a99kitten's Musings

It was howling wind and rain this morning. The huskies didn’t seem in too big of a rush to go out. I thought “Yay – no wet and cold walk for me!” But once they ate their breakfast, they charged for the door. Doh. Ok…out we go. I wore my bright pink J Crew rain boots this time since my sneakers took 2 days to dry after the last rain walk. I looked pretty sexy in my mismatched rain outfit…in that “there is no way you could look any unsexier” kinda way ;) BUT – I stayed warm (ish)!

Storm doesn’t typically like to go out in the rain so I figured it would be a short walk. Angelus? Well, he would make an excellent postman. Rain, sleet or snow – he doesn’t care! But the huskies (both of them!) wanted to go to the beach. Sigh…ok….we are already wet at this point so we might as well. It tapered off to a light rain and then rained off and on the whole way there. We got to the beach and the wind was blowing and even the harbor was pretty choppy. Low tide was just starting so there was some more beach to run on and a TON of seagulls hanging around.

I let the the huskies off leash and they took off – both of them! To chase the birds and each other! Stormy was running around and having a good time!! Yay! He got a bit cheesed up in Tahoe last weekend since he can’t stay out in the snow as long as his brother or go in deep snow due to his naked belly. He wants to go out a lot but then gets cold after like 20-30 minutes so I take him on a lot of short walks and not the deep snow running Angelus gets. So I was very happy to see him running around on the beach having a fun time!! I wished I could have videoed it but it was raining and my phone was safely stashed in a pocket :( Would have been a very cute video!!!

It started to rain harder so we decided to head back. No one (including Angelus) is a fan of the sideways rain. Although I will have to say, when you wear rain boots you can have a lot of fun jumping in big rain puddles :)

We aren’t going to Tahoe for this new snow storm today, which makes me pretty sad. Who knows if it’s the last big snow of the season? But husband is driving up from San Diego where he was picking up his newly-made surfboards for an upcoming surf trip to Portugal. He was going to swing by here and get us and we’d all drive up to Tahoe. But the storm is just hitting now and he doesn’t want to take the extra time and get stuck in the traffic and snow. But he doesn’t want me driving up in my car alone since I have high-performance tires and not snow tires (don’t get me started on that) which means I wouldn’t go till tomorrow AM sometime. And that just seems silly to then come back Sunday night or Monday AM. Especially since I want to be there during the snow! I don’t know why people don’t get how much I love being there as it is snowing – not only when it’s all over. *pout* But I think Storm might be OK with is since it’s also supposed to drop to about -2 and possibly even colder up at our house. He says brrr with missing fur!

Plus CalTrans says do not drive up there today – wait till Saturday. Bad weather. Heavy snow and wind. Alert. So you absolutely, positively know some ass clowns in their Prius’ and Hondas and other teeny tin cans will be heading up and causing traffic at chain control and likely spinning out into a snow bank. Good times.

So the huskies and I are desperately hoping we get to see a snow flurry here! It can happen. I think highly unlikely (I am truly AT sea level so it would be a rarity!) But I do believe the huskies are working with some powerful forces to get it here :) So we will stay awake late and up early to try and get the coldest parts of the night/morning to see if their magic worked….crossing fingers and paws!

I almost didn’t take today off. My original plan was to take last Thursday and Friday off to have a 5-day President’s Day weekend with the snowstorm dumping tons of snow on Tahoe. The snowstorm had been predicted by the local weather guys for a couple weeks so I was looking forward to it. Tahoe hasn’t really gotten much snow since I the Christmas/New years craziness so I was very excited to get the huskies (and me!) into some fresh snow. I was going to leave Wednesday night for 5 days of snow!

Then some stuff came at work and I didn’t feel comfortable not being there Thursday or Friday. The CEO said it was OK to take off but I felt like I shouldn’t. Then the weather changed a bit and the heavy snow was coming Wednesday and Thursday so I was bummed to miss that. But they closed the highway so had I left Wednesday night after work, I would have been stuck in the closed highway and probably got up there at like 3am. I would have been tired and grumpy. The CEO insisted he could do just fine without me (that might be a very bad thing for him to realize!) on Friday so I planned on leaving the office around 11am after getting some stuff done and that way still missing any holiday weekend Bay Area traffic plus the snowstorm coming that night.

I did leave at 11am and sailed through the Bay Area (avoiding the as usual accident on the Bay Bridge and taking 92 to 680 to 80 instead) as well as hitting no traffic through Fairfield, Davis, Sacramento, etc. Was actually kind of weird for a holiday weekend Friday. It was pouring rain the entire time so maybe people didn’t want to drive in it? Hit the mountains and rain turned to sleet. A little more up the mountain and sleet turned to snow. And clear sailing turned to loooooong line of traffic inching along at 2 mph. It was traffic created by all the goobers that drive their little tin cans up to the mountains during a snowstorm and so they need chains. Ugh. Go rent a 4-wheel drive SUV if you plan on coming here during a snowstorm.

Anyway, it only added an extra 75 minutes or so. Not so bad considering I was hearing the previous nights’ drives were taking 8 hours or more. Yeesh. So I didn’t get much fun use out of my day off but did get up to Tahoe before the crazy storm that hit us on Friday evening/night. White-out conditions driving around town. And our street had 1 skinny lane of plowed snow through it. It was very Shining-like :) And I think they closed the highway again. BUT, the storm was done by late Saturday morning so it’s been sunny with a mix of high clouds ever since. And no snow falling. Boo. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a complete winter wonderland up here and the snow plows are just now getting all caught up with the roads and there is so. much. snow. But I love to watch it fall too.

So because I didn’t take Thursday off, I decided to take Tuesday off. But then have been going back and forth about it all weekend because the next snow storm coming isn’t coming until late Wednesday or Thursday so I’ll miss fresh snow falling so maybe just use my day off for a 3-day weekend next Monday or another upcoming snow storm. I pretty much decided to not take it off and just drive into work Tuesday AM until late last night. Changed my mind right before bed. Like literally, my mind just switched gears. Had been packed and everything. Decided to take advantage of the snow here and now and can always take another day off if I want for the next storm.

This was a very long-winded, convoluted rambling way to say pretty darn glad I did….

Angelus and I were out for about 2 hours this morning. He was running around back and forth and then we turned around and ran the other way and jumped through untracked snow like a deer! Then rested and “drank” snow and ran some more! I thought I was videoing that too but turns out my gloved finger didn’t press the start on that. Boo. It was damn cute. But I got to see it and Angelus got to live it :) It was 9 degrees when we went out. His kind of weather :) But then it warmed up to 15. We were both pretty hot in the sun by the end of our journey. He had a great time and is now happily sleeping and getting ready for the next outing this afternoon :)

Definitely a good use for a day off :)

This was upon arrival yesterday :)

And this AM

And more playing!

and then later…

I like the fact that as I posted these to Facebook, I had Buffy playing….some eps with Angel/Angelus in them :)

Angelus says it should snow like this every day!!

RAWR!!!!

We just got back from our 1.5 hour snow trek! You could tell our street was plowed earlier but more snow had accumulated. Our easement road and driveway? Well…they did plow during the night but we got a ton more between then and now. Good thing the huskies (or their mom!) don’t mind snow. Even naked-bellied Storm! Although the wind did eventually make him go “OK, time for me to go back.” So Angelus and I dropped Stormy off at home and went back out into the elements. Angelus was pretty darn excited by it :)

Funny how yesterday was clear on our morning walk and we saw no one. But in this morning’s blizzard we saw (and played with!!) 2 Scottish terriers, Meila the giant St Bernard (who we met last winter as a little puppy!) and Travis the spaz brown dog who Angelus LOVED snow wrestling with! :)

The wind was howling (Storm says no *I* howl!) and I got a snowblast facial. Who needs that top layer of skin? People pay good money for that treatment :) Although the giant snow chunks that kept falling off trees from the wind and then whipping all the snow around was a bit sketchy so we did not go into the forest on this trek.

Here’s to more snow dumping today! The local Tahoe weather guru, who has been more accurate than weather.com or any local news weather, says more snow after a brief morning break (currently still snowing though – I wonder if the break was that little bit it didn’t snow on our walk?) and our temps falling due to the very cold front headed our way. Supposedly going below 0 Thursday night. Good times. Modern inventions such as heat and electricity are beyond awesome. :)

They got 32″ of fresh snow last night up on ridge not far from my house. 10-16″ down at lake level!! Wheeeee!!! The Sierras are enjoying an excellent La Nina year. We are crossing fingers and paws it stays strong throughout the entire season.

Planning on going back out in a little while. The 24 degrees it is now sounds balmy and enjoyable compared to the single digits forecast for tonight and tomorrow. And walking through snow in big, heavy snowboots is some crazy good leg exercise! Lazy pants here needs that after a week of Christmas eating :)

Truly a winter (and husky) wonderland here :)

In his element :)

I feel the same way buddy…hate to leave the fresh snow…

We got a foot of fresh overnight/early AM. And it was still snowing when we left. Hopefully we get tons more for Christmas!

This morning I woke up to lots of fresh snow outside! The trees were covered in fresh, fluffy whiteness, the decks were all white, our driveway hadn’t even been plowed yet! Needless to say, the huskies (well, Angelus) were anxious to get out!

Since the vet had to shave Storm’s belly for his ultra sound, and it hasn’t really grown back yet besides peach fuzz, he is not quite as excited about the snow right now. Imagine your bare skin out there in the snow! So he goes on shorter walks or on completely plowed/smashed down snow walks. I actually don’t wear my gloves when I take him so I can gauge how cold his belly is getting. So no freshies for him :(

Angelus on the other hand cannot get enough of it. He does get tired after awhile of going through the deep stuff. But then he will rest for 10-15 minutes and wants to go again! He is definitely a 9-yr old puppy :)

Every day we have been here for our Christmas vacation, I have taken both of them on a short morning walk and then take Storm back home. Then Angelus and I go out and search out a snow adventure :) And if you let him lead, he will find one!

We finally figured out a weird loop trail/street walk that we couldn’t figure out before. Figured best to do when it was snowing and everything looked the same ;-) But we did it! We started out from our driveway and then took the fire road up the hill which was now just a deep snow trail…up hill…can you say legs burning? But I let Angelus lead and this was the way he wanted to go. Thanks bud… But then we made it to the top (well, the “top” where I decided to turn right) and then took a few streets, a few snow trails and eventually, after about 2.5 hours ended up back on our street. That was the first day Angelus actually looked a little tired. He did find a few spots where he had to dig some snow caves which probably makes him a little tired after awhile :)

But this morning, we walked with Storm for little awhile – I think he liked the snow :) Our street was kinda-sorta plowed. But our driveway was not so they were gliding through it. It really is amazing to watch huskies in the snow. Talk about completely engineered for the weather. We saw our new neighbor and their little dog (who is a little savage beast – what is with little dogs?) Then we dropped Storm off at home when he said he had enough (he sits down and says with his eyes “I’m not going any farther”.)

All of the side streets had not been plowed yet so it was going through a snowfield just walking through all of the neighborhoods. We saw a family trying to push their non 4-WD truck of the snowbank in their driveway – good thing they had 4 teenage sons! But everyone had a smile on their face – how could you not in this pretty snow?!

Then we came upon a guy who was the biggest grump ever! We saw him on one street walking his black lab and I smiled and said hi – he just scowled. Ummm..ok. Then we saw him on a another loop and his dog barked at Angelus so Angelus grrred back (but in his friendly tail-wagging let’s play grrr) and the guy got all pissy! After his dog was barking and pulling first. Whatever dude. As he is literally dragging his barking and snarling dog away I hear him say (in a non-authoritative voice so no wonder his dog was not listening) “no, no, we don’t want to get near that kind of dog” WHAT? Dude – my dog is behaving and not yanking MY arm of the socket. I think I found who Dr. Seuss modeled the Grinch off of.

What made me giggle a couple minutes later was I saw him way ahead of us (Angelus stopped to play in some snow…)

…and I saw 3 off-leash dogs shoot out of trail and onto the street and start running up to that guy and his dog who was now pulling and yanking. The dogs were pretty harmless(ish) but it was sure annoying him. Normally I would agree with his annoyance about the off-leash dogs (and still seeing no people yet) in the street but meh…he was grump.

I mean – it was a gorgeous, snowy day. The kind of day Dean Martin sings about! Everything was so fresh and fluffy and white and pretty and marshmellowey world-like! How could you be outside walking around in that with your buddy and be such a sour-puss??

So the 3 off-leash buddies came up to us and one of them tried to get a little pissy with Angelus but he handled that. And then everyone was fine. Dogs generally figure things out pretty quickly if you just let them.

So we continued on our way and then stopped at the open field and Angelus decided this was a good place to lay in the snow and eat some. So I climbed up there with him and we hung out for a few minutes :)

As we pulled into our driveway, it was still unplowed. So I let him off leash and he jogged down to a snowbank and climbed up there and dug a bit. Then he thought we should just hang out there for the day :)

I got up there with him and we laid in the snow (thank you waterproof clothes) for awhile. Then when I said we should go in…I got mopey face from him :)

So we went in. But we will be going out again for another snow adventure! It’s still snowing as I type. And according to weather.com we are supposed to get more snow today, tonight, tomorrow and Friday. So really – this has been a very merry husky Christmas :)