Snow...

Last week was Fasching... German's Fat Tuesday, so the kids were off of school.
Wednesday, although bitter cold, was pretty normal. Then the week went in the shitter. This picture was taken on Thursday- day one of the snow- so this is about half of what we got. This tree is outside of our balcony.

Wednesday evening snow started to fall, and it didn't stop... Until yesterday. The day on Thursday was spent chasing the kids in and out of the house to go play in the snow- since they were off school due to the weather. BOTH DAYS. The teachers and staff of the school could not get in to work. Parts of the autobahn were closed down, and the little local roads were unplowed. The kids loved it. I hated it, as I do not drive in the shit, unless someone is going to die... (and even then I would probably call an ambulance.) So, of 7 days, I spent 5 listening to restless bored-ass children run circles in the house, waiting for the snow to let up enough for them to go out and play in it.

Right now, I should be on my way to the Ramstein Pharmacy. I figured I would warm up the car, drive the kids to school, and leave from there. Not. There was not only 5 inches of snow on my car, but under the layer of white was a veritable sheet of ice. Now, I am not tall enough to reach the top of my car to brush off snow, much less the scrape ice that has tried to permanently bond itself to the paint job. My meds can wait until tomorrow, when I can get my tall husband to get the "Titanic Killer" off of my car.

Standing there, like the grinch, with my feet ice cold and wet in the snow, I got off what I could, and did a pretty good job- except for the glacier on the roof. The futile attempt to remove the ice had us running late, so I drove the kids to the school, only to almost get stuck in the plow provided drifts in the parking lot. Upon walking Rachel up to her classroom, I slipped and twisted my ankle on a patch of ice... My bad ankle- rolled the ever living shit out of it. It could have been worse, as another parent carrying a baby seat in one hand proceeded to go all the way down on said ice patch, ala Tom and Jerry style. Ever seen a woman with young child in tow try really hard not to cuss like a sailor when injured? I saved my cussing until I limped back to the car.

We have 27 days until we fly out of this snow-pit, and in 30 days until we get to the bone dry, sauna hot desert of Southern Arizona. No ice on the car, no snow on the ground, no frost on the windows... Just fabulous cloudless heat under a merciless sun. Never in my life did I think I would so look forward to dried nose crusties, and the accompanying reptilian-like skin drying.