How are all my East Coast friend faring after winter storm Jonas? He was pretty crazy, right? While most of the coast was prepared for his arrival, here in the Poconos we were kind of taken by surprise. Originally, the forecasters told us “oh, you’ll only see an inch, maybe two!” I remember thinking “well, that’s not very exciting!” I have this weird thing for blizzards, but only when I’m prepared and only if the power stays on. Also, in my world, no one gets hurt in blizzards. So I have a thing for imaginary, magical blizzards.

Jonas Snow 1 (2)

A day or two before Jonas was scheduled to hit, they upgraded our snowfall totals to about 3-5 inches. Still not much, but I figured I should get the essentials. You know, chips, cookies, ice-cream. The things you really need to survive a snow storm. Of course, I forgot the white milk (we had plenty of chocolate) and anything resembling dinner. My mom was convinced it wouldn’t snow and we could just order out. She totally jinxed us!

Sometime around 5 hours before Jonas was set to rear his wintry white head here in the Poconos, the weather channel started saying that we’d be getting anywhere between 8-10 inches. Yet our local forecast, who really only forecasts for areas like Wilkes-Barre, was still saying a lot less. Who to believe, who to believe? Honestly, our local weather stations pretty much forget entirely about the massive viewing audience in Monroe County. They never seem to have any accurate updates for us, just saying “north of I-80.” Since I have no sense of direction, I’m not really sure if that applies to me!

I woke up at 5am and looked out the window, surprised to see that we still had barely a trace of snow. Looked like we were dodging the Jonas bullet. My bizarre weather bubble was holding strong! What’s that, you ask? Well, see, I’ve come to the conclusion that I live in a magical weather bubble. Even when areas less than a few miles from me get a foot of snow, I get nothing. Must be all my magical faerie power. I always was convinced I was secretly a changeling. Or an alien. Hey, you never know!

Jonas 2 (1 of 1)

By 8am, we were suddenly upgraded to a blizzard warning. Say what?? What happened to “oh, about an inch”??? By 11am, the snow came down harder. Like crazy fast! Faster than even Cooper could eat it (he devours the stuff like it’s some sort of magical massive snow cone just for him). After a few minutes, even Coop didn’t want to be out there anymore.

 

Jonas 3 (1 of 1)While outside, we heard shrieks coming from my neighbor’s car. One of our neighborhood feral kittens was sitting under it, freaking out about the snow. Poor thing, the stuff was deeper than three of him by that point. I offered to give him a ride back over to our porch, but he freaked even more. He went flying through the hair in flying-squirrel-like hops, all the way back home. Zoe and the Fuzz saw this and were terribly jealous that he got to play in the white stuff. So I did what any good kitten parent would do. I brought the snow inside.

Cats Snow

They had a good old time checking it out! Alex (the Fuzz) kept trying to scoop it up and eat it. Guess he takes after his uncle Cooper.

Alex Zoe Snow

When he realized just how cold it was, he wanted to make sure Zoe got a good feel, so he did this:

I brought the snow in for my kittens because they wanted to check it out. The Fuzz wanted to make sure Zoe got a real good feel of how cold it was!

Ever see that “cats are jerks” meme? Yeah, well, Zoe is thinking the same thing right about there. By the time the storm ending in the evening, we had about 17 inches. Enough to trap me for two days because I can’t shovel it myself. Remind me to invest in a snow blower one of these days! I had to call a plow to come clear our 200-foot driveway. Still, I fared better than my little brother. He’s in Maryland and got 3 feet! Then again, his driveway is a lot shorter than mine.

Moral of the story? Well, there isn’t really one. I suppose it could be: Cookies are no good without white milk. So make sure that’s on your list.  I hope all of you who were hit with Jonas are digging out okay!

Did you get a ton of snow this weekend? What did you do to make the most of it?