Winter wonderland

At approximately 11:00am on Sunday, 5 March the snow finally stopped and the sun emerged. What a beautiful storm, described much more eloquently (as usual) by Heather than I could manage. We must have around 2 feet on the ground, which I would imagine has to be some sort of record for Basel. To give some idea how unusual this storm was, even the trams and buses are shut down. That may be par for the course back home when the first flakes start falling, but I'm convinced that in the event of a nuclear explosion here, the worst that would happen is there would be a 10-minute delay (for which they would plead for understanding and everyone would grumble about how transportation is going to hell).

Now, the aftermath: shoveling. I just went out and did about a quarter of our long sidewalk and had to take a break, which is partly a reflection of just how heavy the snow is, and partly a function of how embarassingly out-of-shape I am. (You may ask the question, why do you have to shovel the sidewalk if you're tenants? Shouldn't the landlords be responsible for that? Long story...) I'm supposed to be at Zurich Airport first thing Tuesday morning to pick up Gretchen and I'm really hoping I can get the car dug out by then (seriously).

I think I said something earlier this week about labs looking better in the snow. Poor Grady likes to eat the snow but it's so deep (basically up to his eyes) that he doesn't quite know what to do, and even worse, he seems to be confused about where to poop because his usual spots are buried. What's that they say about a dog's life?