Recovery Thursday

Last night, the heat was on! I got to return to my cat free and no longer freezing cold room. Shane was the only one who wanted to keep sleeping communally in the living room.

We started Thursday slow. I was reading and Shane was reading....which became reading out loud to me (I stopped reading my book, because I wanted to encourage Shane reading!). 

The fields are all a mess. We haven't been scooping poop that's been covered and frozen in snow. As everything melts, we get to see everything we missed. The heat of horses and horse poop already melted the snow around all the feeders.

So today was as good a day as any to start undoing the damage. The fields were still frozen, but Carrie had left all the horses in through the storm. We filled up all the buckets cleaning stalls.

We've lost a lot of trees this year. First, the microburst in the summer ripped some up. Now, the first winter storm of the season has claimed more.

The suspended trunk from above happens to reside over where I dump bedding. I'm calculating the odds it will fall on me one day vs the odds it will fall on me if I try to help it down myself.

The predicted temperatures are favorable for melting (Upper 40's). I put Shane to work scooping a patchwork of holes in the driveway (He fussed about it even when he finally figured out I didn't want him to scoop the whole thing!).

I did an experiment yesterday. I shoveled the western set of Carrie's tire tracks and only broke the ice on the eastern set. The west (Left) looked a lot better when I checked after horse chores.

And then I shoveled the east-side to help it catch up.

For lunch, we decided to leave the house. It gave Shane and I a chance to look at all the downed trees.

Shane started to lecture us on how the microburst did more damage, and got shut down. "The microburst affected Scottsville," I said. "This storm affected a huge swath of VA. There were people stuck on I-95 near Fredericksburg for over 24 hours!" (Carrie read a great story about a company's bread truck that started passing out food to people stranded around it).

There were lots of trees still leaning and dangling on power lines. Ideally, they'll be taken down before the next storm, but the crews seem to have enough work with the lines that are already down.

And they've been busy. We spotted a bunch of brand new poles on our way into town!

I saw some small groups of trucks out working, but I missed the best picture opportunity: There were at least 15 trucks hanging out the Vintage Market.

Our boarders gave us a gift certificate for Kuma Sushi Noodles and Bar for Christmas. It's up on The Corner by UVA. It closed for winter break or Carrie I could've gone on a date night. All the food was excellent.

Carrie finally got to try takoyaki! It lived up to the hype.

Shane had a lunch bento and tried out bulgogi. I had the same thing and helped Shane and Carrie finish off whatever they couldn't (I was hungry!). 

The restaurant was only the first part of our trip. The 2nd part wasn't scheduled to start until 3 PM. We arrived early. Carrie picked up some fish stuff from PetSmart and, right after she finished, I took Shane in for "an emergency poop."

I'm glad he got it out of his system, because he needed to sit still for his hair appointment!

Carrie and Shane both had appointments, but only he got a lollipop at the end.

I'd joked about getting treats at Wegmans while we waited for the appointment. I was ready to go home, but Carrie must've taken my joke to heart.

Shane and I each got to pick out a flavor of mochi and Carrie grabbed herself a fruit tart crumble (and if you're an astute blog reader, you may recognize the other item in the basket!).

The last trip of the day was to the car wash. Carrie wanted to clear all the salt and road treatment chemicals from the truck's underbelly.

Shane was bouncing in his seat excited. There are many times I wish he wasn't so dramatic, but this wasn't one of them. 

The ability to find joy in simple things is a gift from God.

Carrie and Shane went straight to the fish tank when we got home. I took a picture and then straight left the room (The fish tank is their opportunity to bond and my opportunity for a break!).

There was another bout of snow in the overnight forecast. I took some pictures of the driveway to compare it's melting progress with whatever the morning would bring.

School was already cancelled. City Schools were waiting until 5:30 AM to make their final call (which made me glad to be in the County!).

The flurries started before I went to bed. I hoped we wouldn't lose power again!