If you would have asked me last fall about winters in Washington, DC, I would have told you that they really aren’t bad. My theory, while not scientific (or even accurate) is that the Blue Ridge Mountains seem to break up whatever is coming at us. Heavy snows seem to go to our North. Then, I would mention that I bought a snow blower about five years ago and never used it the first three years. This year, all hell broke loose.
Carole and I are planners. So we started planning our Christmas party in February 2009. For any number of years, we had a party every year. Then, about ten years back, we went to every other year. In February 2009, we hadn’t had a party in five years and to my surprise, Carole wanted to have another party. We sat down and made a list of what needed to be done each month. For example, outdoor lights needed to go up in October. All indoor decorations had to be completed by November so that Carole could start cooking in December. Cooking is a major project. I actually had the tree up and decorated before Thanksgiving.
The party is always the Saturday before Christmas. So, December 19th was the day. We invited over 100 people. We are like the airlines, we overbook. But through the years, we have acquired so many dear friends that it is hard to know where to stop. There’s military friends and Carole’s crew of volunteers from the Fort Myer Thrift Shop. There’s the neighbors and the Arent Foxers. And, of course, my golf buddies. We figured somewhere between 60 and 70 would come. To our surprise, about 85 RSVP’d that they were coming. I began moving furniture around so that there would be room for three more bodies here and four over there. On Thursday night, I grilled five marinated flank steaks. That morning, we picked up a 12 pound Honey Baked ham.
On Friday night, the snow started falling and by noon on Saturday, we had about 14 inches. The entire area was paralyzed. For your information, DC can’t handle two inches of snow. Schools are shut down when there is a hint of snow in the forecast. I told Carole that at least the storm didn’t leave us in doubt. Our daughter, Missy, flew in on Friday for the party and Christmas. That gave us something to be thankful for. So, did we have a party? You bet. We had those invited neighbors who could walk come over. There were about 15 of us and we had plenty to eat and drink and eat and drink.
We didn’t have room in the refrigerator for all the left overs. But, with the cold weather, we filled up the garage. Did I mention the 22 pound turkey we were thawing out for Christmas eve? Even though we had food everywhere, Carole decided to fix the bird for us and Missy’s family (Terry and the two kids, Tyler and Kristin, came in on Tuesday). It was probably the right decision because what were the two of us going to do with a 22 pound bird? Also, Carole likes left over turkey.
Well, the marinated flank steaks were to die for and we ate them every other day (the other days we had ham). Christmas is especially good with family around.
Late in January, we flew to San Diego for a two week cruise through the Panama Canal. I will tell you about the cruise another day. We were to arrive at Fort Lauderdale on Friday, February 5th. Our return flights took us through Charlotte and into Dulles International arriving at 9:00 PM.
During the cruise, the CNN picked up by the ship was the international version. This was really great if you wanted to know the weather in Helsinki or who won the latest cricket match. So it wasn’t until we arrived at Fort Lauderdale and CNN transitioned to the US version that we found out that DC was getting ready for another snow of the decade. How depressing. Neither of us even wanted to eat breakfast. While we were unaware, our flight had been canceled the night before. United notified us on our home phone.
Well, we scooted out to the airport and checked out our options. Our first good omen came when we noticed that our overweight bags couldn’t be weighed because the scale at our counter was broken. There were two earlier flights to DC. There was one leaving very shortly to Charlotte and then to Dulles arriving at 3:00 PM. The other was a direct flight to Reagan that would get us in at 2:00 PM Our car was at a Fairfield Inn out by Dulles, but we weren’t willing to roll the dice in Charlotte. We opted for the direct flight to Reagan and were actually on the ground at 2:00 PM. Home at 2:30 and had picked up our dog, Nikki, from the kennel by 4:30. Then, we hunkered down for 20 more inches.
We didn’t see a snow plow until late Monday afternoon. But, with two good size snow blowers and a lot of good neighbor spirit, we cleared driveways and the street on Sunday. Then, on Monday, my neighbor, Jim Vancini and I drove out to Dulles and dug out my other car. That’s right, no garage. Jim found some jumper cables and we were in business. The battery in my new Infiniti could not believe I had left it out in the snow for two and a half weeks. I guess they don’t go camping over in Japan. I was thinking, if I had purchased a Lexus, it might have taken off by itself.
So, we got the cars tucked away and here comes the three-pete blizzard of this winter. Tuesday and Wednesday, we had white-out conditions with snow and wind whipping around at 35 mph. So, so much for the Blue Ridge Mountain theory. The weatherman was explaining some sort of circular motion up in the air between land and sea that was causing us to be wiped out. I have decided that global warming is a bunch of crap. Hey, Al Gore, go home and turn out some lights and leave the rest of us alone.
