Rain and Snow, Snow and Rain Ruining Our Day

This morning was suppose to be Spark's first basketball tournament and we were pumped. However, a strange thing has been happening here, rain showers which are unheard of in January. I should say shower because it has been non stop all day.

It started raining last night so I took the phone in the bedroom in case we got the call that the tournament was canceled. No phone call so we got up early and started getting ready. Ice was covering everything so we were surprised that it wasn't canceled. Maybe they just aren't calling us and we need to listen to the local radio for the announcement. Our local radio station plays polka music, yes they actually have a huge following just not us, so we don't know their call numbers right off the top of our heads. The phone book was of no help so I hooked up the internet, we have dial up, to find the info. Now as some of you may remember, if you don't live in the dark ages of internet like we do, that dial up is ssslllloooowwww. Finally the page loads and we get the right station. Through the crackle that is coming out of the radio, we hear that their tower is so covered in ice that the reception we are hearing is the best there is. We also tuned in just in time to hear that "those are the weather related closings." A fat lot of good that does us, we need to wait until the next time they announce them, however, being Saturday it could be a while. We decide that if the tournament is still going on that Dad will take Spark in the truck with the 4-wheel drive and if it gets less treacherous out Dancer and I would come later.

While we are figuring all this out our door bell starts dinging like someone is frantic at the door. We open it up expecting to see a traveler who has slid off the road and needs help, but instead it is our neighbor. Just about the time we unplugged the phone to get the internet up, the coach called us. Not getting an answer, he called our neighbor to say that we weren't answering and did he have the right number for us. Instead of seeing if we answered again, the neighbor drove over here on the icy roads to see why we weren't answering and to tell us the tournament was canceled. Next door neighbors to us means anyone with in a mile radius so it was a risk for him to drive over on the icy roads. Twice in two days now we have had people do wonderful nice things for us, first the letter and now this. To reward him we sent him home with a big box of blonde brownies Dad and Dancer had baked for the boys playing today.

I wish the rest of the story was that the sun started shining and the rain stopped but that wasn't the case. It rained and then snowed and then rained and then snowed the rest of the day. We were planning on going to an event at church tonight too but that was canceled as well.

The rain also froze into ice as it hit whatever it fell on so our gutters are completely filled with ice. This makes for ice dams to form on the edge of the roofs, which push up the shingles and now our porch roof is leaking. We are hopeful it will self correct in the spring when all this melts but my feeling is it is going to cost us some money. It is always something. I am just thankful that it is the porch and not the living room or any other part of the house.