And the Blizzard Came

Well, the weather service was right. We got dumped on! Our day started this morning at 6:00 a.m. when Kevin woke me up to tell me the electricity was off. I don't know what he expected me to do about it. I did get up and use my cell phone to call it in, but the electric company recording said they were working on it and the electricity should be restored by 10:00. Oh, goody! Our heat is gas, but has an electric charger so if the electricity is out, that means no heat. Before we went back to bed I went into the bathroom and thought to myself, "I hear water running." (Does that sound vaguely familiar?) Remember this post? I just thought maybe Kevin had turned the water on somewhere else in the house and that was what I was hearing, so I went back to bed. Then about 8:00 when the electricity came back on all the beeping and flashing woke us up again. We got up to let the dogs out and reset all the clocks. Again, I heard water running. I told Kevin but either he didn't hear me or he didn't "want" to hear me. So we went back to bed. Then when we got back up about 10:30, I could still hear water running. I started checking the usual places, faucets, sinks, toilets, hot water heaters, laundry room etc. I could definitely hear it more loudly in the laundry room. I came back in the house and told Kevin, "I think we need to call a plumber." Kevin didn't want to so I started to go back to bed again and just blow it off. I kept insisting we really needed to call a plumber as I really didn't want to get a $500 water bill like the last time. Kevin finally agreed, so I called the plumber we usually use. The answering service took the call. Within a few minutes, Gary, the plumber, called back. He was not thrilled and basically told me "Good luck with that." He said there was no way he could make it over as the roads were impassable. (Remember we are under Winter Storm Warnings with blizzardous conditions.) He did tell me to call the city and have them come turn off our water. Again . . . been there done that! Kevin was not thrilled and said we would just let it run because he was not going to be without water again. A few minutes later he decided to go out in the backyard to try to shovel a spot for the dogs to go out. I heard him shouting, so I went to see what was wrong. When I opened the back door he said, "The sprinklers are on, but the control box is turned off." Well at least we found the problem. This is the photo I took of Kevin. I thought he looked hilarious. I asked him why he didn't have his cap or hood on. He said he couldn't see.















The sprinklers were making such a pretty design as the water froze on the fence.

I told Kevin, "We are going to have to dig up the sprinkler box." We knew were it was from the last time. When they came back to repair the patio they had covered the box with a really large flagstone. We finally got the snow off the flagstone I thought was covering the box, but when Kevin and I lifted it up, we were surprised to find pea gravel instead. We pulled up the two smaller ones on each side, but still didn't find the box. Then I decided to dig down a little and found the water box. When we opened it up, thank goodness it wasn't flooded like last time. At least that was good news. But now we didn't know which valve to turn to try to turn off the water. I called the lawn guy, but he didn't answer. I have his wife's number since I used to work with her, I called her, no answer. I called back the plumber, no answer. I called my nephew that used to work as a plumber's helper, no answer. I then said, "I guess I'll call daddy. Maybe he can help us." Mind you it was about 10 degrees and snowing heavily while all this was going on. As I was talking to daddy on the phone, the plumber beeped in. I switched over and explained the situation. He said we were exactly right, that we had to turn off the water to the sprinkler and we had to do it through the box. He talked us through it and praise the Lord it worked! This is the area on the patio. The big flagstone leaned up against the fence is the one we had to lift up and the bucket is filled with the pea gravel we had to shovel up.

And the snow kept falling.

I went around front for a few photos. This is the lawn furniture on the front porch. You can just barely see the back of the chair above the snow drift.

I am now standing out in the street looking back towards the house.

Looking up the north part of our street.

Kevin had asked me a couple of days ago if I would make chili when we were snowed in. I got two new cookbooks for Christmas so thought I'd give one a try.

Here are the ingredients.

Browning the onions and garlic. Sure smells good. Next add the beef to brown.

Add the beef to the tomatoe mixture. And let it simmer for a few hours.

Here is the full recipe for chili con carne if you want it.

Before serving up the chili I made us a delicious, fresh green salad with avacado.

Garnish the chili with cheese, sour cream and fresh jalapenos.

Fresh, hot Mexican Corn Bread with lots of butter.

And what's for dessert you ask? Snow Ice Cream of course. Here are the ingredients and the recipe is here.

A perfect way to end a not so perfect day.

Everything is still shut down and all roads are closed so we will be sleeping in again tomorrow. I hope we have a very uneventful day!