Snow Day!

Today Eugene got about thirteen inches of snow.












It's rare for us to get even an inch, so many services--including the schools and universities--shut down.

















The snowfall started Sunday afternoon, and the weather service was predicting anywhere from four to eight inches accumulation, so we weren't too surprised when we opened the blinds and there was snow everywhere.















I got up early and walked about through the snowstorm taking pictures.  At first we only had maybe eight inches, but the snow kept falling and falling and by noon or so we were up to thirteen.
















In the middle of the morning it was still snowing, and various birds were out.  A large flock of crows landed in the trees across the street.  I thought maybe I'd get a photo like one taken a year or two ago in Portland where there were something like a hundred black crows in the white snowy branches of a tree.  But today's crows weren't as numerous.

































The cats liked the theory of playing in the snow, but the actual practice was something else.  I think mostly it was too deep for them (although I did see Cicero's brother, Spencer, when I first set out)
















Later in the afternoon, Mark and went for a walk.  The snow at our house was wet, and water flowed on the street underneath it.     












Our neighbors across the street were shoveling out their car. 












Our neighbors up the street were building an igloo. 












We passed about four different groups of kids with sleds on as many different slopes.


I thought this mound of snow on a concrete post looked like a helmet or skull....

In addition to the snow day, I was chuffed when I got an early-morning message from an author I've admired since the late eighties, who had written a cool poem using a comment I'd made as the prompt (the comment is the poem's epigraph), and wanted to e-mail me a copy.