BLIZZARD! And not the DQ yummy kind.

Like the rest of the east coast of Newfoundland I woke to the cheery news that Environment Canada had issued a weather advisory for the Bonavista and Avalon peninsulas for tonight and into tomorrow night. A blizzard. And to just make it clear just what we're talking about here, here's the link to the advisory : http://dd.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/bulletins/alphanumeric/20120203/WW/CWHX/09/WWCN16_CWHX_030900___60515    Scary stuff right?  Well, wikipedia defines a blizzard as this : A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have sustained winds or frequent gusts that are greater than or equal to 56 km/h (35 mph) with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or less and must last for a prolonged period of time — typically three hours or more. Snowfall amounts do not have to be significant.

Gus, age 4 watching the snow fall!

 I am a big believer in Santa, unicorns and yes I'll admit it, I have even seen a UFO or two in my time... right Erin? But I am not a big believer in the forecasts issued for Newfoundland. Even the BEST meteorologists will tell you that there is just too many variables at play in our position out here in the North Atlantic to allow them to be perfectly accurate as to snowfall amounts, paths of the systems, wind speeds and durations of the storms.  We don't get upset. We just accept that they were wrong yet again, put on our big girl panties and drudge on. Now, despite their woefully inaccurate track record when the meteorologists issue a forecast for a blizzard a lot of people get really worked up. Not me. This is one retired school teacher who was disappointed a few too many times when my phone did NOT ring at 6:30 am with the joyous news of school closures.  Not getting ME again! I figure it will be windy tomorrow and we will get snow, but in the aftermath of the event, the reports will probably in all likelihood be that we were spared the brunt of the storm. Best case scenario.

I looked out at the brilliant sunshine today and wanted to scoff... I really did. I wanted to pretend that tomorrow was going to be a perfectly normal weekend Saturday morning. But alas, I failed miserably. I started to feel like maybe there might be something to this afterall. So off I went to the store and bought chocolate chips... gotta have a bit of chocolate during a BLIZZARD!  I stopped at Sears and picked up the bed skirt that I found that actually matches Ryan's bedroom (only been looking for 3  years!) and came home to settle in for the big event. Dusted, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom and then I spied the pretty new bed skirt.

Changing a bed skirt is freaking hard work. By yourself. Exhausting gut wrenching work. But my mind went on a rollercoaster ride like this: I want to reclaim the mattress that is on Ryan's queen sized bed, because it is so much more comfortable than the new one we bought for our bed three years ago, and if I am going to put on the bed skirt, now would be a great time to change the mattresses over and then I could change the sheets in our bed, because everyone knows rumpling up the clean sheets during a blizzard is a whole lot of fun, and if I am changing the sheets now would be a great time to switch out the mattress and even tho it will be hard work, if I wait for hubby to come home he will discourage me and say he'll do it tomorrow and by then the blizzard might be passed by and rumpling up the clean sheets is not nearly as much fun as it could have been in a blizzard, so I am going to do it NOW! PHEW. I was exhausted just thinking about it.

And these are the things I learned today:
 1. I am not nearly as strong as I was before I met my husband 8 years ago. OR... Mattresses have gotten a whole lot heavier in 8 years.
2. Queen sized mattresses need a lot of space and cannot occupy the same bedroom at the same time... Newton was right about that one!
3. Sliding Mattress A into the bathroom to avoid an encounter with Mattress B is in theory a good idea. But when Mattress A sort of collapses in the door way and gets jammed I am expressively happily overjoyed that
4. We just finished installing bathroom #2 in the basement.
5. And no matter HOW tired hubby is when he gets home on this Friday afternoon, he WILL be moving the mattresses the rest of the way into their final resting places. I am knackered.

SO happy blizzard weekend everyone! Hope you all have fun rumpling your sheets during the blizzard and if the blizzard just happens to pass you by? I hope you have fun rumpling your sheets.

Love from Lethbridge!


UPDATE: 3 pm the SAME day!

 I pushed through and got the mattresses moved! And I think the effort was TOTALLY worth it!! Any guesses how long it takes hubby before he notices  a) he's sleeping on a different mattress and b) the bedskirt now matches!???