Locals have told me that snow comes in every few years. Well, this is one of those years!. Woo hoo! Schools in Sequim, WA have a snow day. Many businesses have closed due to weather. Sounds like a serious polar vortex event, but it is just a minor storm. Places that don’t get much snow tend to overcompensate.
Snow accumulation during the Super Bowl
On Monday morning, Alice had a nice blanket of snow. She is used to it, being from Ohio.
Of more concern to me: the overnight temps in the 20s for the next few days and then again next week. I always worry about my RV water lines freezing, but I have taken new precautions this year by insulating the kitchen and bathroom lines and using heat tape on the hose outside. Allowing water to drip from the faucets is the final defense, and that has worked in the lowest temps I have been in,18 degrees. I don’t know what would happen after that, but it won’t be that cold here anyway.
Cabin fever is always a challenge. Tango loves to dance and play in the snow but I left my boots in the van, which is parked about 1/2 block away with the other overflow vehicles. I don’t want to tromp over there in tennis shoes. So, we are sitting around. I will try to get at them later when I go out to the gym. My little buddy needs a long walk.
I am not idle, however. Besides tackling the never-ending paperwork, I have been thinking about a good snow day soup to make. I found the the following new-to-me bases at the store yesterday and am contemplating what I might do with one of them today. I have not decided yet, but I have lots of time to work on it. I like the idea of buying soup bases because it reduces the amount of fuel that I need to use. Of course, the process of creating these bases takes energy but a manufacturer has economies of scale so I expect that the total carbon footprint of these products are lower than if I make soup stock at home. The convenience is amazing too, providing that they taste yummy. Will get back to you on that.
One of this will be the base for my new snow-day soup recipe
Next month (March 2019) marks 3 years of living a nomadic lifestyle. I have started writing a blog series that looks back on that time, from when I left my last minister position all the way to the present. I retrace my stops and toss in some commentary, with an emphasis on finding a home base. I changed my residency three times, although I fully expect the change over to WA State will be the last! Besides the fact that I love it here, the cost to become a WA resident is over $500 dollars, thanks to 3 vehicle registration/transfer fees (van, car, RV) and a WA driver’s license that costs nearly $100 for a new resident. Establishing residency over the past three years was the biggest challenge and was necessary because if you want health insurance, auto insurance, or a bank, you have to have to be domiciled in the state of your choice.
So, as Chicago and other points east of us thaw out, we enter the deep freeze. A good soup recipe should emerge from the icicles!
Before the snow storm hit, Tango and I took a long walk at a nearby county park. I can’t wait for the sky to clear and to see what those Olympic Mountains look like now!
