And now for something completely different....

Anyone remember that famous line from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"??? My brothers and I used to watch that show all the time and I learned at an early age to appreciate British humor. Not that I always understood it.... or understood what the heck they were saying... but this is a line that I remember with clarity. The "Flying Circus" episodes were a series of unrelated skits quite often with men dressed as women and talking in ridiculously high voices. Randomly they would announce "and now for something completely different" and of course the skit that followed that announcement wasn't different at all. It was just as sensless and random as the previous skit. That's how I feel about this winter. It's pretty much the same forecast day after day. We're getting tired of staying home because of extremely cold temps, snow, wind, blowing snow, poor visibility, ice, sleet, freezing rain... did I miss anything??

Here is John in the Bobcat clearing the end of the driveway. You may think the snowplow just passed by and he has to clear what the plow threw at the end of our drive, but no. He's simply clearing the snow that's blowing around, closing off the end of our driveway. As I woke up Saturday morning, I slowly realized that the wind was howling. Did the weatherman predict wind?? I don't think so. Then my sleepy brain thought it was the middle of the night because it was so dark. But no, as I got up and looked out, I realized that our yard light was out as was the lights inside the house that we normally leave on during the night. Great, no electricity. Here's a "living in the country with no electricity" lesson for you. No electricity, no water, no heat, no nothing. My water comes from my well which is deep in the ground. Luckily, we have a pump that runs on electricity to get the water from deep in the ground into the house so we can shower, brush our teeth, wash our dishes and yes, flush our toilets. So... no electricity.... no nothing!! Major bummer. And it was my turn to work on Saturday. I called my parents hoping they had electricity in town so I could at least shower there and get ready for work. But no, they were out too. Then I text a friend (lucky for me I charge my cell phone every night) and they were out too. I waited as long as I could then started packing a bag. My parents would at least have water coming into their house even though I couldn't dry my hair. I wouldn't look very good when I got to work but at least I could be clean! Just as I was ready to call my parents and tell them I was on my way to use up what little hot water they had, our lights came on. And stayed on. I debated on whether I should wait another 20 minutes and see if the electricity staed on or quick get into the shower and chance standing there with shampoo on my head and the electricity goes out again. I decided to chance it. I told John that if the electricity goes out and I'm not done yet to rescue me with bottles of water. Better than standing in the shower all soapy and cold. Ah, the advenures of living in the country. The following pictures are of around the yard late in the afternoon with our multiple drifts and blowing snow. We're all getting a little tired of the broken record that seems to be the weather forecast.