You were probably not expecting a posting today but Birgit asked me to give you a weather up-date.

We have at least 20+ inches of snow, but the drifting from the heavy winds makes an accurate measurement difficult. Luckily, the snow ended up soft and fluffy so the dire predictions of electricity problems never happened here. The house is warm and the coffee freshly brewed.

The one big problem is Gracie and her getting outside to the yard because both storm doors can’t be opened because of the snow, but even if they could be, the snow on the steps and the path is far too high for her to trudge through which keeps Gracie house-bound. She won’t go on the newspapers I put down for her which made her restless all last night. I then had an inspiration and went down the cellar and found I could open the door and I noticed the snow was much less under the deck. The problem was Gracie won’t go down the cellar stairs. They are open stairs which scare dogs. Oddly enough, though, there are two sets of open stairs going from the deck to the yard and Gracie doesn’t have a problem going down either one. I decided to get her downstairs. She wouldn’t come to me suspecting the worst. I grabbed her collar and got her to the top of the stairs. I had to hold her body around her belly to keep her safe. Her legs fell through the stairs, but I got them back on track and kept going. All I could think about was being run over by the bins when I was taking them down the stairs, and here I was in a similar maneuver but with a dog who could struggle against me. I don’t know how but we both got down the stairs safely. I opened the door, Gracie went a couple of feet and squatted. I swear I could hear the loudest sigh of relief.

We have the same problem now, but she’s asleep so I figure she must be able to wait a bit. I’m not looking forward to the down the stairs struggle again, but it is the best I can do until Skip, my factotum, comes and digs me out.

I have a book, tasty food, warmth and a few good movies. I’ll be just fine. I hope Gracie will be too. Come on, Skip.