Castwell's got the holiday blues.

I shouldn’t have, but I’m guilty of it. Last Wednesday, from 2pm to 4pm we braved the winter road conditions (snow/ice) and made it into town, about four miles south of home. We got the necessary items (Christmas tree) lunch for my wife (it was her birthday). The weather got nasty and I made it back home. When I backed up into my driveway, I put the breaks on, including the emergency break (driveway is on a slant). The car slid at least a foot back down with all four wheels locked. Scary! We live on a ‘School bus route’ figured it would get plowed; wrong, they canceled school.
We stayed weathered/snowed/iced in until an opening on Saturday. Mid-day we made another soiree into town, (get groceries, meds, mail). Just made it back in the face of another blizzard. Drove straight into the driveway this time. Made it and the car did not roll back/slide back down.
It still sits there. That day started a snow storm dumping over a foot on us and continuing, yet today. No mall delivery out here these days, no UPS or Fed X, even the big garbage/trash truck did not show up on Tuesday morning as usual.
I am thinking we may get out by this next weekend.
I have no gift for my lovely wife under the tree for the first time ever. I know, we have so much. Still, when I look under the tree, nothing.
Bummer. :frowning:

ooops. Found something! An envelope. It’s from a restaurant about thirty miles south. This a gift card, for dinner,sent to us from a couple out east. How thoughtful. Now there is something under our tree. Thanks again. :slight_smile:

JC. I understand your feelings, we got out yesterday but only because I don’t mind plowing snow with my car. Looks like the snow is on its way out, Hang on for a Merry new years.

Eric

Another 10 plus inches this morning and it is still coming down. I would estimate we have had 3 feet or more snow fall in the past week. Likely more snow than we would recieve in 3 years. Skagit County DOT has been very good about getting up and plowing the roads to our place. A neighbor came by with a small tractor and cleared our private road or we would not be able to get out.

I think I need to learn how to fish for bones and move to a warmer climate.

JC, Eric, Kerry Stratton, and all the other folks living in oregon and washington my heart goes out to all of you. You are getting winter weather that you are not accustom to getting. Don’t travel unless you absolutely have to.
JC you have things under the tree you just can not see. I know you said you had a lot but nothing under the tree. It reminded me of a aniversery my wife and I had years ago. We were broke beyond broke. Our aniversery is on Jan 7th so Christmas had wiped us out. I was feeling bad and humiliated. I could get my wife nothing at all. She is the love of my life and here I was broke. She made us a lovely dinner and said Happy Aniversery. The kids wished us one as well. I was about to tell her I had nothing to give her for a gift and then it dawned on me. I ran to the bedroom where we kept the bows for Christmas, stuck one on myself and ran back out to the dinner table. I said honey all I have to give you is me and the promise that I will spend the rest of our life together and we will never be in this shape again. It remains to this day the best aniversery gift I have given her. I sincerely hope you and your lovely wife have a good day together on Christmas day. As long as you two have been together I bet she will like that more then anything you can buy her.
On a positive note according to the weather reports by this time next week those of you on the coast will not have snow and it is warming up. Lets keep these good thoughts. If I could do more for all of you I would.

JC & LF

I just sent you a PM to put under your tree…

Keep warm and hug LF for me.

Steve

JC

I don’t have anything for you to put under your tree, but maybe this will bring a smile to your face just the same. My little boy, AJ is 4 years old and anxiously awaiting Santa tonight. At the moment he is being a very good little boy, he is taking a nap:) (I suspect he takes after his Daddy, and that is the only time he is good.)

My wife put up the tree the other day, and AJ was “wound up” tighter than a banjo string with excitement. He absolutely could not sit still and he hummed little songs to himself the whole time. My wife took a break and we all sat down to supper, but AJ couldn’t eat or sit still or anything. Finally he took to trying to poke his Mama in the ribs make her jump. After several tries with no results he asked her, “Mama are you ticklish?” She told him she was ticklish in some places. You could almost hear the wheels in his little head spinning as he thought over that. Then came the next question, “Mama, are you ticklish at home?”

I hope that brightens your snowy day, just a little.

Merry Christmas,
Jason

A fun little message from a Balmy (Damp 62 degrees) Christmas Eve in Birmingham, AL:

Many of you may be familiar with the somewhat new tradition of the Christmas Elf that creates havock around the house leading up to Christmas. A recent episode follows:
A friend of mine set up the display of the nightly mischief for the kids to find the next morning. Unfortunately he neglected to let his wife in on the scene. Some time during the night the Naughty Christmas Elf decided to do some fishing in the toilet, he was sitting on the tank with his line down in the bowl… Imagine the wife’s surpise when she went into the dark bathroom sometime during the night, sat down, fell into the open bowl, and the Elf fell on to her from the tank top

I believe this is one of the cutest traditions to come along in a long time. I encourage each of you with children (big and small) to look into this. It is great fun for all.

If any of you have any stories about Elf mischief I would really love to hear them.

Merry Christmas to All…Tight lines and good loops in the New Year!
Ho Ho Ho

Thanks for all you guy’s do with FAOL

First time I’ve heard of Elf mischief, what’s the background?
Made me smile S

This is the 11th straight day of snow. I have never seen it this cold and snowy, for this many days in a row. My van has been parked (buried with a foot of snow on top), since last weekend, when the freezing rain happened. I have walked many miles in the snow, but Tuesday, the roads were very slippery, so I dug out my Danner studded boots out of the closet and I walked a few miles to Fred Meyer and the noise my boot studs made in the store was a first (& last) for me. I think many of my neighbors have been in a state of suspension, mentally and home bound. I’m going to keep trying to be positive, even though the timing of this weather is not good. Right now, the snow seems to be melting, so we are getting close to the end. I know it sound ridiculous to the folks that live in the snow every Winter, but it isn’t normal procedure around here. There have been 18 Wheelers parked at K-Mart for days, because they shut down I-84, in the Columbia Gorge (40-50 mph wind and driving snow). I feel bad for those guys and especially the Retailers that got their butts kicked, by the economy and this weather. Better days are ahead and I wish a Merry Christmas to everyone.
Doug

Today I shoveled my (parts of) driveway three different times. (got tired and cold and my nose was running) Came in after the last time to a hot bowl of wife’s bean soup (pinto beans). Watched a solid snowstorm out the back living-room windows. Lovely. Here is a shot. Oh, by the way, there is a weather advisory from now until Christmas day afternoon. Not too specific. Wish I could get a job like that, not an exact science like fly fishing. Here is the advisory.

“Computer Models Suggest That A Heavier Band Of Snow Showers Could Set Up Over The Southwest Interior Or Possibly Central Puget Sound On Christmas Day. It Is Uncertain Where Or If This Band Will Develop… But If It Does… Localized Snow Accumulations Could Reach 6 Inches.”

LF, I first heard of it after reading an article in our local fish wrapper. It hasn’t been going on for that long, but some enterprising artisans came up with a little background story and started marketing it with an elf doll.

Naturally as it spread people became more and more creative and the scenarios are only limited by imagination. I have personally seen the results of an all night party thrown by said Elf… The dad of the house set the TV, DVD Player, and surround sound system on a timer and sat the elf in the middle of the couch, threw popcorn all over the place, put a bunch of empty soda cans around, and placed the remote for the TV in the Elf’s hand. He then turned out the light and went to bed. Later, the timer went off turning the entertainment center on full blast waking the whole houseold with Rudolp the Red nosed reindeer playing on the TV. The children were estatic that they caught the Elf up to no good!

He generally shows up after Thanksgiving and the trouble begins. Supposedly he is in the house as a spy for Santa checking on who’s being Naughty or Nice, he then hitches a ride back to the Pole when Santa comes at Christmas.

I won’t give them free advertising by posting the site, but a little google goes a long way.:wink:

Merry Christmas
Ho ho ho

Merry Christmas JC & LF !!! :):):slight_smile:

From Tim and Family…:slight_smile:

Castwell;
Hello from the " Frozen North " .Temp. +40F here in Nova Scotia and sunny. It’s not all gravy though. Our electricity was sadly lacking until 9:00 AM. Still pretty good I have a friend who just got back from NH trying to get power back to those good folks. He said up in the mtns they had no power for a week or more. Hope they are back on the grid.
I don’t post much here but am quietly on the site a lot. I guess the snow pictures brought me out of my shell.
Merry Christmas to everyone esp. the guys I’ve bought gear from in the past year.
Seafoam

I dont mean to make light of the bad situation you guys are in up north and in the north west but all the talk of snow reminded me of this little joke I thought you might like–if you havent seen it before.

George

            The Diary of a Snow Shoveler 

December 8
6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses Print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9
We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the Whole World? Moving here was the best idea I’ve ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life.

December 12
The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment. My neighbor tells me not to worry, we’ll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we’ll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I’ll never want to see snow again. I don’t think that’s possible. Bob is such a nice man, I’m glad he’s our neighbor.

December 14
Snow lovely snow! 8" last night. The temperature dropped to -20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life!
The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. I didn’t realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I’ll certainly get back in shape this way.

December 15
20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife’s car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer.
The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that’s silly. We aren’t in Alaska, after all.

December 16
Ice storm this morning. Fell on my butt on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like heck. The wife laughed for one hour, which I think was very cruel.

December 17
Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere.
Electricity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should’ve bought a wood stove, but won’t admit it to her. God I hate it when she’s right. I can’t believe I’m freezing to death in my own living room.

December 20
Electricity’s back on, but had another 14" of the damn stuff last night. More shoveling. Took all day. Darn snowplow came by twice.
Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they’re too busy playing hockey. I think they’re lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they’re out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they’re lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he’s lying.

December 22
Bob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white crap fell today, and it’s so cold it probably won’t melt till August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to poop. By the time I got undressed, pooped and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plow on his truck for the rest of the winter; but he says he’s too busy. I think the jerk is lying.

December 23
Only 2" of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she nuts!!! Why didn’t she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think she’s lying.

December 24
6". Snow packed so hard by snowplow, I broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the man who drives that snowplow I’ll drag him through the snow by his nose and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling and then he comes down the street at 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I’ve just been!
Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I was too busy watching for the snowplow.

December 25
Merry -bleeping- Christmas! 20 more inches of the slop tonight. Snowed in. The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she’s a fricking idiot. If I have to watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” one more time, I’m going to stuff her into the microwave.

December 26
Still snowed in. Why the heck did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She’s really getting on my nerves.

December 27
Temperature dropped to -30 and the pipes froze, plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him, he only charged me $1400 to replace all my pipes.

December 28
Warmed up to above -20. Still snowed in. THE WITCH is driving me crazy!!!

December 29
10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That’s the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?

December 30
Roof caved in. I beat up the snow plow driver he is now suing me for a million dollars not only the beating I gave him but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up where the sun don’t shine. The wife went home to her mother. 9" predicted.

December 31
I set fire to what’s left of the house. No more shoveling.
January 8
Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?

George - we have seen it before, you found it here in our Lighterside. Love it.

actually right here, http://www.flyanglersonline.com/lighterside/part426.php

LF,

Didn’t realize it was on the site but regardless, it is still a good one. Fortunately, in my part of Va. we haven’t had too much snow to speak of in the past 2 years and I hope I dont end up like the guy in the joke.

My sympathies to those that are under many inches of the white “global warming”

George

I just got home from work and it is snowing again. It is snowing as hard as it has all week with about 2 inches more down. STOP! Enough already!

Been on and off all day here. However, the temperature is running in the low 30’s; not the low 20’s. :slight_smile:

Went out for a Motor cycle ride here!

Well, as you say as bad as it is it could have been worse. The great NW has really had one heck of a winter so far. Gifts aside, hope you had a nice day to enjoy the tree, the warmth and perhaps a toddy or two.