I was dubious Friday morning when the word was going around that we were to be struck with the cold white hammer of wintry weather. That’s because, at about 8AM, it looked like this.

Grey and overcast, sure. But that’s how we got the flooding earlier in the week, the lingering results of which can be seen in the murky dip in the back yard. Nonetheless, the manchild — who agreed to assist me with blogging since school was closed — and I headed out to the market to stave off the risk of him being snowed in with parents who were out of beer.

The wind was getting whippy and a little precipitation was beginning. Edward pointed out I needed my scarf. I retrieved it, and we headed out. Really, although it was grey and chilly, everything was still quite ordinary.

But you can see they were being generous with the salt in our township, even though other nearby towns were reporting that they had run out of salt for the roads.

Really, just grey.

We made it to the store just fine. The parking lot was fairly full, but tidy enough. Actual snow was just beginning to fall.

No doubt about it: Mom was going to need a big coffee. One is almost always acquired when passing this space, ever since they turned the supermarket into a Kroger Marketplace, an absolutely massive store that features… everything.

Is that a tight-lipped smile? Will a giant mocha improve things? Here’s hoping — it’s bound to be necessary to fight the throngs.

You can really see the enthusiasm pouring out of both of us.

Yes. Tortellini. And more coffee needed.

This is perhaps Edward’s favourite part of the store — the giant tape dispenser and the post-its that say “Pick up milk,” right next to the aisle endcap full of “Spirit Wear,” also known as t-shirts and jackets and such like emblazoned with LEBANON WARRIORS.

Most of the other people there were clearly moms who’d expected to be at work, but instead, were taking all the kids to the market, in case the milk ran out. You have to buy milk, bread, and toilet paper, apparently. Chad’s parents had explained this to me — when they moved here after living in colder, snowier climes, they discovered that indeed, if a big snow was predicted, the markets would in fact run out of those things.

Really.

At the Kroger, you can get toys. And furniture, housewares, bedding, books, and sushi, but hey — Legos and Star Wars crap, mom!

And beer. Let us not forget the beer. That’s what sent us out — beer, to keep the parents in line. Elizabeth, you asked about the kegerator. It’s just fine; however, the keg that goes in it… is empty. And it’s normally a weekend thing to pick up more, when we run out through the week. This is the “out of beer” situation: an empty keg.

Okay, we’re almost ready. The cart is full of stuff for chili, tacos, and pasta; we’ve replenished the canned soup; there is Boddingtons, hurrah! Just a few more important staples to check on — oh, and do you see the salt (for melting snow on your walkway) and snowshovels? You can get everything at the Kroger Marketplace.

This is an important source of caffeine for fathers.

What should be here is not here. It has not been here for some time, like since January. However, I remain heartened by the fact that the tag listing its price still has not been removed. Surely if the product were not to return, the tag would also go away.

My son knows as much about these things as I do about yarn, I suspect. Denny’s kid can probably fill us in on the details as well. As a mom, my knowledge of Lego type objects is super-outdated, and I can really only say “bad weather cabin fever rainy day distraction type thingy.”

And while you’re browsing magazine covers while the guy in front of you buys a snow shovel, you can rest easy knowing that your kid won’t be asking about anything untoward from the cover of Cosmo.

We’re out safe, and Trucky is waiting, lightly dusted with snow.

Mom is so amused.

Yes. Ice. Thank you, Trucky. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

Heading down the main drag where the car dealerships are — there’s one of these in every town above a certain size — we can see snow starting to stick.

Roads are fine, though. It’s been about 45 minutes since we left the house.

And here, on the main fast-food-restaurant drag, we realized that visibility was definitely worsening.

Things were still okay down our country road…

…but it’s good to be home.

One of the things Chad pointed out to me about a truly modern — as in not in a cabin in rural New Hampshire — lifestyle in a part of the world which has winter (albeit typically mild winter) is that you can have an attached garage. You pull your vehicle right into the garage, and you’re already essentially indoors. Really. Basically no scraping ice and shoveling out the car. We live like kings.

Gentle reader from a truly snowy area, please understand that even what you see here could potentially be enough to cause snow days. This is gritty, icy, slushy snow in pellets and flakes, and not everyone knows how to deal with it.

“If that keeps up all day,” we all agreed, “We might really get that foot of snow.”

Plus it’s the blowy kind.

Ahhhh, a snow day.

By lunchtime, it was still coming down, still blowing hard, and making interesting drifts.

And this is noon, people, not dusk. Look, the driveway’s hiding.

By dusk, we were well-blanketed, and it was still coming down, harder than ever, even. “They’re saying till tomorrow night,” Chad said when we went to bed. I turned off the alarm.

I was awakened by a very enthusiastic 10-year-old. “MOM!” he stage-whispered, “Come right now, into my room, and you can see, you can really see, how much snow has fallen. And it’s still snowing! And it’s not just a trick! Come see come see come see come see!”

Yes. Before the coffee, little man. I’m on my way.

Why, that’s enough snow to make an undercaffeinated mom say, “It’s even taller than the mess in your room!”

The dad, in his wisdom, proposed an outing to see the snow.

This bare spot was really interesting — it’s definitely the wind-whipped part of the lot, but this corner of house was quite un-snowy. Which is good, because it’s where we get Trucky out of the garage.

The driveway, though, was buried under almost a foot.

Our road had, however, been plowed.

Even so, drifting snow had accumulated in this hollow.

The main road into town was pretty clear.

This shortcut, not so much. Incidentally, the poor people with the house at left in this photo — their fence is constantly being hit by cars. Constantly. All year round, once a month, someone’s tagged it. It’s amazing. I would have been tempted to replace the fence with Jersey barrier by now.

Here’s where you’d get off the highway. In other words, we’re on the highway.

In case you were ever wondering why they label the exits with arrows and whatnot.

Chad proposed breakfast.

Amazingly enough, the Bob Evans was open. The service manager and one waitress were making it happen. We were very grateful.

And here’s the fast food drag again, not 24 hours later — complete with a car spinning its wheels attempting to get across the road.

So quiet.

Had this been me, I would not have been being quiet. I would have been cursing up a storm.

Here’s that main drag with the car dealerships, again.

and the Kroger parking lot.

This guy and his buddy were out plowing the parking lot; from the looks of things, by the time they finished it, it was time to start over again at the other side.

So what had they run out of, for real? Well, the breakfast sausage was hit hard…

And the frozen pizza.

Plus pre-grated cheese.

Milk? Restocked.

ARGH!

Good thing we got soda, though…

And it’s a good thing we didn’t need a snow shovel, because at this point, we’d have had to buy a snowblower at the checkout aisle.

This had been plowed clean when we went in.

Here’s what it looked like on the way home:

Can’t tell what’s going on? Let’s try this…

That’s the plow.

This had been freshly plowed when we left the house also — maybe 90 minutes prior?

Our country road, too, had been plowed again since we left… and was now worse than when we left.

Yay, home! I didn’t go out again, but…

…here’s my valiant assistant, in the back yard just before lunchtime. That’s right — you can’t see the fence.

It kept snowing till about 8PM — some 36 hours of nonstop heavy and blowing snow, and it was a bit over a foot (aka 30 cm). Most snow since 1978, apparently.