we each do our part

 After over a week of poor air quality, we had a series of small storms roll through northern Utah, beginning Thursday evening (1/4/24).  These storms brought some much needed snow - as of Sunday evening, Alta had received eleven inches (not spectacular, but welcomed nonetheless) - and much colder temperatures.  Like, Alta's highs for the weekend did not go above 15 F.  That is too cold for me, even with heated socks.

H, who doesn't get cold as quickly as I do, skied both days.  On Saturday, his usual bus was SRO and he heard over the bus's radio that the bus behind them left a whole bunch of wannabe skiers at the bus stop, unable to load them on the crowded bus.  On Sunday, he took an early bus (6:30 a.m. omigosh), which didn't leave the park and ride until 6:50 a.m. and then got stuck in the "red snake" of traffic on the way up.  He was glad that he'd made the effort for the early bus, however, since UDOT tweeted out that vehicles were struggling to get up the canyon due to the snowy conditions.

The snow was good, the lift lines were shorter (due to it not being vacation week and also COLD and snowy) and he got hailed by a local whilst reading in the Goldminer's Daughter lodge prior to the lifts opening.  He did get cold, though, his feet especially.

Down in the valley, Milton and I had our own fun.  On Saturday, we walked for an hour and then shoveled, the dog "helping" me by standing in my way every chance he got.  Once indoors, I did two loads of laundry (including putting them away!), changed the sheets, made both chocolate chip and oatmeal-raisin cookies, as well as lentils for the week ahead and a really, really good lentil bolognese sauce for pasta dinner.  

Sunday was colder and snowier.  We walked for an hour and shoveled for an hour, helped out immensely by our neighbor who graciously ran his snowblower down our sidewalk frontage.  Then I made six quarts of homemade veggie broth for the freezer, cleaned out a closet, caught up with an old friend on the phone and successfully made an actual loaf of bread, with yeast and all.  Very exciting.  Dinner was a new recipe: tofu giniling, a Filipino-style picadillo with carrots, raisins, green olives and potatoes.