Snow blankets Reno today

After a long warm fall, we have the first snow fall of the season. Well, I guess it was more of a blizzard. 

Here is the view from my front door. You cannot see the mountains. It is a white out for sure.

My husband works in Truckee, California and most times during the snow chains or four wheel drive is necessary for safety reasons. He will sometimes take my car and I am happy to stay home. Today I had several appointments scheduled and needed my car. He was sweet to make arrangements to car pool. He left home at 6am only to sit in traffic since Highway I80 was shut down. It was not too long before he called me to let me know that he was on his way back home. The roads were terrible and the highway was dotted with many vehicles that went off road  and several car accidents. A few involving 18 wheelers. No matter how careful a driver you are, we have to always watch out for the ones that are not.

Due to the weather I cancelled my appointments for the day. Here is my car armed with studded snow tires. I love that we have studs. It makes driving in the snow a little better. It gives the car a lot more traction.

I checked facebook periodically, watched the news and called the parent hotline to see if there were any delays for school. Nope nothing of that sort, not even a snow stop announcement. If the roads are really bad, (and they were this morning ) the kids are picked up at designated stops so the bus does not have to travel on the smaller roads that are snow ploughed last. 

As a parent I was not comfortable sending him on the bus that does not have seat belts. I am glad I made that choice. On my way we saw cars sliding on the slippery roads, a couple of accidents and drivers spinning their wheels. Not a pretty site on the road today. 

Here is Pravan before he went to school this morning. He was such a good sport to do a mini photo shoot in the snow.

The snow however is pretty soft powder that my kids love to eat, sled on and make snow angels. Snow ball fights and a snowman is always a warm welcome in winter play. Since Friday we have managed to go sledding and eat snow. That is a whole other post as I have too many pictures to post. 

I am looking forward to the long holiday weekend and having some quality time with the kids in the snow. I have a feeling that tomorrow the phone might ring at 6am to announce some sort of delay for school. The high is expected to be 6 degrees Fahrenheit. For my metric friends that will be -14.4 celsius.

Here are some highlights from the news today : 

Mayor Bob Cashell has cancelled the tree lighting ceremony tonight due to the treacherous road conditions. 

The artic front will also bring some windy conditions, with gusts to 45 mph in Reno-Sparks.Record lows are likely to be set with this cold blast of Arctic air.

So as I write this I got a connect ed call from the school district informing us that we may have a delayed start in the morning  due to icy road conditions from a drop in temperature. This will be determined in the morning and I am sure we as parents can expect to be woken up by a phone call super early. So what is the point of a delayed start if we cannot sleep in.... arrghhh!!!

Thanks for stopping by... Send some sunshine my way :)

Mwah !!!