"Our House"

Trey Smith

Today I am going back to "our house" in South Bend for what [I hope] will be the last time. There are a few odds and ends to take care of plus a small amount of belongings that still remain to be brought back to Ocean Shores. Once these tasks are completed, I will lock up "our house" one last time and that will be that. Within two weeks, we will turn over our keys to the government and -- barring some miracle -- we will never again be homeowners.

I have come a long way in the past month. My firsts trips back to "our house" were very emotional for me. It still felt like "our house." At this point, I'm feeling very ambivalent. I'm not sure how I will feel when I walk through the front door this morning. The house is almost empty and all the utilities were turned off weeks ago. I think it will be like staring at the sun-bleached skeleton of someone you once knew intimately.

Another thing different about this last trip is that I'm not really looking forward to it. I know it is something I have to do, so I'm doing it, but I'm doing it rather unenthusiastically. As much as I miss the old house and my routine -- I miss both more than I can express -- it is over and done with. All I will be doing today is hammering the last nail in that coffin.

I suppose that explains my lack of enthusiasm. I realize that today marks the final goodbye.

A Howling Good Time

Trey Smith

We lived in South Bend on the edge of a forest for 6+ years and yet I've seen or heard more wildlife in my first month in Ocean Shores!

Late last night, as I walked with Jaz in a nearby field, we heard a pack of coyotes not more than 2 or 3 blocks away. A few nights earlier, I watched a raccoon the size of a koala waddle across the road about 4 blocks south of our apartment. Everyday I see scores of deer in all sections of town. In the southern part of the Ocean Shores peninsula, there are sitings of fox, otters and, on occasion, even black bears. The last reported siting of a cougar was near the high school (about 1.5 miles north of us).

When we made this move, we ostensibly moved from a small town to a slightly larger one. According to official census data, the population of Ocean Shores (5,500) is over three times greater than South Bend (1,700). But those figures are a bit deceiving. There are a lot of people who are counted as Ocean Shores residents who don't actually live here. They are snow birds. They own property and "live" here only 2 months of the year (July and August).

While this is a more urban environment than South Bend, it's not by much.

There are two other factors at play as well. First, there is a lot of unimproved land sprinkled throughout this peninsula -- excellent habitat for wildlife. Secondly, while Ocean Shores is 3 times larger than South Bend in population, it is nearly 6 times larger in total area (12.4 square miles to 2.01 square miles). Less human population density is an invitation for greater wildlife density.

One Last Time, Part 3

Trey Smith

This is it: my last night in this house that has been home for 6+ years. Though I will return a few times more, those will be rather brief day trips. The only residence in which Della and I lived in for a longer time period was our home in Salem. It was difficult saying goodbye to it too, though the decision to move then was our own choice.

You know, this situation has turned out both to be more painful and less painful than I imagined. It has been more painful because it has been so drawn out. With Della unable to help much due to her health issues and my health not being great, it has taken me nearly two months of steady work to accomplish what an able-bodied person probably could have finished off in 2 or 3 weeks! The slow pace of watching my routinized world taken down piece by piece has been excruciating -- like dying a thousand deaths. I have been in a funk the whole time.

And yet, as I prepare for the final move, there is a sense of relief that it is drawing to a close. While I expect I will be teary-eyed as I pull away from the house tomorrow, I don't think I will sob profusely (that may or may not come later tonight). While I am very nervous about moving into the small space that is our apartment in Ocean Shores, I am ready for it to happen.

As I have previously noted, this house no longer feels like home. The things that made it home -- Della, Jaz, Lily and our possessions -- are not here. In between all my work, I still putter around as usual, but I'm puttering around in a shell of a former self. Though I am anxious about my new "home", I am ready to see what the future holds.

Later tonight I will build one last fire in the fireplace and sit in an almost empty living room staring at the flames. I will talk to the house and tell it how much it has meant to me. As I drift off to sleep, I will dream about what it's been like to live here and then, when I awaken on Thursday morning, I will pack up the car to head for my new home...where the woman I love and who loves me awaits.

One Last Time, Part 2

Trey Smith

I am back in South Bend for my last overnight stays. I will pull out of here tomorrow or Thursday and any future return trips will be day trips only. I sold our refrigerator yesterday, so I am having to my make due with a small cooler. Our washer and dryer may be leaving today.

While there is no question that this whole process has wreaked havoc with my emotional state, I have utilized one coping mechanism that -- to this point -- has minimized the anguish: I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the predicament itself. Because I am a very task-oriented type of person, I consciously have focused almost all of my mental energies on all the tasks before me. As I check one off my list, my attention immediately focuses on the next one.

At some point, however, I will finish these tasks and it is then that enormity of the situation really will hit me. I am very close to that point now. I started to get a bit weepy last night, but I was so exhausted that I basically collapsed in bed. When I awoke this morning, I had more tasks to focus on, so the maudlin feelings will have to wait a day or so before they can overwhelm me.

In the Grip of Melancholy

Trey Smith

I've still got a lot of work to do, but I'm having a great deal of trouble in trying to motivate myself to do it! I just find myself in the grip of melancholy. While I have had the luxury of a countdown of months or weeks, I now find myself at a countdown numbered in days.

At the end of the coming weekend, I must move out the furnishings and other items from my computer room and bedroom. As I have noted before, I have kept these two rooms basically intact, so that I have places in this house I can retreat to for a sense of routine and normalcy. But that comes to an end on Sunday morning. I have reserved a U-Haul that I will pick up in Ocean Shores Sunday afternoon after I have returned Della and the dogs back to our new home.

It is at that point that this move away from our beloved house in South Bend will hit me front and center (though I'm already feeling it now). I will make the solitary drive back to a fairly empty house to load up the last vestiges of our belongings that we will keep. On Monday, I will drive to Ocean Shores in the rental truck and stay until Wednesday or Thursday morning.

At that juncture, I will make my final trip to our house in South Bend. I'm not sure how long I will stay. It all depends on how long it will take me to dispose of (donate to our two local thrift stores plus one or more trips to the dump) the items left over from this week's moving sale. I'll probably do a bit more cleaning and then that's it.

Before I lock the doors for the final time, I expect that I will have a long talk with this old house. It has been a good friend. I'm fairly sure I will bawl my eyes out. Knowing the way I am, I'll probably linger for quite a while, not wanting to let go. Just sitting there alone on the back steps of the deck or standing in an empty room.

At some point, I will realize that I must move forward. I'll lock the doors and drive away. I probably will be bawling then too -- I am not ashamed to admit it.

One Last Time, Part 1

Trey Smith

Yesterday I drove to Ocean Shores and brought back Della and Lily to South Bend. Today and tomorrow we will hold our personal liquidation sale. These 2 or 3 days will be the last time our little family occupies this house.

Della won't be sleeping here, though. Her bed is in Ocean Shores. So, owing to the gracious invitation of our next door neighbor, Della will be snoozing close by.

A woman has contacted us about adopting Dylan the cat. She told us that she will be by today which means that our little family may be minus one by nightfall...or Dylan could go run and hide. It will be interesting to see where Dylan is as of tomorrow morning.

If all goes well, our house will be greatly emptied out by late Saturday afternoon. While that will certainly help the last phase of this process -- intense cleaning -- it will be very hard on me emotionally. I get very attached to things -- a lot more so than people -- and most or all of those things should be headed out the door in other people's possession. My hope is that I can hold it together and not get all weepy like I did years ago at my maternal grandparent's estate sale.

Most likely, I will take Della, Jaz and Lily back to Ocean Shores on Sunday morning. I will return to South Bend that afternoon. My last few days in this house will be very strange indeed. No wife. No pets. Few belongings. I am not looking forward to it at all, but...it is what it is.

A Dud of a Blow Job

Trey Smith

After listening to a week's worth of nasty predictions about the weather, we really dodged a bullet. While South Bend was hammered by the storm -- strong winds and nearly 5 inches of rain in 24 hours -- it fortunately didn't make it as far north as Ocean Shores. While our crew of 4 had to deal with rain and wind on Moving Day, it was nothing out of the ordinary for autumn on the Washington Coast.

Though the weather wasn't half the impediment that we anticipated, it still was a long and back-breaking day. My old body is so worn out that I'm taking today off.

~

After we finished moving our furniture and belongings into our new apartment, we treated our two helpers to a big lunch at a local pizzeria. When Della and I lived in Aberdeen about 6 years ago, this restaurant was our favorite place to eat in Ocean Shores. On the drive up, we raved about the quality of the food and both of us were REALLY looking forward to eating there.

Well, we did eat there...but the great pizza we remember wasn't so great! In fact, on a scale 1 - 10, I'd rate the pizza we had at about a 5. It just goes to show that you can't always judge the present by the past. Things change and not all those changes are for the better.

Northern Exposure

Trey Smith

After a soap opera that has spanned several months, it looks like Della and I f-i-n-a-l-l-y have a landing spot: Ocean Shores, Washington. We learned on Monday that all of our documentation apparently has passed muster and we have been given a move-in date of Friday, September 20. While it is quite a relief to know where we're headed and it is in a location that we like, we really don't feel like celebrating. We're leaving South Bend only because we have to -- this is not the sort of outcome we had hoped for when we moved here.

For those of you unfamiliar with Ocean Shores -- my guess is that this will include almost all of you -- here's a photo of the town.

Ocean Shores is located on what is called the Point Brown Peninsula, a six mile long spit of sand that represents the northern entrance to Grays Harbor. In the photo above, the water to the right is the harbor and the water to the left is the Pacific Ocean. Our apartment complex is situated near the far end of the photo only about 500 yards from the ocean beach.

Ocean Shores is an interesting place. It is home to a lot of wealthy people as well as a lot of poor people (we will be in the latter). A good number of the poor people service the rich ones! Most of the jobs in the area are in the service industry (motels, hotels, restaurants and the various accoutrements you would expect to find in a resort community). I read that singer Pat Boone has or used to have a home here.

The population is listed at around 5,600 or nearly 4,000 more than South Bend. My guess is that a lot of the residents are snowbirds, so the population in the winter months probably is a lot less.

Besides the fact that getting used to [cramped] apartment living will be a major stressor for me -- our 2 bedroom apartment will be less than one-half the square footage of this house -- there is another aspect of this move that will be heart wrenching. We have 3 pets and only 2 can go with us. We have decided that those two will be our dogs which means we need to find a home for our 13 year old cat. Dylan is Della's baby, but knowing his eccentric personality, we both agree that he is not cut out for apartment living. We're just worried that his age and sometimes odd behavior will make it difficult to find him a new home.

As with all things in life, there are positives and negatives with our situation.

The Value of Savings

Trey Smith

In financial terms, Della and I have been members of the working poor for more years than I care to remember. Over the past decade, there have only been one or two years in which our gross annual income was north of $20K or so. In today's modern world in the US, $20,000 isn't a lot, but we've been able to keep our heads above the waterline.

To be fair and truthful, one of the reasons this is so is because we've received a lot of assistance from a variety of taxpayer-funded programs and services. We have been on Food Stamps for quite a long time. I've been on Medicaid for over 3 years (which includes help with the cost of transportation for medical and mental health appointments). We've received assistance for our home heating bills a time or two. We have a subsidized mortgage and, due to my disability, we receive discounts on property taxes and city-provided utilities.

My dad and step-mother also helped out big time a few years ago when they bought us a new car when our latest lemon died. This car has been our main source of transportation ever since.

While these various forms of assistance are the major factor for why we haven't been homeless or living in a slum for the past several years, there is one other factor that has played a significant role: My penny-pinching ways. Regardless of how much or how little our monthly income happens to be, I have sequestered a certain portion of it. It sits there in our interest-bearing checking account, but in terms of the monthly budget, it is as if it doesn't exist. When I factor up our available non-discretionary and discretionary expenditures, that money is invisible.

About a year ago at this time, Della was working a lot of hours, between 180 - 200 a month. In terms of our meager overall income, we were swimming in cash. With a greater income than usual coming in, more money was added to our sequester pool. It is precisely because I raised the sequester threshold that we remain slightly above the waterline today. Those saved dollars are being used to supplement our current miniscule monthly income of $756. It is why we have been able to keep a roof over our heads and why, barring some costly emergency, we probably can make it in our current circumstances until, maybe, October or November. (Of course, we may be thrown out of our soon-to-be foreclosed on house before then!)

I am bringing up this notion of setting aside money when times are relatively good because, too often, governments do not do this. When times are good and the money is rolling in, governments have a tendency to use up the vast majority of the largesse (either in transfers to the elite and/or in adding/expanding current government programs). Far too many governments don't set up a Rainy Day Fund.

For instance, my little town has kept very little revenue in reserve. When the economic downturn hit, the annual budget was decimated. Our streets are not in good shape and utility rates have gone through the roof. If the local council had saved more money during the more plentiful years, they could have augmented our decreased annual budgets in such a way that the rug wouldn't have been pulled out from under we citizens so abruptly. But they didn't set up a sustainable Rainy Day Fund and now we are reaping the painful consequences.

Hey, Mistakes Can Happen (Shrug)

Trey Smith

In the aftermath of the Newtown shooting -- even far away in tiny hamlets like South Bend -- a lot of people are talking about it still one week later. Della and I seem to hold a minority opinion around here. While recent polls indicate that nearly 2/3 of the American public are ready to have a serious discussion about gun control (and better mental health services), it doesn't appear to be this way in gun happy Pacific County, Washington!

The other day I got into an interesting discussion with one of my neighbors. She was of the opinion that Americans need more guns, not less. She told me that, if she was out somewhere with her husband and children AND some individual started randomly shooting, she would hope that her husband would pull out his concealed pistol and blow that sucker away.

I asked her how she would feel if, in doing so, he accidentally caused injury or death to a bystander, particularly a child. Incredibly, she responded that this would be unfortunate, but mistakes of this nature can happen. No one should hold any animus against her spouse because he was trying to stop evil.

Upon hearing this, I asked a different sort of question: "What if another person -- one who thinks like you do -- pulled out his concealed weapon to try to stop a crazed gunman and accidentally shot your husband or one of your children?" She didn't like this question at all. This scenario obviously made her very uncomfortable. She abruptly ended the conversation and walked off.

While I can't be certain as to why my second question made her so uncomfortable, I can venture a guess. If someone she cared about was on the receiving end of a stray shot, she'd be mad as hell! She wouldn't so easily shrug her shoulders. And I think she quickly realized the callousness of her answer to the first question.

For me, this all goes back to the notion that what people in our camp might do is excusable, but what others might do is not. We -- both individually and collectively -- should be afforded the benefit of the doubt; others are NOT afforded this same luxury.

Let's face it. To a lesser or greater extent, we are all guilty of this. When we screw up, we want others to cut us some slack, but we demand that the book be thrown at others who are guilty of much the same thing.

When It Rains, It Pours

Trey Smith

So much for the drought! After experiencing a very uncharacteristic late summer - early autumn dry spell which saw no measurable rainfall for 31 days, we're making up for it today (nearly 2.00" thus far).

It just goes to show that Mother Nature has her way of evening things out. Our climate on the southwest Washington coast is predicated on rain and, even during an extended lack thereof, we tend to be able to catch up in a hurry.

Not only have we experienced buckets of rain today, but we're set to receive buckets more over the next three days. After that, forecasters have indicated it may turn dry again. (I hope it is relatively dry from Thursday - Saturday as my dad and step-mother will be here for a visit!)

A Long Way from Tulsa

Trey Smith

As the crow flies, Tulsa, Oklahoma, is about two thousand miles east of South Bend. This summer, however, the distance seems more like one trillion miles. While Tulsa has been unable to escape the grip of the worst drought in more than 50 years, our weather here has been delightful.

For one day -- yesterday -- we got a taste of the misery Oklahomans have been experiencing. For the first time this year, our high temperature exceeded 90 degrees. In fact, we sweltered under clear skies and a high of 97 sizzling degrees. The hot day offered a substantial shock to the system since the high two days earlier was a mere 64!

But this is where southwest Washington is no central Oklahoma. Our forecasted high for today is only around 75 degrees thanks, in part, to this morning's marine layer. If only Tulsa could be so lucky!

Our southern mates in Tulsa have had to live through 19 consecutive days of highs of 100 degrees or more (yesterday's high in Tulsa was a stifling 113). Their average high over this period is an eye-popping 106+ degrees! That puts South Bend's one day brush with 100 in proper perspective.

Yes, it was damn hot, but cool relief came only a few hours after sundown. By 9:00 pm, the temperature had fallen to 73 degrees on its way to an overnight low around 55.

When It's Hot, It's Hot!

Trey Smith

I must admit, we're feeling a bit guilty in Southwest Washington. While nearly 60% of the nation deals with drought and triple digit high temperatures, we're having a most delightful summer. We've received just enough precipitation to keep the plants green and healthy, but not too much.

To illustrate how different our summer has been from most, I took a gander at my wife's hometown -- Hot Springs, Arkansas -- to see how their July compares to ours. So far this month, their highest high has been 108 stifling degrees! Our high temperature to date -- we've hit it on two occasions -- is a mild 78 degrees. Most of our high temperatures have ranged from the low 60s to around 70.

Very, very pleasant weather, if I do say so myself!

But really to show the difference between there and here, we need to look at the lowest recorded low for July to this point. In Hot Springs, they only have dropped below 80 degrees one time! Their lowest low sits at 79 degrees or 1 degree MORE than our highest high.

My poor brother calls Kansas City, Missouri home. They have been gripped by the worst heat wave in over 70 years! So far this month, the average high in KC has been a sweltering 99.4 degrees that includes 13 days in which the daily high temperature has reached 100 degrees or above (109 degrees is the highest high).

Those sorts of temperatures simply boggle my mind. I'm really glad I live here...in the still temperate zone!

Off the Map

Trey Smith

I live in a small town in a rural county far from any large cities. South Bend is approximately 135 miles from either Seattle, WA (northeast) or Portland, OR (southeast), the two nearest population centers. There are no stoplights in this little town. There are no corporate-owned stores. There is only one gas station (a mini mart owned by my friend, Paul), one grocery store, one pharmacy and one hardware store. In more ways than one, we're sort of off the map.

However, we live in a computerized world. Go to MapQuest or Google Maps and you can see an aerial view of our town (including my house). Despite the fact that these online maps clearly show the street layout of South Bend, delivery drivers (e.g., UPS, Fed Ex, etc.) have a hard time locating specific addresses in our town.

Why this is so I have nary a clue!

Della and I live on the western most street in town. We live near the top of what locals call Nob Hill. It is a dead end street which means it has no outlets. Unless you go back the way you came, you must stop somewhere on our street or else go driving off into the forest that drops into a ravine!

I can't tell you how many times commercial trucks or passenger cars come up our street only to discover there is no outlet. They often stop near the front of my house and I can see the driver looking perplexed. He or she will look around wildly and then, after some excited muttering, turn the vehicle around to go back from whence they came.

On a few occasions, the enterprising driver decides to try the grassy alley that runs along the north side of our property. What a shock it must be when they realize that the alley simply runs down an incline to the back of an abandoned home nestled in the woods!

I know what part of the problem is. I have learned that many companies don't show South Bend, Washington on their proprietorial mapping systems. They know this town indeed exists, but it is unmapped territory. So, the drivers often are left to their own devises and far too many of them obviously don't know about the wonders of MapQuest or Google Maps!

Moving Day

Trey Smith

Yesterday, a family across the way moved out. They rented a 26 foot U-Haul truck and hired some local guys to do the work. The family had lived in South Bend for a bit less than one year and the wife, in particular, hated it. She's a big city gal who is overjoyed that the family is moving back to the Olympia area.

Yet, for all her excitement at leaving this one-horse town, there was some melancholy too. She lingered in the driveway of her rented home and it seemed to take all of her inner strength to pull the car away from the curb to drive off toward her new life.

I can certainly understand her mixed emotions.

In our early years together, it seems that Della and I moved about every two years. Sometimes, it was merely across town. At other times, it was across a state or even out of it. We both have a bit of wanderlust in us and we liked the adventure of moving somewhere new.

But it always was a double-edged sword for me. While part of me likes new, another part of me clings desperately to the old. There were a few houses or towns we lived in that I simply didn't like that well. When we decided to pull up our stakes and head on down the road, I struggled with saying goodbye.

My wife often calls me a sentimental fool (in a loving way) and I always get very emotional leaving, even when it's from a place I want to leave behind! The reason for this is due to my autistic need for sameness. Even when unhappy, I have my patterns that I must follow and each move upsets these patterns tremendously.

And so, each time we were set to leave an abode behind, my wife quickly learned that she needed to allow me time alone in the structure so that I could have a good cry. I would walk from room-to-room to say goodbye to all the inanimate objects (e.g., walls, windows, door, cupboards, etc.) that I, most likely, will never see again. If we had much of a backyard, I would sit on the back steps one last time to say my farewells to the plants and critters.

At some juncture, my wife would convince me it was time to go and, with one last mournful glance, we would be off on the next adventure. While Della would be filled with excitement about our next stop, I spent most of the time in transit brooding about the home left behind.

As we've grown older, the wanderlust bug has diminished greatly. Oh, there are times when we dream of winning a big lottery and buying a nice oceanfront home in Long Beach (southern Pacific County) or Yachats, Oregon, but those are just idle pipe dreams! For the most part, we are happy where we are and hope to live out our final years in this one spot.

Listening to the Rain

Trey Smith

It rains a lot where I live. It blows a lot too. Often, the rain and the wind arrive together. While most of our storms come from late Fall - Winter, we entertain them as well in Spring - mid-Summer.

I don't know if there is a scientific basis for what I'm about to share -- maybe it's just the way I perceive it -- but the rain of winter sounds different than the rain of spring and summer. The former is loud and harsh; the latter is quieter and soft.

It doesn't seem to matter how much rain we receive at any given time, downpours in the spring and summer simply seem more serene than their counterparts in winter. I don't know what scientifically would account for this difference.

The wind is different too, but I can discern a scientific basis for it. In winter, deciduous trees lose their leaves and so the wind whips more easily through the forest behind our house. As spring opens up, the deciduous trees begin to form leaves. As the wind gusts up the river valley to the first hill in town -- the hill I live on -- the deciduous trees, in conjunction with our many evergreens, act as a buffer to the fierce wind so that it doesn't impact our yard and house as severely.

However, regardless of whether or not the differences in rain and wind are based in science or my own particular perceptions, I love laying awake at night listening to spring rains.

I get a lot of practice!

Real Life Tao - Teasers

Trey Smith

While it certainly can and does happen at others times of the year, I think Spring (yeah, I know it's not "officially" here yet!) is the season of teasers. After making it through the colder months, most folks are ready for some warmer weather. Depending on the climes in your locale, early Spring offers glimpses of what is coming around the seasonal corner.

But just about the time you welcome the sunny skies and the warmer temps, it is snapped away from you. A cold air mass drifts in and those warm days become a faint memory!

Today, in South Bend, the mercury hit 67 degrees. A mysterious golden orb hung in the sky surrounded by a few wispy clouds. The breeze was light and warming. I took this wondrous opportunity to drag my decrepit body outside to begin the process of weeding the garden. I basked in the warmth and probably overdid it a tad.

It didn't last for long! The temperature has already dropped into the 40s as the next Pacific storm is set to roll in. Most likely, we won't see even 50 degrees for the next week or so.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. This is normal for March in these environs. We usually get a brief look in March at what late April and May will be like -- a few days here and there when it isn't cool and rainy.

Days like today serve as a good reminder of the ebbs and flows of life. Not every day will be rainy. Not every day will be sunny. Life is a mixture of the two. Rather than dread one and embrace the other, it's better to embrace both.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.

A Bit of a Difference

Trey Smith

Having lived in a large metropolitan city (Kansas City, MO), a mid-sized city (Salem, OR), a small city (Hot Springs, AR) and a variety of small towns, one big difference between the larger areas and the smaller ones can be found in the frequency of emergency vehicle sirens.

Growing up in KC, it's hard to remember a time in which I didn't hear such sirens at ALL hours of the day and night. In fact, in all of the cities I lived in, sirens are part of the day-to-day experience. In the smaller communities -- like South Bend -- a siren is something out of the ordinary.

Just the other night, I was driving down to our mini mart. In the distance, I saw the flashing lights of a police car moving towards me. As I pulled to the side of the road to provide unimpeded travel to the emergency vehicle -- which I do as a rule even when, like in this instance, there was no other traffic -- I realized that there were only flashing lights, no siren.

Emergency vehicles RARELY employ their sirens around here at night. After 8 or 9 pm, there is very little traffic and so there is no need for the piercing noise. In most cities, particularly the larger ones, there is traffic 24/7 and so the need exists.

This is one of the things I enjoy about living in a tiny Hamlet like South Bend. It's something hard to imagine as a city dweller -- true peace and quiet.

Cold or Hot

Trey Smith

It snowed most of the morning here and we estimate we received about 9 inches in all. For this part of the country, that's a lot of snow!

But this part of the country is different from the rest in one interesting aspect: the snow doesn't tend to stay around very long. Here it is at 1:00 pm and our temperature has already soared past 40 degrees. So, all the snow that fell over the past 12 hours already is starting to melt. I bet it will be all gone within the next day or two.

By then, we'll return to a more typical January weather pattern: high winds and heavy rain.

Whited Out

Trey Smith

I'm usually not up at this hour...but we've been whited out, baby!!

When I fell asleep a few hours ago, we had no more than one inch or two of snow on the ground. It now looks like we have 6 - 12 inches of the white stuff and it's still coming down! This is for an area of the country which routinely sees no more than an aggregate of 2 or 3 inches of snow for the entirety of the winter.

The snow is above the bumper for my little car. My wife bought a digital camera last month and so I would love to share some photos with you of this historic weather event. Unfortunately, I haven't seen my wife for two days and probably won't see her until tomorrow or Friday as she is snowed in at work in Bay Center.

On a typical day, my wife would let our Xolo/Dachshund out about now to run down the back steps to do her morning business. This routine won't be kept to today because the snow is deeper than Lily's height! I would be afraid that she would take one step and disappear...never to be seen again until the snow melts.

This promises to be a most interesting day in South Bend!