doing their jobs, and my family can arrive sometime this weekend.

If you're the praying kind, please pray hard for that please.