it's not life that matters but the journey...

Friday we had an absolutely beautiful, and terrible snowstorm - the first of the season. It started overnight while we were sleeping, and by the time we woke up, our cars were buried under more than a foot of snow. The snow came down heavily until about 10 or 11 a.m., with strong winds, and the news was warning people to stay home. So I did. I missed a whole day of work Friday, and I enjoyed it tremendously - though this means that next week I have to do overtime to make up 8 lost hours! Masahiko got help from the maintenance guy digging his Jeep out, and he went to work because his office is just about 15 minutes away (while mine is over 30 minutes on a good day - god knows how long it would have taken me in that storm, and in a small Nissan Sentra without snow tires). So, my car remained stuck in the parking lot, surrounded by snow and ice, until Saturday afternoon. stupidly we hadn't bought a snow shovel, and all the stores around town were out of them (uh, it's a necessary item in this city, so why are they not stocking enough?), so we bought another kind of shovel at Wal-Mart, and spent over an hour clearing my car of the snow, which had by this time become heavy with ice. I realize now that the management of this building doesn't give a shit. they didn't put any salt down in our parking lot, so it's treacherous to even walk around, and they didn't get snow plows to move the snow, so even after I'd cleared the snow behind my car, two hours later there was more snow behind it (apparently someone else cleared their car, and dumped the snow behind mine). I've complained to the people in the office, but they still haven't cleared the lot by Sunday morning. I guess that means that we're in for a hard winter - which makes me wonder how long I really want to live in this city or this state!

anyway, while it was coming down, from the warm safety of my apartment, and on Saturday morning, the snow was very beautiful, and I took

The snowstorm:


Icicles


Leo exploring the snow


another perspective:


More icicles (looking like crystals shining in the sun):