It's just beautiful outside with a fresh new snow perfect for making snowmen.  The snow is still sticking to each individual branch and it would be perfect for taking photos if the light were just a bit more crisp - not that "crisp" is really a description for light, but hey that's how I'm thinking this morning.  While I haven't checked in here in awhile, I've been very, VERY busy over the last two weeks.  Vacation always brings an avalanche of work on return.  I've got an intern under me right now, so that in itself was much better than it could have been.  The changes to our department, and how we manage our caseload, however, was Major, and came on the heels of getting caught up from being gone.  It's a long day at the office when you don't leave until 3rd shift arrives.

All the changes to our case management, for as painful as they are now, will really be better in the long run, but at the same time as this is happening larger structural changes are taking place in the agency, which is putting A LOT of stress on management.  This is trickling down in unpleasant ways.  I won't get into the details.  Suffice it to say, whereas my job has never been quite the match for me, in the past couple of weeks I've felt rather like it is more thankless and soul-sucking than ever.

On way in which unpleasantness has occurred, which found its way back home is punctuality.  Generally I am on time, if not early to meetings, but there have been comments about locking doors so people cannot come in late, so as you can imagine, I've been putting a little more effort into getting there on early lately. On one of these mornings, Mozart was having a particularly bad time of it.  I was getting him dressed and as TW popped out of the shower, I noticed the time.  I say to Mozart that I've got to have Mommy finish up as they are cracking down on punctuality at work.  Suddenly he is reduced to tears and telling me that I can't crack down. Poor kid, in his emotionally fragile state(little did I know he was on the verge of getting sick), probably had an image of me cracking like an egg shell.

While Mozart ended up missing a couple days of daycare, I've managed to stay mostly healthy.  I've popped more Vitamin C and taken more elderberry syrup than average, and have managed to not come down with anything in full.  This morning, though, on waking I felt rather drugged and like I could sleep another three hours when woken up at 9am!  I've felt muscle-sore over the past two days, which seems to have gone today, but seriously - that is FOUR hours later than I usually sleep!  So much for catching a few photos of the snow at dawn!

I've had my coffee now and am feeling a bit more alive.  The snow hasn't melted off yet, so there is hope of getting a few shots if it can just brighten up a bit.  And hope of getting my glasses adjusted, doing a bit of shopping, and perhaps building a snowman.  If TW gets home in time I can even get to the gym.  Maybe.  Perhaps an Epson Salt bath would be a better option for today...

Good Morning Nemo...

So when I told Mozart that Nemo was coming, he had a hard time believing me.  Even when I explained that in this case, Nemo is a bunch of snow, he still did not believe me.  And I have to say, that I was doubtful at that point myself - the forecast said we'd start to see action at 3am and this photo was taken around noon.

But, oh, by the afternoon it was coming down at a regular clip, and by morning, we were looking at a different view from the window!   
But that doesn't do the scene justice. This will give you a better idea: 
Yes, friends, that is our driveway.  With our two cars that we have since dug out.  It's nice you can see the cars from this view.  In the digging out process, I found that the other side of the cars were completely covered.   Note that Mozart is looking very small in relation. That photo is about an hour into our shoveling.  We are blessed to have some anonymous snow blower-wielding neighbor who went down our front walk.  By the time we dug our way to the walk, we were even more grateful.  Mozart was all rosie-cheeked, as were we, when we got to the walk, but there was still a LOT to do.  Even so, with nearly all the neighbors out working, the whole thing was rather communal feeling.  Just then, another neighbor came out onto his porch for the first time and seeing the sheer amount of snow gave this somewhat maniacal laugh, in what I believe was a mixture of disbelief, wonder and defeat all at once.  Even though our muscle's ached and we had more than half of our work to go, it had us all laughing!  

The side walk below was even deeper than the driveway.  In the driveway it took four shovels full of snow to make a foot's worth of progress.  On the side walk it took SIX shovels full of snow.  And, the 5th and 6th shovels were very packed and heavy.  Mozart and I made a path down the side walk, and the boys helping the neighbor met us, cutting our work down (blessedly).  But since the pathway was only one shovel's width, we caved and hired another neighborhood boy with a snow blower to make the sidewalk wide enough and clean up the end of our driveway a bit more.  Our town's codes say we need to have the walks clear enough for a wheelchair to pass, and that just wasn't going to cut it.  I say, that was a well-spent $20!

Snow!

I was going to add this to the Mr. Personality post, but in my hurried delirium, I forgot.  It snowed for the first time this year the other day.  Mozart doesn't remember the snow from last year.  That morning, when I went in to get him he was fussing and generally inconsolable.  I picked him up and went to open the shades.  He stopped his fuss abruptly, pointed out the window, and declared, "Floor!"  Not knowing the name for 'ground' it was still clear that he had to make sure I understood something had changed int he world.  Throughout the morning we talked about snow and how that was the white stuff all over the ground and how it was now officially winter and that it is wonderful and that, even so, Mama doesn't like it very much, but it's still magical - means Santa's coming you know - and kids generally do.

Later in the morning, it started to snow again.  Big, beautiful, fluffy flakes.  I opened the back door to take out some recycling and Mozart trailed me out.  He looked out and, a little bit started, jumped up and down, pointing at the snowflakes, and repeated, "Boom!  Boom!  Boom!"  While the snowflakes weren't exactly crashing down to the ground, they were clearly falling from the sky with great magnificence.  And Mozart pointed out this happening with the import that it holds to him.  My heart just about lept out of my chest with love for this little guy. 

I was trying to get stuff done much of the day and before you know it, night had fallen. Feeling a bit bad about not taking him out on the first snowy day, I thought we could at least sweep of the porch together, so we went out in our slippers and with our brooms, and AHOY!  Neighbor friend of 8 comes over with his sled and asks if Mozart would like a ride.  And that topped of a very fine first day of remembered snow for the little man.