Snowmageddon round 1 in Kansas City

So, maybe some of you out there have already had your fair share of snow for the year...
But here in KC, we got it later in the winter.  I thought we were going to escape winter 2012/2013 without a major snowfall until last week hit.

Pretty much 10 inches or so in about 12 hours last Thursday.  It was pretty crazy.

I had the great idea to get to work early to miss rush hour in it.  In retrospect I should have just stayed home and used a vacation day.  Em was going to drop kiddos off for daycare so she could work from home since daycare is around 2 miles from our house.  Well, her camry was snowbound in their parking lot and after a grand total of 1 hour at work, I got the batcall to come rescue her and the kids.

In the hour I was at work, there was already 5+ inches of snow and pretty blinding conditions.  I'm not sure how others got home from work.  I was thankful for my gas guzzling 4WD truck!  I was surfing around in 4WD passing stranded cars on major streets and one of a few that could actually get on the highway without getting stuck.

Well then the highway came to a standstill as those in cars trying to escape just stopped.  Cars were worthless and the highway was a parking lot.

Luckily after sitting for 45 minutes, some of the cars were able to get by and I snaked my way through and made it through several standstill intersections to get to Em and the kids.  What normally is a 25 minute drive door to door took over 3 hours.  That was a wasted morning.  I should have not even gone into work.  At least I wasn't one of the 50+ cars abandoned on the roads.

Then I spent 2.5 hours shoveling the driveway only to see our neighbor bust out their snow blower and be done in 25 minutes.  Well... now I know who my real friends are and I borrowed their blower to get their car unstuck from our cul-de-sac entrance and clear off the sidewalks.

I then proceeded to take Friday off to rescue Em's car and dig out.  Kids' school was cancelled and the city was still a mess.


And now we are looking at round 2....
Starting tomorrow and through Tuesday, we are forecasted for another 12+ inches of snow to top off the 10+ we got last week.

I learned my lesson and I will be calling into work Tuesday morning if it's anything like it was last week.  Only this time, we are expected to get 40 mph winds.  A true blizzard.

It's driven me back inside for training.  It's normal to still be on the trainer, but my 2 hour run was on the dreadmill of shame.  Luckily I had the Ironman 2012 recap on DVR and only needed 15 minutes of filler at the end.  I also counted that 2.5 hours of snow shoveling as strength training!  I think that's fair.

It could be worse.  There's nothing like a snow day with the kids to make you remember that snow can be fun, at times, and in moderation.