We had two days at the beginning of this week where everything became coated in a beautiful sparkling coating of Ice. Treacherous to walk on and drive on, but incredibly gorgeous to look at. The first day, the freezing rain covered everything and froze to a ½ inch layer of clear ice. The next day the sun came out and turned it into a magical glittering landscape, but the temperature remained below freezing and not a drop melted off the dazzling layers. The day following was brightly sunny and nearly 50 degrees. Within 2 hours, all the ice had melted along with the majority of the snow. Green grass broke through and the kids spent the afternoon running around with no jackets soaking up the sunshine. My daffodils poked up through the ground and it began to look like spring. Today, again, the temperature has dropped and it is snowing heavily again. They are predicting 3-6 inches and then the snow to change to freezing rain and most likely more ice after that. Ahhh, March in Erie.
We took the kids skiing for the 3rd time this year and they are really getting the hang of down hill. They have moved up from the “bunny hill” to the green circle trails (which are the easiest trails to ski) and now are onto blue square trails. They all have a great understanding of the basics and are really starting to enjoy being on the slopes. Their control can sometimes be sketchy, but overall they are improving quickly. Elise had her best day yet. After the rest of us had thrown in the towel and headed for the lodge, she and Dan headed out to some more challenging trails. They took some mogul runs (hills covered with smaller hills – a killer on your knees) and even braved a Black Diamond run. In “Ski speak” Black Diamonds are the most challenging hills. They tend to be tricky, narrow and steep. Needless to say, Elise LOVED it and can’t wait to get back on the slopes. She spent the rest of the day proudly sounding off about her (superior) skiing abilities and accomplishments (much to her brothers’ dislike). She was nearly devastated the next day when it rained and washed away the snow. We keep trying to reassure her that this is only March and that we will most likely get one more good ski date in before the season ends.
As a sad side note: It looks like we have one less cat. We had acquired a second cat this past fall. He is an orange striped tabby that the kids had named “Puss in Boots”. He was a stray that “found” us and became a companion to our “momma kitty” Princess. Early one morning a neighbor called to let me know that Princess was found deceased in the road in front of their house. She evidently been hit by a car (or a snowplow) overnight. We will all miss her very much. -J
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