Thursday (first day of DEC) wake up to about six inches of heavy/almost frozen snow. Corrie braves the roads and runs errands; Dan heads to food bank to work outside and prep for tomorrow’s food distribution. Dan calls garage door opener company and makes appointment for tomorrow (Friday) at 3PM. But that afternoon gets strange text from some stranger David that says “I am here”. Dan has no idea what it means but goes out to driveway and there is garage door repair truck! Two things are obvious to Dan 1)English is second language to David - 2)and he has never driven on snow before. Anyway David gets both doors repaired & Dan gets him down the driveway & on to the plowed road.
For next week temps barely get above freezing during day; and at night often drop to teens or single digits for temps. So snow doesn’t melt; and if it does, it creates more ice at night☹
Wednesday, 07DEC, Dan heads to stevens pass for few hours of skiing; condition are ok for unusually early start to the season, good day on the slopes. Corrie starts xmas decorating and baking xmas treats. Dan finally purchased a new cell phone after five years. Verizon store rep is amazed at the age of Dan’s ASUS & found it hard to believe it still function even though google no longer supports it. But Dan still will not pay for latest I-phone, Pixel or Samsung, he found a fantastic cyber Monday deal on last year’s google Pixel 6 Pro.
Thursday AM wake up to light rain; Dan heads to food bank and
Corrie has girls day out with Jan Formisano; all day on/off light rain really
helps get rid of remaining snow from last week.
Friday afternoon, 09DEC, Comcast/Xfiniti tech finally makes it to our
house to figure out why kitchen TV box not working. Turns out this cheaper/less complex box has
history of failing years down the road during power failures?
Saturday AM, 10DEC, wake-up to heavy winds & some tree debris in yard/driveway; mid-morning head out to first of grandson Jaxson’s make-up soccer games; first in Bellevue & second on Mercier Island; second half of second game played in heavy rain☹. Then home to warm-up & veg-out.
Wednesday AM, 14DEC, Dan meets CG Academy classmate Paul Iremonger to ski like they try to do couple of times a season. Also on the ride up was Paul’s wife Elena & son Dimtry; Dimitry has skied with us last year but is recovering from medical issue & Elena happy to enjoy the scenery. Great half day of skiing (hoping many more this season). One downside was Dan kept stopping to take pics with his new cell phone🙃
Thursday night Dan has xmas dinner with food bank volunteers.
Monday, 19DEC, 41st anniversary) wake-up to light snow all day. Dan at food bank all day. Because of weather we postpone anniversary celebration. Tuesday very weird weather all day; freezing temps overnight but wake up to rain/sleet/snow mixture around 33 degrees. Corrie has important medical so takes off in 4 wheel drive truck. During day sleet turns to light/dry snow back to sleet. After dinner finally stops with temps dropping. So tomorrow should be lots of ice under roadway snow to cause lots of accidents! Today was almost complete chaos on area roads, tomorrow should fun🙃 Doesn't seem to bother moles?
Wednesday AM (first day of winter) Dan heads up to Stevens Pass
Ski Area; drive up not to bad for being below freezing temps & six inches
of snow on the road. Even though Dan is
dressed in layers as normal for him skiing, the 3 degree F temps make him call
it quits after one hour on slopes. Also
Stevens did lousy job of grooming makes it not worth trying to tuff it out☹
Thursday wake-up to freezing weather in the teens & wind gusty to 35 mph. Only major roads barely drivable, all the side roads covered in ice. Corrie makes it to important medical appointment and Dan helps out at food bank for few hours. Rest of the day spent hunkered down at home.
Friday AM, 23DEC, wake-up to find that last night’s lite rain has created a sheet of thin ice on everything. Like our sliding patio door which has sheet of ice blocking our view & freezing door closed. Weather people call this rain ice? This occurs when you have warm moisture laden air above lower freezing air; higher moisture falls as rain, but when it enters freezing air and “hits” something (think trees, power lines, ground) it turns instantly to ice.
Dan discovered this
when he made a shopping run for something we needed before going to Rebecca
& Raymond’s tomorrow. On his drive
to store encountered rain that turn to ice as soon as it windshield; it froze
so fast that windshield wiper could not remove; so Dan turned heat to max on
defrost & fan on high, eventually window heated up & ice melted. Outside temp finally made it to 34 &
strong rain; walking anywhere was treacherous (in fact ER’s see many with
broken wrists & hips)
In fact when Dan got
home from his errand he parked on the slight uphill at bottom of our driveway
to check mailbox. As he walks back to
road he notices the truck is sliding backwards & following him🙃 No panic, calmly gets
in drivers seat, brakes & four wheel drives up to flat spot on driveway,
then checks mail. We were going to drive
to Rebecca, Raymond and grandboys (jaxson & mason) today; but will try tomorrow
weather permitting.
Saturday (xmas eve day) AM up early to finish loading truck to head over to daughter Rebecca & husband Raymond’s for family xmas. Even though almost no-one could drive anywhere yesterday, we found little traffic and got right on ferry to Kingston. Entire drive was in steady/heavy rain, no problems & almost all the ice/snow melted away. Soon after our arrival first thing done was decorating xmas cookies for santa.
Also after our arrival two of their friends (johnny & sebastian) joined us.
Then we progressed to building a ginger bread house before they left. After dinner was grinch drinks & finishing the gingerbread house. Grandboys allowed to unwrap one gift before bedtime.
Sunday (xmas) wake-up and the grandboys immediately attack their presents, before we could have Rebecca’s traditional French toast breakfast. Then it was clean-up, assembly of the two new bikes, and the start of a long day of cooking the xmas feast. Right before the xmas dinner Rebecca & Raymond’s friends (Johnny & Sebastian) returned for the feast (bringing a delicious ham with them to go with the turkey & sides). They also were accompanied by Jeremy(?) Navy sailor stationed in Bremerton but whose wife and their first child are in San Diego☹
After dinner Jeremy got a phone call that another Navy sailor’s car had “died” and he needed rescuing.
Later that evening Rebecca, Raymond & us decided to teach Johnny & Sebastian how to play cribbage😊. Played one game of three teams of partners. Tthere was lots of trash talking but in the last hand we (the ryans) pegged from last place to winning by one point on last card played by Dan. Then everyone including grandkids finds comfy spot in family room and tells sea stories.
Monday AM we quickly
have small breakfast, pack up truck and catch 1105 ferry to Edmonds and home by
1PM. Not much done after unpacking; and
take-out dinner from Ixtapa Mexican.
Friday, 30DEC, Dan starts day at Sultan food bank; Corrie sees doctor about continued not feeling well, later in day off to hospital for tests; Dan gets latest covid booster shot. Corrie spends most of afternoon & early evening at hospital, discharged with some meds and more tests to follow. Saturday(last day of Dec & 2022). Another New Year eve spent at home, dining on snackies, and early to bed.
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