Awaiting a Snow Squall

Squall: "a sudden violent gust of wind or a localized storm, especially one bringing rain, snow, or sleet."

A few hours ago there was an emergency weather alert, my phone buzzing, a square message covering mindless internet wandering. A snow squall was coming. Beware of limited visibility.

A snow squall? Sounds exciting... and dangerous.  I quickly consulted a weather app, screen shot the rader map, and sent it to my family. A couple of my sibs were in Salt Lake dealing with it there, trying not to bump into cars or slide off the road. They're now safe.

But here? Visibility was never a problem and the snow was more of a dusting. This isn't a bad thing, as safety is most important, but I'm a little disappointed. A snow squall would be fun to witness.

Several years ago we got a weather warning in regards to a blizzard. Salt Lake got hit hard. My sibs and I were nesting in preparation. As soon as the storm came around the point of the mountain it dissipated, scattering, barely any snow falling, and as soon as the storm moved south of the valley it came back together wrecking havoc down I-15. Storm systems are weird and unpredictable in Northern Utah.

I don't know how the squall affected different spots around these valleys, but as exciting as bursts of wind mixed with snow could be, I'm glad people are safe.

Sarah

Dirty Snow

It snowed last Friday.  By evening time the outer world up here in northern Utah was really quite pretty.  Trees covered in freshly fallen snow really is a nice sight.

It was yesterday that proved quite interesting.  The aftermath!!   Brown snow.  Well, brown snow was more of a SLC thing, as high northwest winds combined dessert dirt with snow, creating really dirty snow.  Here in Utah Valley we didn't so much have that problem, but we did get a little.  Our cars were filthy.

Yesterday became the battle of the car wash.  Car washes that don't get much business had crazy long lines!  Popular car washes had even longer lines wrapping around streets!!! My Mom found a smallish line at one of those "do it yourself" washes.  Thankfully between the two of us we had $4 in quarters.  My car is still dirty, simply because I'm waiting for early this coming week when the lines will be shorter.  

Seeing all those long lines yesterday was just so amusing.

Sarah

The Beauty of Winter

It's finally that time of year where the snow is now sticking to the ground, and it is honestly lovely.  Heh, except for when traveling on I-15 and there's a sudden slowdown and the electronic signs indicate that there's a crash 4 miles ahead...

Snow is so peaceful.  So tranquil.  The way it dampens sound, washing out the world in quiet reverence.  Crunching freshly packed snow on the pavement is so satisfactory and wonderful.  And wondering if you can get away with not shoveling it, wondering in fear that it might turn into black ice if you don't...

As a child it was always great fun to go into the mountains and sprawl on the ground making snow angels, or rounding snowballs into giant snowmen for jolly effect.  Somehow the cold wetness of snow doesn't exist in my childhood memories.

The symbolism of Winter is so enlightening.  The Earth decaying into hibernation, trees losing their leaves, flowers shriveling up into brown stumps all for the wonderful reveal of Spring.  We must die a little to grow stronger.  We must lose a little to be thankful and not take anything for granted.  Without Winter I wouldn't realize how splendid it is to have Spring flowers.

On another note I just looked at the weekly weather report and it looks like we're not getting a White Christmas this year.  I'm seriously overjoyed.  Actually, I really am.  Not joking!  Though it has happened, several times in the past, that the weather report indicated bright sunshine dancing around Dec. 25th, and then we'd get a surprise snow storm Christmas Eve.  It's happened more than a few times, so I should take bets with my family if we really will have a White Christmas and then plan accordingly.

I truly have a love/hate relationship with this time of year.  :P

"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'" ~ Lewis Carroll

I'm going to go get warm,

Sarah

Snowed In at St. George Utah

 I just got back from St. George Utah.  It was a family trip, one scheduled a while back with a date that couldn't be moved.  As Monday approached it was clear a major snow storm would sweep through the whole western United States.

I went with my Mom, Aunt Tam, and Grandma, and we were supposed to come back Wednesday.  Each day it seemed the upcoming storm was getting worse. 

 The drive between Northern to Southern Utah along I-15 is an interesting one.  There's mountains.  There's some kind of weird car death trap between mile marker 100-150, in which I've been stranded 3 times.  Getting stuck in the middle of Utah during a snow storm sounded less than ideal, so we pushed our trip back to coming home today.  Yesterday may have been fine, but we wanted to be safe, and today the sun was out, the road clear.

 Palm trees covered in snow.

 St. George was covered in snow as I walked to the main hotel building for breakfast Thursday.  Red rocks turned white.  A guy coming out of the building wished me a sarcastic Merry Christmas.  He was none too pleased.  I found the whole experience fascinating.  I've visited St. George so many time, many times during the Winter, and never have I seen it snow.

I have a few friends in Nevada, a couple in Las Vegas, and they were sharing all these photos of it snowing there as well.  And on T.V. I saw a report of it snowing in Bakersfield, an hour from where I grew up, so that was crazy.

Friday morning the storm passed Southern Utah, but was still hitting the central state.

Well, I'm home.  I'm always thankful for a safe trip.

And it's always fun when surprising new things happen.

Midnight Winter Wonderland, and My Mom Runs Out of Gas, sort of . . .

Have you guys been watching the Olympics?

I've been following Ice Skating.  It's the only sport I legitimately keep up with, on and off Olympic years.  Grand cup series through US Nationals, Four Continents, Worlds, etc.  And just so you know Ice Skating is a real sport, because they dance on knifes, on ice, while throwing themselves in the air and spinning with multiple G forces.  (And ice skating for real scares me.  Ever since I toe picked and flew forward back in 2013, getting hurt really bad--my wrist and arm still hurts at times even now--I haven't skated.  Fell off the horse, never got back on, and I'm okay with that.  I appreciate seasoned Ice Skaters all the more because of my injury.)

Anywho, I was up pretty late Sunday night watching Ice Skating, without realizing how much is was snowing.  I looked out the window just before midnight and was greeted with this most incredible snowy scene.  Sky lit up from light reflecting off snow, bright and wondrous.  This whole season has been pretty dry.

(This year I finally got complete darkening window curtains.  Moved to Utah in 2001, what took me so long??!!  Blackening window curtains are a must on snowy nights.)

Just a couple weeks ago we had above normal temperatures around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was wonderful!  Now it's freezing and I've got a bad case of Spring Fever, which has caused me to Spring clean.

In other news, yesterday my Mom and I had a day mixed with exasperation, frustration, and slight amusement.  I ran into the grocery store while my Mom stayed in the car listening to music.  When I came out the car wouldn't start.  Several attempts, no success.  The gas warning turned on right when we got to the store so we thought we would be fine.

Thankfully the parking lot had a lube doc and a gas station.  We walked over to the car place and asked if we could barrow a gas can, they had one, and then walked to the other end to get the gas.  My Mom was exasperated because she had never ran out of gas.  I laughed the whole time because the whole situation was quite amusing.  We were lucky that there was a gas station and a lube doc within close walking distance.  It was so cold while we were walking.  26 degrees F.

So we get back to the car, put the gas in, tried the ignition again, and nothing.  Didn't work!  A call to AAA, 1 1/2 hours of waiting (in which I got to peruse a Seagull bookstore while my Mom waited in the car), and the tow guy arrived to check the car.  It was the battery!  The funny thing is, after he charged the battery for over 5 minutes, the battery showed 100% with each test.  He said it was weird and didn't understand why the car had problems in the first place since the battery was testing so well.  Ah well.  C'est la vie. 

Lessons I learned: 1, check the tempurature before leaving the house, as I only brought a sweater, and 2, don't forget gloves!  Other than that "ride with the flow," as life likes to throw random bumps at us now and then.

(BTW, I'm listening to Spotify, the Japan Top 50 list.  At #1 is this song called Changed by One OK Rock.  Never heard this song before, but it's really catchy.  Listened to it on loop while writing this post.)

And I just realized that the sport I follow is technically called Figure Skating, not Ice Skating, because that what all the guides say.  I don't care enough to go back and fix it. Heh.

 

So Many Little Things To Be Thankful

“There is so much in the world for us if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it ourselves- so much in men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful for.” 

~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

At our house it was more of a quiet affair with some of my siblings, parents, grandparents, and a baby niece.  Michael and his fam joined up with Krista's family.  Enough text messages were passed back and forth to bring us all together.

There is so much to be thankful.

And now the Christmas season is upon us!

It's been warmer than normal, which I'm not complaining.  Wish the nice 60's temperature can last, but we do live in the mountain west, so it's a matter of time.  I love the snow, don't get me wrong, it's the driving in it that scares me.  So I'm dreaming of beautiful beaches this upcoming Winter season.  Though, the World is so beautiful draped in white snow, on a Sunday morning when no one is out driving, and everything is quiet.  Surreal and magical.  Hopefully we'll have one such day.

And Thus It Snows

“The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?” ~ J.B Priestley

We finally had our first snow.  This year it came earlier than last year, which fell on Christmas day.  This year the first snow fell the night before Thanksgiving, giving us a beautiful day of wonder on our national day of thanks.

Today we got hit by another snow storm.

This one long lasting with giant flakes.  It's only now just calming down, so much so that the dark night is no longer glowing white.

I love the snow when I'm indoors, safe, looking out the window in a warm place.

 A trip to Costco this afternoon wasn't so bad.

But tonight, when my Mom and I needed to make another run to the store, the weather took a whiteout turn for the worst as we drove passed 4 to 5 accidents.  Watching snow is peaceful, but driving in snow is something I'll never quite get use to.

Still, tomorrow morning will be beautiful.

I'm excited to see the fresh snow lit brightly by sunlight, sparkling like glitter.

The Great Invention: Snow! -_-;;

(A conversation I had with my Dad last week)

Me: Snow!  I hate snow!  I hate Winter!

My Dad: What a great invention!

Me: How is it a great invention?

My Dad: You create these things called mountains.  You put snow on it, and in the Summer, when there's no rain, you have water flowing down the mountain all year long, even when you don't know where the water is coming from, like Bridal Veil Falls.  It's a great invention."

(I see the logic, it's true, but I still don't have to like it!  Goodness, I promised myself at the end of my California trip last November that I would never grumble about snow again.  This was a total failure last week!  Snow is a blessing.  A blessing.  And without it I wouldn't love Spring and Autumn so much . . . though when I was living in California without snow I still loved Spring and Autumn, so there you go.)

Mall Palm Trees

I love how the Provo Towne Centre Mall has Palm trees running down the center of the lower floor walkway, seeming to float on the second floor at eye level, at least where I'm currently standing right now.

For a moment I can pretend I'm in California, and that there isn't snow outside, with more snow scheduled for tomorrow.

There's 65 days till Spring, in case you need something to look forward to.

Someone Wished Too Hard for a White Christmas . . .

 So, is the magnitude of our little white Christmas in northern Utah due to a single person wishing too strongly? Or a conglomerate amount of wishers getting carried away?

I, for one, didn't join in the wishing this year.  Last year was magical enough.  In 2014 we didn't get our first "stick on the ground" snowfall until Christmas Day, and it was beautiful.  This year, as predicted by farmers almanac, we're having a wetter, colder season, and with that more snow.  We've been "hit hard" a couple times already, though after last Friday I'm redefining "hit hard," though if I lived in Alaska or Canada or Norway or Greenland I would probably scoff at our latest snowfall as mere flurries.

Still, when I heard on the news we would be getting snow on Christmas the child in me got excited.  When my Dad looked at weather predictions on his phone during our Christmas Eve feast, announcing we would be getting about six inches, the adult in me who hates driving in snow got nervous.

We didn't get six inches.  I think we got about a foot of snow.  Sundance Ski Resort got around 19 inches.  Merry Christmas to all those people who skid uncontrollably to the side of the road.  Thankfully I remained safely home-bound on Friday.  White Christmas's are romantic and all, but they're not without their perils.

 The snow wouldn't stop falling Christmas Eve through Christmas Day.

The above photograph was taken just past midnight.  It was so bright outside I didn't need a flash to take the picture, simply letting in natural light.

 And this picture was taken around 2:15 am.  I didn't want to sleep.  Presents were wrapped the night before, so that wasn't keeping me up, I just wanted to look outside.  The World looked so peaceful and calm.  "All is calm: All is bright."  Watching snow fall is really quite hypnotizing.

 Really beautiful.

(As a note, I don't know why it's so bright when it snows.  I assume it's light pollution bouncing off snowflakes, illuminating everything.  It's a phenomenon I haven't gotten use to.  My brain freaks out at 2 am when there's so much outside light flooding into my room that I mentally think it's 7 am.)

 So. Much. Snow! 0_0

The nice thing about living where it snows is that the great outdoors become an icebox.  I put our party drinks on the snow to chill, saving room in the fridge.  Though, heh, I waited too long to get these Sprites.  They had completely sunk down, and I wasn't thinking and fished them out with my bare hands.  So cold!  I just left them on the pavement, not wanting to brush off the snow.

Unexpected Snow Storms

This morning my Mom and I got up all nice and early to hop in line at the Disney Store to grab limited edition Frozen dolls (more on that tomorrow).  Yes, there was a line before the store even opened.  And no, I didn't mind a bit.  We had nice conversations with the people we sat next to, and found creative ways to answer mall pass-by-ers why we we're there in the first place.  Dolls.  Dolls are cool!  And guys were in the line, too, but mainly as a favor for their wives.

It was amusing watching all the people who come to the mall early to walk laps.  Sounds like a fantastic idea, really.  The mall opens its doors at 8 am, but the stores open up at 10, so 2 hours of temperature controlled walking without the temptation of buying, unless you're there past 10, of course.

But on the way to the mall just before 9 the weather was nice and pleasant.  Cold enough to need boots and a coat, but nice.  No hint of any weather changes to worry about.

When the morning excitement at the mall ended, dolls claimed, we headed to the exit doors only to be greeted by white.  A full on blizzard in the works!  And all the mall guests getting ready to exit, horror struck.

So glad I wore a coat and not a sweater, which almost happened!

Even my phone didn't get the blizzard message.

I know the East Coast has been super hard hit this year.  Hasn't Boston received somewhere around 20 feet of snow?  But here in Utah it's been abnormally warm.  February 2015 is officially the warmest month in recorded history.  Several sweater days that felt like early October.

But now it's all melted, and you would never know there was a snow storm this morning, unless you look at the mountains which are gorgeously dusted with snow.  The sunset this evening was so beautiful.

The Inspirational Narnia Deception?

(I found this on Facebook, so I don't know who authored this image)

I have awesome Facebook friends.  They're always sharing inspirational quotes with glorious images.  So my FB homepage is a mix of uplifting whatnot's, silly one liners, and depressing news stories.

But this image my friend Alison shared got me thinking.

 "The Greatest Part of Life is Simply Enjoying It"  . . . even if it's snowing.  That's what this inspirational image is Really trying to say.  Enjoy life, despite the snow, through the "Snow Storms Of Life," etc.  Because, as I've gotten older, I've learned to despise cold white fluff.  Cold, wet, white fluff.

So. Cold.

Or is this Narnia??!!

(See the Lamp post?)

 

Enjoy life and you just might find yourself in Narnia?

I like this message.

Exercises for the Snowed In

It snowed last night, and I've found that when it comes to sticking to an exercise routine and going to the gym, snow is one of the first things that stop me, especially at 6 a.m.  Some people don't mind driving in snow and ice, but I'll avoid it if I can.  So I workout at home on days I can't make it to the gym.  Here are some great, free online resources I've found:

For the Family:

Sparks People, at sparkspeople.com, is overall an amazing website for all things health and motivation.  There's a great, friendly community, but also recipes and articles on a variety of subjects.  And of course there is a video section with cardio, pilates, yoga, and ab workouts.  The site itself is a little overwhelming at first, but once you figure out where everything is, the website really is amazing.  It's worth checking out.   

For Guys (though there's good stuff for everyone)

Nerd Fitness: Level up your Life is a blog, but Steve shares some great health information, and he has a Free Resource section where he's put together workouts that have links to YouTube.  A really fun blog, and I love the Lego pics.  Here's a link to the videos.

For the Gals

A lot of Women Health magazines have workouts with videos and articles avaliable for free on their websites. 

Fitness Magazine has a nice variety of videos, and this is one of my favorite places to go.  They even have a short workout video called Cold Play: Your Winter Workout Plan.

Self is probably one of the more well known health magazines.  Here's a link to their workout section.  BTW, they have a lot of prizes and drawings, and it's never a bad idea to enter.  A couple months ago I randomly got a package through FedEx, and inside was a free workout DVD for a contest I forgot I entered.  That was pretty awesome.      

Shape Magazine has some great workouts.  I need to try the Fat-Blasting Rebounding Routine.  I love my mini trampoline, and Rebounding workouts are really good for you.  I know it looks silly, but it really is a great workout.

Youtube

I discovered the Mahalo channel when I was searching for Tap dance videos, where they have a great series.  Honestly, they have series for just about anything you want to learn.  They have a couple Fitness playlists, and here is one of their videos: 

And if you want to dance here's a Tap video (link to all):

There's Hip-Hop as well, if you want to check that out.

Have fun!

Sarah

Witches Night Out at Gardner Village

 Happy Halloween!

I heard years ago how much fun Witches night is at Gardner Village in West Jordan Utah.  I thought it was going to be some small thing, but I was curious, so my sister-in-law Kirsta and I thought a girls night out would be a lot of fun.

 It was so much fun!  And big!  I couldn't believe how many people were there.  Everyone was dressed up, or at least had witches hats; some hats were decorated in the most elaborate, wonderful ways.  My favorite were these three older women dressed up as the three Sleeping Beauty fairies.  That was cool. 

The evening was like spending a night at Hogsmeade!

 Then we wandered into the Christmas Celebrate store and I saw this.

Now I'm ready for Christmas . . . minus the snow.  Okay, one day I'm going to buy this set.  I love the peanuts!