{"id":6648,"date":"2014-02-13T16:34:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T21:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=6648"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:40","slug":"snow-day-140213","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/snow-day-140213\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow Day for Blondie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-140213-800.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6652\" style=\"border: 0px none; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Snow-Day-140213-800-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"snow day\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>It snowed yesterday.\u00a0 It snowed last night.\u00a0 It&#8217;s snowing again this morning.\u00a0 We currently have 6 or 7 inches of snow on the ground.\u00a0 For New Hampshire, that&#8217;s nothing; for Tennessee that&#8217;s crippling.\u00a0 The entire region has declared a snow day.\u00a0 Schools closed yesterday.\u00a0 Government offices are closed.\u00a0 Most businesses are closed, those that are open are running on skeleton crews.\u00a0 The road crews are pleading with folks to stay home: stay off the roads so they can get them cleared.\u00a0 Stuck vehicles just slow them down.\u00a0 We\u2019ll just hunker in and make the most of it.\u00a0 The dogs will enjoy this special play day with both of us here.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Snow Day Begins<\/h2>\n<p>Once it got light, Blondie and I went to let the foster dogs out of their crates, stretch their legs and get breakfast.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/86640328\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We returned home for our breakfast.\u00a0 After breakfast Blondie and Cochise went out front to play in the snow.\u00a0 Blondie had been out a couple of times already today: she likes the snow.\u00a0 Cochise was not thrilled with it and tended to stay in the areas Blondie had already tromped down.\u00a0 Blondie, on the other hand, bounded and leapt around like a crazy dog.\u00a0 Unfortunately my camera was on the charger.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blondie-140213-w-Cochise-After-Snow-Play-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-6653\" style=\"border: 0px none; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blondie-140213-w-Cochise-After-Snow-Play-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"After snow play\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>Once they\u2019d both had enough snow play, and taken care of their business, they came bounding up the steps, shook off the snow and asked to be let back inside.\u00a0 Marie had bribed Cochise into going outside with the promise of a fire, he expected her to make good on that.\u00a0 While she got that going, Cochise needed some extra warming to knock off the chill.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blondie-140213-Snow-Play-Snooze-w-Cochise-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6654\" style=\"border: 0px none; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blondie-140213-Snow-Play-Snooze-w-Cochise-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"snoozing after snow play\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>With the fire stoked up, they both settled in for a quick snooze.<\/p>\n<p>Our entire region is closed for a snow day today.\u00a0\u00a0 We have a 4-wheel drive truck.\u00a0 Marie was raised in St. Louis Missouri: she knows how to drive in snow.\u00a0 I put 200 pounds of logs in the back of the truck last night to increase traction.\u00a0 Normally she goes to work even when the rest of the office stays home.\u00a0 Her office called to say they were closed today &#8212; and she had BETTER stay home this time.\u00a0 So Marie made a big pan of snow ice cream and took a nap.\u00a0 We will go to let the foster dogs out to play and relieve themselves several more times, but other than that we\u2019ll just hunker in, keep the fire burning, and make the most of it.<\/p>\n<h2>Snow Day Update<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blondie-140213-SHOTGUN.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-6665\" style=\"border: 0px none; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blondie-140213-SHOTGUN.jpg\" alt=\"Blondie riding shotgun\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a>It turns out that Marie remembered something that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">had<\/span> to be done today and she needed to go into town to do it.\u00a0 So mid-afternoon I cleared off the truck, warmed it up, loaded the dogs and we all went for a snow run.\u00a0 Blondie tried to claim &#8220;shotgun&#8221; but we convinced her that Marie needed to sit there.\u00a0 It was not easy; have you ever tried telling a 90 pound pit bull that she cannot sit where she definitely wants to sit?<\/p>\n<p>Piney Mountain Road was a mess, but the temperature was up to 35\u00b0 by then and the mess was mostly sloppy not frozen.\u00a0 A different kind of slick from a sheet of ice.\u00a0 That will be tomorrow after this snow melt refreezes over night.\u00a0 Sweetwater Road was better.\u00a0 Route 73 and the interstate were fine.\u00a0 Roads in town were good.\u00a0 Obviously the road crews had done their jobs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Driveway-140213-Got-Stuck-800.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6666\" style=\"border: 0px none; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/Driveway-140213-Got-Stuck-800.jpg\" alt=\"snow packed driveway\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a>We accomplished the required chore and one other, then headed home.\u00a0\u00a0 All went well until it was time to scale our driveway.\u00a0 We stopped for the mail and I kicked it into 4-wheel-low and dropped to first gear.\u00a0 We got almost all the way up before the wheels started taking turns spinning as they searched out grip.\u00a0 We did get up, but the last part as done almost sideways and I chewed up the driveway.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll rake the gravel smooth again when the snow melts.\u00a0 All in all, a successful trip,\u00a0 and a very pleasant day.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll cap it off with dinner at Mom&#8217;s house.\u00a0 Since she&#8217;s only about 80 feet away from our house, we&#8217;ll just walk.\u00a0 Blondie, however will not be joining us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It snowed yesterday.&nbsp; It snowed last night.&nbsp; It&rsquo;s snowing again this morning.&nbsp; We currently have 6 or 7 inches of snow on the ground.&nbsp; For New Hampshire, that&rsquo;s nothing; for Tennessee that&rsquo;s crippling.&nbsp; The entire region has declared a snow day.&nbsp; Schools closed yesterday.&nbsp; Government offices are closed.&nbsp; Most businesses are closed, those that are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/snow-day-140213\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Snow Day for Blondie&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[19,59,64],"class_list":["post-6648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-adventures","tag-dogs","tag-simple-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6648"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19503,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions\/19503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}