Another failed forecast

Growing up in upstate NY (Near Binghamton, but a little out in the sticks) makes me yearn for snow in Charlotte every year. Living in Charlotte however, has taught me most forecasts for snow will be incorrect. One time last February I went to bed with a 100% guarantee to wake up to at least 10 inches. When daylight came though, Mother Nature had only given us a dusting. 

This year the forecast seemed to be 1-3 inches of snow, a huge ice storm that would bring state wide power outages and then on Saturday another 2-4 inches. 

We did get that first 3 inches. We did get a little bit of ice on top. And that was all. But that was enough to make roads a glazy mess, shutting down Charlotte on Friday and part of Saturday morning - until the sun came out. 

For me, Thursday was spent being detached from the chemo pump, coming out of the complete fog that is chemotherapy, receiving amazing deliveries of flowers, fruit, biscuits and jam, etc, and sleeping. I was even serenaded by Bonnie's lovely triplets!

The snow and sleet had not started Thursday evening, and my family and Brycen's father's family went to dinner for my birthday. We should have brought Brycen home that night, but I was exhausted from chemotherapy. We kept our fingers crossed there would be a window of safeness Friday morning for Brycen's dad to bring Brycen over. 

Early Friday morning. Doesn't look like much but it was mostly all ice. 

No such luck. We know a layer of snowy ice is way worse than 5 inches of trackable snow. So here is how I spent Friday and early Saturday:

Yes, 2 puzzles. To be fair, I think I started the smaller 500 piece jigsaw on Thursday. 

Finally, after his nap, Brycen made it over to my house Saturday. The first thing we did was head outside:

We did not ask Brycen to do this. He insisted. 

Then we went inside, where Brycen insisted on helping Granny with "dinter."

Brycen was allowed two times to push his stuffed animal population down the stairs. Then he used the sled to make a ramp for his hot wheels.  This also happened at some point:

Goggling best ways to fly a sled?

We had fun playing outdoors and I loved breathing some winter fresh air. I always feel like snow cleans the air and earth, the sky always seems so much more clean and blue after a storm. 

Brycen did get to make a snowman too. That picture is from his dad's house on Saturday.

On Saturday night and Sunday morning we did two more recipes with Brycen to add to his cookbook. More about that later. The main roads were dry and it was nearly 50 degrees out, so we drove to the other side of Charlotte to have dinner with my brother. On the way there we found out school was cancelled again for Monday (today). When we pulled into my brother's neighborhood we knew why. Side roads were not plowed (they never are), and shady spots were a slushy mess. Slushy mess plus re-freezing at night equals slippery roads. 

I feel like I have babbled on and on about snow and ice in this post. Enough!

Back at home I did not watch the Panthers win the NFC conference game. I did not watch Downton Abbey or the return of The X-Files. I tried to read or write . . . and next thing I knew it was after midnight. And now I am up at 4am writing blog posts.

How was your weekend? Were you effected by Winter Storm Jonas?