a99kitten's Musings

And I don’t mean in the markets! (but yes that too)

I let Smokey choose our route every morning. This morning, we went straight up my street on the way to the trails. First, we came across a wild puppy. Same puppy we met before – Chase. He 100% spaz. Watching the teenaged girl trying to wrangle him was pretty funny. He was off-leash and kept following us to play with Smokey so I stopped until she could go grab his leash.

Not 10 seconds after she got the leash on him, I see a large critter further up the street (I live on a giant slope up and he was at the very top.) At first I thought to myself “what a huge dog – where is his person?” He was just hanging out in the middle of the street. Then I saw another critter come out and the bigger critter bat him away. That’s when I realized it was a bear and coyote!

The teenaged girl freaked out a bit – mostly because she just realized that she had her out of control puppy off-leash not 30 seconds prior and what could have happened. She turned around and went home.

Of course I had to keep going! By now Smokey was pulling because he wanted to go take over this pack and make them his minions! But I kept him on short leash.

As we were getting closer, I see another coyote shoot out from a driveway and the bear swatted again. He was clearly not interested in sharing his booty. Then he moved across the street towards the bushes and trees and grabbed his garbage bag and went down into the bushes. And the coyotes followed. By the time I got up there, I saw the bear box that the garbage came from.

Little piece of wood across doors to keep out bears. LOL

Full time residents used to be able to put their garbage out in the AM of garbage day but any 2nd home owners or rentals HAD to have a bear box. This was so no garbage was left out very long to attract bears. Two problems with this 1) people want to have cute wooden ones that match their homes. Sure – they look much cuter than the metal ones. But thinking that a little wood door will keep out a bear if he smells something yummy is ridiculous. It’s now a building rule around here for all new houses built that you have to install a metal bear box no matter what – full time or part time resident. And if you replace your bear box, it has to be metal. Not sure the bears like those rules :) And 2) Bears are very smart and know the garbage day schedule. They get the locals AM garbage gifts before the garbage trucks come through.

Anyway, I could see the bear down in the bushes going through the garbage bag. He was BIG. And a light tannish brown color. Of course I wanted to hug him :) But I was obviously not going to try and get closer and he was clearly going to stay hidden in the bushes going through his treasure, so no pics :( Smokey and I watched him for a few minutes but then moved on. Didn’t need him thinking we wanted his booty and have him charge up the hill. He was only about 8 feet away and pretty darn sure he was faster than me!

But I saw him! And he was awesome!! Good way to start the day :) First bear I’ve seen since last 4th of July and only 3rd bear ever. Considering I live here full time now and hike EVERY DAY in the woods, that’s a low success rate in my opinion. I need to do better ;)

Took Shadow out in the fresh snow this AM. He was FIRED UP!! Run, run, run, stop, eat snow, run, run :) Hiked uphill as it continued to snow on us and I took a gazillion cute pics of him having fun.

Then I got a weird feeling. Looked around, didn’t see anyone or anything but just felt weird. Ran to catch up to Shadow and BAM – slipped on some ice and down I went. Darn it. I know better. Luckily experience has taught me to twist a little so didn’t land on my tailbone and my arm took most of it. Shadow immediately ran up to make sure I was OK (or see if any of the cookies fell out of my pocket…) and I put his leash on.

Not 30 seconds after his leash was on we see 2 coyotes. Whew. Shadow would have taken off to play with them for sure! Score 1 for listening to gut feeling!! If only I could apply that more to my trading account.

Started heading back down the hill and get allllllmost home and decide to cute pic of Shadow. My phone?! Not in pocket?! Oh….good…I bet it’s right where I fell and IT fell out of my pocket instead of any cookies! Shadow failed to mention that…

Let’s go back buddy. He looked at me like “what?? back uphill??” We charged back up the hill quickly as I was imagining my phone being buried in the still falling snow and falling victim to the dreaded water damage. Found it! And it worked and seemed perfectly fine. Whew.

Back down the hill we went and Shadow got more crazy running time. I let him off leash again as we got closer to the house and away from where the coyotes were. Got home and he didn’t even run straight to the kitchen for breakfast! Fed him and he went right to the deck door and looked at me with pleading eyes “let me back in the snow LadyMom.” OK…and he fell right asleep as he was being snowed on.

Successful snow morning mission!

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This is my neighborhood up in Tahoe. All this snow fell last night. The amount of husky mom fail I feel right now is unmeasurable. They should be running and bounding through the snow with that golden retriever in the video! Especially now that Stormy has his new fur coat growing in so nicely!!

If I didn’t have a doctor’s appointment at 7:30am tomorrow AM, I’d drive up there tonight. Damn.

And to think – this past weekend I was up there in sundresses and flip flops!!

It’s been snowing all day. Well, actually it’s been snowing since Saturday night. I have been out a lot having plenty of snow fun with the huskies since we got here. And they are pretty tired now – even Angelus! So I decided to just take a walk on my own. On my walk I met up with a LOT of doggies and skooshed them all and they were following me so I felt pretty much like Snow White :) Shhhhhh……don’t tell the huskies!

They just closed Interstate 80 again due to whiteout conditions! Crikey…no wonder the Donner party got lost up here….

p.s. I am a goober sometimes :)

From our first walk yesterday after we FINALLY arrived.

And then after our walk this AM.

Angelus playing in the driveway.

This is our local weather guy, who has been far more accurate than the news weather guys…

“Resort Totals page updated as of 6 a.m. Resorts West of the lake reporting 18-36 inches with the highest amounts on resorts furthest West. Resorts East of the lake reporting 6-8 inches as there was good shadowing overnight due to the direction of the flow from the South.

This series of storms Wed-Sun is going to drop several more feet on top of the massive amounts we have already received in the past week. Looks like we could finally have a break after next weekend, but it may not last as we could see storms return the first week of April. Stay tuned……”

It seems to me that this spring is looking like a good one. I also believe wholeheartedly that the huskies have a deal with the weather gods :)

Took the huskies out this AM to pee before breakfast. They ran around in circles in the snow with big smiles! Stormy ran right inside for breakfast though. No keeping him from breakfast. I had to entice Angelus back in though! They inhaled breakfast and were ready to get out there! The driveway was about mid-calf on me. This was just from about 2am when the snow plow came and did our driveway and easement road. But this is belly high on Stormy.

When we got up our easement road to the street it was even deeper as the town snowplows hadn’t come yet. It was high enough for Angelus’ chest to have to push through the snow. Stormy toughed it out with his naked belly but we lasted about 25 minutes out and he wanted to turn back. The snow was coming down so fast that it was getting on our eyes and I think he was like “Mom, inside sounds good to me!” So we went back home and dropped Stormy off. Then Angelus and I went on our way….

We came across a couple with a little black doggie who had to leap through the snow. But he was having a good time. He and Angelus played for a bit and then Angelus got bored so off we went. The streets were unplowed so they are just like a giant snow field. No cars on the road and nice and quiet out. Perfect. Then we met another doggie – a standard poodle – who was as tall as Angelus but afraid of him. His Dad was like “you are the same size?!” Heh. Angelus got bored there too so off we went. We tried to find his friends the other huskies down the street but they weren’t out. Darn.

We played in the snow, Angelus dug in a lot of snowpiles and then we got back home. He is resting up for our next outing. I-80 is closed. Some of the resorts are even closed. Snowed in! Time for me to make some Star Wars pancakes!

That was the worst drive up to Tahoe EVER. I was dumb and left late. You wouldn’t think 7:30am is that late but it is. Especially when there is one snow storm clearing out and another coming in so this “break” in the weather was the time to go. Plus the highway was closed yesterday from 2pm to 1am. So people couldn’t go yesterday. Between the traffic, the snow, the idiots driving up in their non-4-wheel drive cars who need to put on chains the highway was a parking lot.

They should NOT allow vehicles up to the mountains during snowstorms that are not properly equipped. Vehicles that need chains create traffic jams for the chain on/off procedures, create traffic due to their having to go SLOW the entire way AND destroy the roads in the process. JACKASSES. I HATE YOU.

THEN, after you FINALLY get past chain control, which took 5 hours. Yes…FIVE hours of sitting in traffic due to m-fers who drive stupid cars and create stupid traffic jams and then the stupid CA Department of Transportation puts up chain points for no good reason (you would needed them for MAYBE 5 miles…MAYBE.) Anyway – after that, you get a free and open freeway of snowy highway with no lane markings (because of the snow.) So people just create their own lanes. And create their own non-lanes to pass trucks and other cars. Passing on right, left doesn’t matter. And then cars just stop in the middle of lanes to remove chains, or fix their chains, or whatever. Just stop…right there in the driving lane. Idiots. Hate you. So much. And as proof they are idiots, half of them (you could see them as they got out of their cars to deal with the chains) were wearing shorts, or jeans with flip-flops or sweatpants and flip-flops and t-shirts. And standing there shivering. Hello? It’s 25 degrees and snowing out. Plus it was 40+ degrees and raining wherever you started your journey from today so WTF? You have no sense. None. You are idiots. Please do not breed.

Anyway, got here at 3:30. Almost 8 hours later. I say almost because I stopped to get gas and a coffee on the way. But basically an 8 hour drive on what should be a 3 (4 with snow) hour drive. The amount of anger I have towards people who think driving up to the mountains in a snowstorm in cars without 4 or all wheel drive and for the Department of Transportation is unmeasurable today.

Luckily, I have 2 awesome huskies who patiently drove with me with no complaints. Who jumped out of the car when we got here and ran around in the snow, big smiles on their faces. Who let me inhale a glass of water and taco (hadn’t eaten anything today and was getting punchy) before taking them out on a walk with still no complaints. Who then took me on a jog through the snow down our street and back and then around in various driveways where the snow is currently belly high for them and then running all around our easement road, neighbors driveways and our driveway. Angelus and Storm were BOTH (yay Storm!) running around and chasing each other through the snow. Dummy me left my phone in the house in my rush to get them out so missed some GREAT video of them. Dangit!

So yes, I still HATE the above mentioned idgits. But thanks to 2 fluff-monsters my blood pressure has been restored to normal and the steam has stopped coming from my ears. The amount of snow here is crazy. It’s lightly falling now but another big storm is supposedly coming tonight and tomorrow. YAY! And then snow is forecast every day for the next week. Wheeeeee! But I shall be staying out of my car and off the highway and away from the real world of annoyances and will be here in the forest with 2 fluffy beasts. Better for my health :)

We got up to Tahoe last night but it was after 11pm and really dark out – no starry night or bright moon to light the way. Of course, the huskies wanted to go for a walk as soon as they got out of the car. Since they are stuck in the car for 3-4 hours on the drives up, I usually take them no matter what time we get in. Just a short walk down the street so they can sniff everything, pee on stuff, say HI to Tahoe :) But last night we could only go a short ways since it was really, really dark out.

And normally when we get here, I let Angelus out on the back deck so he can play in the snow but husband didn’t want me to do that since it was really heavy snow, and had rained a bit on Thursday which made it icy and it was going to be a pain for him to remove, and Angelus paw prints and husky-dug holes everywhere supposedly make this harder as they harden/get icy. I don’t necessarily believe it will make that much of a difference with the snow blower but he is responsible for snow removal so it’s up to him.

So needless to say, Angelus was annoyed. He was like “you bring me to the snow and then I can’t play in it???” He even tweeted about it! :) So this morning, bright and early, I had a wet nose in my face :) Took the buds out for their short walk after their breakfast and brought Storm back home when he wanted. Then it was Angelus time! We walked pretty far (about 1.5 hours), met Jake the GIANT lab and Cash the sweet pit/boxer mix. They liked Angelus a lot! Cash even started to follow us away from his house – doh! We also met 2 Russian guys on our walk and they loved Angleus. Every time we meet Eastern European people, they really fawn over the huskies :)

Anyway, on our loop back home we climbed the snow mountain (about 12’+ up) in our greenbelt area and I let Angelus off leash…

Now we are home and he’s a much happier husky :)

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 :)