March Fidgets: The Beginning of the Big Thaw

Those January squirms were nothing compared to what we went through during February...  we had SO. MANY. BLIZZARDS. All one after another, sometimes twice in a week, and in-between little snowstorms that would fill in every inch just in case a bit decided to melt off the top somehow. We had about four feet on the ground for a good long while, I'd say, with blizzards measuring more but never getting the change to settle and melt to less.

After only the very first blizzard... we thought we had a lot then! 

I wasn't able to spend much time in my little house for about three weeks. It cost so much just keeping it above freezing with electric room heaters for my poor piano, nevermind trying to keep the propane running at any decent temperatures. Lots of the nights were in the negative degrees and I spent most of them on my parents' couch. Twice a week - on Tuesday nights and Fridays - I would kick the snow off the steps and light up the propane so I could teach lessons with the families keeping in relative comfort. (Relative comfort usually being about 63 - 65 degrees.

Hauling water makes me appreciate generous
 neighbors, at least! ;)

Of course, my water pipes froze, and so we turned off the water from the spigots. About a week ago after we finally had about four consecutive days above freezing, my dad figured it was warm enough that the drainpipes had thawed. He melted the icy long hose to the spigot, then turned the water back on. Voila! Running water again! I got home late that night, brushed my teeth in my own sink instead of in the snow, and went to bed. The next morning I woke up to an icy lake across the bathroom floor, with puddles seeping through to the bedroom and hallway, under the floorboards and into every crack through the walls. (Not the cheeriest wakeup.) I sopped up the enormous mess, turned the spigot back off, and trudged off to meet my ride to work. Later that night my dad inspected the damage - apparently a pipe inside the shower had burst in the night. Ultimate repairs remain to be determined, but for now it's back to hauling water. March has brought temperatures up into the forties, and so a lot of the snow is finally melting.