A White Valentines Kind of Week

It’s been an interesting week here in beautiful northern Virginia.  We had a snow day, delay in closing on buying our house, and a possible closing date on the house we’re trying to sell down in Mississippi.  Valentine’s Day came and went and Chinese New Year, the year of the Pig, is fast approaching.

Although we’ve had snow twice before during this winter season, this past week was the first time everything closed down.  It started snowing where I work early Tuesday morning.  By noon it was looking pretty thick, and at 1:45PM we received word that all government offices in Washington, D.C., were closing down.  By 2:15 most everybody in my office was gone.

One other person and I stuck around until 3:00 as we both use commuter buses, and the buses were not going to start running until 3:30 anyway.  Better to wait in a warm office than at a cold bus stop.

Shutting down all of Washington and surrounding areas proved to be an absolutely wonderful experience. The normal evening commute cycle covers about four hours.   Now, everyone was dumped out at once, many in mild panic at seeing snow for the first time – this week – and faced with driving in it for the first time – since the last snowfall.  Yes, we’re talking panic.

Add to this, everyone wanted to use the busses and Metro at the same time. My normal one hour bus commute home turned into nearly three hours; with the extra two hours spent standing in line at a cold bus stop.

I only took the bus to the stop closest to where Winnie works, arriving just before she finished work, so I could drive her home.  By the time she left work, we had about one quarter inch of ice coating our SUV.  This provided Winnie a chance to experience the joys of clearing an ice-covered windshield standing out in a snowstorm.  We broke our Mississippi-strength ice scraper in the process which seemed to amuse her.

It was still snowing when we went to bed that night.  It was still snowing the next morning when I woke up.  Looking outside, I could see a wonderful cover of icy snow everywhere.  I checked the news and confirmed that yes, in fact, almost everything in Virginia and Washington was closed for the day.  Pretty much as I expected, all the commuter busses were not running.

Just a beautiful White valentine’s Day in Virginia, the state for lovers.

Winnie’s store was open, but she didn’t have to go to work till 2:00PM.  We hung around the apartment all morning, had a lazy late breakfast and early lunch at home.  We left to get her to work early and did a bit of shopping since the stores were empty anyway.  Back at home, alone; about all I had to do was hang out all afternoon.  It would have been a great day for a DVD movie marathon except that all our DVD’s were already packed.  This brings me to part II of my story.

We were originally scheduled to have the closing on our new Dale City house yesterday, February 15.  Once again, the Charest luck held true, and the sellers had problems with clearing title.  Tuesday, we received word that we’d have to delay closing two weeks, till the last day of this month.

Winnie had already packed most everything we’d unpacked at our apartment, so now we’re once again living in the chaos of an anticipated move.  The only good thing about this delay is that we’ll at least be selling our house down in Mississippi before buying the one up here.

The closing for sale of our house down in Mississippi is finally set for next Friday, February 23.  Selling this house marks the end of an era and the start of a new one here.

Not a bad week.