Over the past few days, we have gotten 2 feet of snow! It has been incredible. Spokane came to a complete standstill. Two days ago, it took us almost 2 hours just to get from the freeway to our house (normally a 3 minute drive). They were not letting anyone drive up the hill without chains. So, we pulled under a overpass where it was dry, and started to put on chains. While do this, we met Shad. Shad is homeless and has one leg. He asked to borrow a marker to create a sign on a piece of cardboard. He reads Plato, has lived in China and lost his leg during a climbing accident in Yosemite. A very interesting character. We enjoyed getting to know him, and perhaps will run into him again as he is homeless, and we live within a few blocks of downtown. We were finally able to get chains on, and the police let us drive up the hill while hundreds of other cars sat around us in gridlock. Then, yesterday we woke up to a foot and a half of snow. Of course school has been canceled, but we were shocked to discover that almost every store in the mall was also closed (6 days before Christmas!). The time of being snowed in has been an unexpected blessing. We got to spend extra time with my sister, to get some cleaning done around the house and get an early start on Christmas break. And...it is so beatiful. (Though I'm sure John might have a differnent opinion having spent almost 3 hours digging out our cars!
