Lena and I shared a bed and I kept waking up along with her. She has a cold and has nasal congestion. She finally got up at 3am and went to her parents room to sleep. Ellie and Chloe shared a bed. Ellie slept and talked all night in her sleep. She rolled and Chloe would tell her to roll the other way. I wouldn’t say I slept but I got rest.
Total whiteout today, the sky was down pouring powdery snow. Miki made rice balls for breakfast. Her rice balls are really good. In fact anything she makes is really good and presented beautifully. Cindy prepared spam and eggs while Helen did the fruits, I helped with drinks and the guys were outside trying to shovel a few feet of snow off the driveway so we can drive out to Heavenly which is just a 15 second drive for our day in the slopes. It proved to be futile because there just was too much snow and then there was the road that was not cleared of snow and no one wanted to put on snow chains. With our large living room bay windows of views into the woods, with the snowflakes steadily falling, it was serene tranquil and therapeutic to watch and let time pass by.
Hiroshi, Miki and Yoshike went to ski via foot this morning. The rest of us were snowed in. We are all not far from the ski resort, seriously a block and half away. The kids all went into the woods to play in the snow. It’s quite a workout to walk in hip deep snow. Rest is required after a few feet of stomping.
After lunch the skiers all came back and said the wind and whiteout made it difficult to stay on the slope and ski.
I had spaghetti-o and chili chip salsa tortilla for lunch. Lena dried her hair by the fire.
With this whiteout, we all decided to take our gear out to the road and use it as our private slope. It turned out to be splendid and totally unforgettable experience. We had the street to ourselves and it was our private slope. The street had a perfect bunny hill to ski, snowboard, to sleigh on.
I flagged a snow plower who finished plowing another house and was on his way out. I asked him to clear our driveway and because he was nice he said, “why not!” Then another driveway plower drove by on the road and cleared the 2 blocks of street we were on that covered the span of our slope, all without asking just to make our day so that it as a better plowed groomed slope for our playground. It was so wonderful of him. It made all the difference. Everyone was having so much fun. The boys after snowboarding decided to sit on their snowboard to use as a sleigh down the slope.
I head in at 3:30pm. My tummy turned. It was the same turn as in India from Dharmsala to Punjab. I was too cold. The parents all stayed along with the kids. Other neighbors came out too and enjoyed the slope as we did. Some helped to carry the ski and sleigh for the girls, super sweet. I tried to warm up with hot tea.
Helen decided she will try snowboarding and when she made it out with all her gear on, another plower told us it was unsafe for us to continue to be on the street as more plowers may be driving up and down the street.
Everyone came in hungry, I heated up soup. Miki made stirfry rice. And everyone took turns to soak in the jacuzzi. The men decided to put on chains for the vehicles to make sure we can all roll out tomorrow morning.
Dinner was 3 Japanese hot pots, all going at the same time. I made napa cabbage, mushroom soup for dinner. Tonight Miki did all of our nails, she brought with her an entire nail spa care kit. She was good and really did things out of the joys of her heart. It was my turn to do gear check for everyone so I along with the kids aligned all the boots and helmets and gloves on the steps so they can be picked up and put on the way out the door
I am glad I didn’t go to the ski ranch today. I was ill and tired from yesterday. Today’s condition was worse and I think I am unwell from the wind, cold, and the fall of yesterday. I was so tired, I could not recall if I had pulled out my contact lenses, so I spent the night fingering through my eyes to feel for them. Well, I did, that was my conclusion after moments of painful search on my eyeballs. I did not bring a hair dryer and I did see that as something I had to bring but I did not follow that intuition. It was too late to have wet hair and attempt to air dry and I decided not to wash my hair. Tonight’s temperature is -3 F degrees .
