Well, this Texan has experienced her first blizzard.  It has been interesting. I'll try to start at the beginning of the past few weeks of winter madness. 

This picture was taken on Saturday, January 30th. I was on Fort Meyer in D.C. for the annual Army Tuba-Euphonium Conference when the first snowstorm hit. I had to make it back to Maryland that afternoon, so a friend and I got out on the roads and VERY slowly made our way North. For the record, I did NOT take this picture while driving, my friend did. :) 

Unfortunately, it was not a great trip. The entire freeway was crawling, but people were still sliding all over the place. I slid into a nice gentleman's mini-van, and now my car is in the shop. Ugh. 

I did manage to make it back to Maryland, and tried to enjoy the snow a little. My very first snow angel! 

 My dog didn't really know what to think of it, but I made her go out and play with my friend's malamute puppy. Yes, my dog has a pink camo snow vest. Don't hate. 

A week goes by, snow begins to melt, life returns to normal. On Friday, February 5th, it starts coming down again. I woke up on Saturday to this sight at my front door. It was ridiculous. I've never seen anything like it and it just kept coming down. It was knee/waist high just to get out to my car. 

Naturally, it never occurred to me that I might want to pick up a shovel during the warm season. When the big storm was approaching I went all over town searching for shovels. Everywhere had been picked clean. I spent several hours in the commissary on Thursday, alongside everybody else around Fort Meade, stocking up for the big storm, (and the SUPERBOWL... GO SAINTS)! 

Faced with all this snow, the only thing I could figure out was to use my turkey roasting pan to try to scoop enough out to make a walkway. Eventually a neighbor let me borrow a shovel. 

This snow fall was over two feet. Now the dog was REALLY confused... where did all the grass go?

By Monday the main roads had been plowed enough to venture out. This is right by Fort Meade. I went to Lowes to pick up some supplies for a project and to drop my car off at the shop. This road looks okay, but most of the other ones were pretty dicey. Lots of narrow paths instead of lanes, and very high piles that were scraping the bottoms cars. Not to mention all the slick patches. I miss my little SUV already. 

 When we received word that ANOTHER snowstorm was coming for us on Tuesday/Wednesday, they tried to get as much plowing done as possible to make room for the next load. 

After all the shoveling and working to get vehicles free, it was pretty disheartening to go out on Wednesday to THIS sight. Those trees in front of my house are supposed to be vertical. The wind was the worst part today. It was gusting and blowing the snow everywhere.

Fort Meade has been shut down, so I prevented the Cabin Fever from setting in by doing lots of practicing and working on a bathroom remodel. I discovered a leak from my 3rd floor shower and decided to tear out the linoleum and replace it with tile. You can see the water damage. Nasty stuff.

I'll also be repairing some loose tiles in the shower. This small wall is going to be completely replaced, the cheap drywall tile backer was rotting away. My poor jet-tub has become a trash can for the moment. 

I've never done much work with this kind of thing, and it's an intimidating, but fun, process. I'm learning so much and it definitely kept me occupied during this storm lock-in. 

My first piece of tile-backer is in place! Success! Tomorrow I'm supposed to be flying to Eglin Air Force Base to attend my brother's graduation from EOD school. I'm crossing my fingers that the airlines will be running and that I can dig myself out enough to get to the airport! Stay warm everybody!