Hail, Hail...

We just had a little hail storm here in Eldora.  I had gone to Nederland to the post office to mail my German pen pal's birthday gift (Happy Birthday, Ingrid!--We've written to each other since I was 12 and she was 13!) and had waited until about 3:30 p.m. so I could stop by the grocery store and take advantage of the Cheap Chicken ($4.99 between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays) and the Wednesday Senior Discount.  While I was shopping, it started raining, but as I drove home and passed this magical demarcation where the weather always gets more extreme, the pavement was steaming (it had been at least 60F degrees earlier) and then all of a sudden, the road was covered with hail.  I'd missed the whole thing!  I bet it sounded great on the tin roof.

This is what the yard and deck look like...

I'm capturing a little run-off water...

...but it has stopped, so I don't think it's going to amount to much although NOAA is predicting a 30% chance of rain/snow tonight.  The predicted low of 29F degrees is good "snow making" temperature.

I had just been about to write that if I were still living in the Midwest, the hail and rapidly changing temperatures probably would be heralding tornadoes then I heard on KUVO that there has been a tornado spotted northeast of Denver.  Hope everyone out that way is OK and it doesn't do too much damage.

We don't have tornadoes here in the mountains as far as I know.  Do you have them where you live?  Teddee


P.S.  I wish I could do a scratch 'n sniff.  I just stepped outside.  The hail is almost all melted and the smell of pine is so intense I think it would almost transmit!

Diggin' Out and Diggin' It

I spent some time today digging out from yesterday's wonderful snow.  It didn't snow that much more overnight.  I measured about 22 inches just off the deck in the west meadow. 

 It was a gorgeous day.  It got a bit cloudy at mid-day then cleared off again and it's cloudy again now at 3:30 p.m., but the rest of the time the sun was bright and the sky that wonderful shade of blue that I've only seen here.

The fox had broken ground for me.  He didn't come around until about 7:30 p.m. yesterday evening.  I had turned off the porch light and closed the curtains, but heard his footsteps crunching in the snow.  You wouldn't think a fox would make the snow squeak, but this is what it looked like just before I turned out the porch light...

...and this is what it looked like after I heard the footsteps.

I didn't see him, but told him to hang on and put some food out.  It hadn't been touched this morning.  I think he must have given up and gone home.  This is what his meandering path looked like this morning.  His was not the shortest route between two points.  I wonder how they even know where they're going when they're down in deep snow.

Today, I addressed first things first, clearing a path to the toilet and wood.

Then, using the fox trail as a start, I dug out to my car.

 
A close-up of the west side of my car:

 

My strength amazes me.  I certainly don't look fit and had taken a couple of Ibuprofen before I started, but was making very good headway when a local gendarme stopped by and offered to help.  While he was shoveling from the front of the car out to the road, I swept off the car.  I asked him if he would mind if I took his picture for my blog and promised I'd take it from behind to insure his privacy. 

He commented it probably wasn't a very flattering view.  I said he looked like he was in pretty good shape...Hey, you don't forget how to do this just because your 67!...and that he'd be in even better shape after he finished.  We discussed the snow (lots of  it), avalanches (very likely) and who we liked in the Super Bowl (neither team) and decided we'd probably both be watching just for the commercials, and if the Broncos couldn't be playing, we'd be more interested if Green Bay or Chicago were.  I got some "how do you rate?" looks from drivers of cars going by and yelled at one young woman, who actually slowed down and gaped, "Just look helpless!"  I suggested to my neighbor, who must be in his 80s and probably had his  cars dug out by 8 a.m., that he'd started too soon.  The deputy told him teasingly that I'd made him stop and help.  I said, "Yeah, I wept and wrung my hands."  Anyway, I thanked him profusely, he gave me his card, left, then came back about ten minutes later to see if I'd got my car started!  I told him I hadn't tried, but didn't think it would be problem.  I had no intention of going anywhere, just wanted to get dug out.  Success!

It was a good thing it snowed.  Otherwise I probably would have been lured to Boulder to the 50% Saturday at Goodwill.  I'll show a couple of things I didn't get when I was there on Thursday.  I'm thinking this could be almost as much fun as actually buying the things.  I really loved these two heron prints, but they were asking $35.99 each.  I thought that was steep.  I probably would have wanted to get new frames on top of that.  I'm sure they sold right away today if they hadn't already.

Then I found these two candle sconces out on the patio.  Made in the Philippines.  Gorgeous.  But, if I recall correctly, they were $24.99 each.

My solace was that I thought I might be absorbing lead just handling them.  Definitely "Not for Food Use!"

Then there were these two cute little New Orleans illustrations mounted on slate. 

So that's what I would have bought if I hadn't been saving for the electric improvements.  Maybe this is like the professional organizers who have people take photos of things before they force them to give them away.  You'll always have the memories!

Uh oh!  Snowing again.  Hope it doesn't fill up my paths and cover my car up.  Well, my favorite Saturday night blues show is on KUVO, so I'm happy even if they are having their winter fund drive.  What was your Saturday like?  Teddee