throttled, blocked, smashed and snow

that about sums up my day!

We've been throttled and I'm starting to feel the pain. Its hard to maintain one's enthusiasm and momentum when blog posts take minutes to publish and you can make the bed while you wait for flickr to respond to your clicks! In case you are wondering, our ISP (they shall remain nameless for the timebeing!) emailed to say we'd be throttled for the next two weeks, resulting in a trickle of data when we'd been used to a torrent. It seems Mr greenolive went over the download limit during week 2 of our account. I'm far too impatient to wait for things to download in slow motion, and as a result I'm experiencing blog and flickr withdrawals. No matter, knitting up a storm...

Having worked up the courage to knit a lace stitch (see earlier post), I finally succumbed to the need to block the scarf in question. (I mean, the thing was curling at the edges and you couldn't see the lace stitch properly!) I was surprised at how easy it was, and how good the lace stitch looked once blocked. I'm not saying I'm going to block everything from now on...

Smashed...now there's a story! Its very cold up here in the hills today. The forecast is for snow down to 500 metres. We're about 660 metres, so there was a good chance we were in for some snow. (I think only other Queenslanders would understand how excited I was feeling about the prospect of snow!) Sure enough, round 12 noon the first flakes started to flutter down. Yay! I went outside to get a better look and maybe catch some on my hand.

Big mistake! I shut the glass sliding door behind me, and the wooden dowel we use to keep it shut (dodgy rental property with doors that aren't flush or square!) slipped down. I didn't realise this for a few minutes as I was entranced by the snow. But it wasn't long before I discovered it! Bugger. It was jammed shut. So, locked out. Not wearing blizzard-proof clothes. Wall of glass between me and the warm interior. All windows and doors locked. Three levels up. No neighbours home. No mobile phone on my person. Mr greenolive not due home from work for almost four hours. (I ran through all the scenarios in my mind. I'm very good in a crisis remember.) Weighing up all the options, freezing to death while waiting for Mr greenolive to return vs smashing a window and paying for it to be replaced, the window won. I sized up all the windows and decided a small one at floor height would be the cheapest to replace plus the easiest for me to crawl through and the easiest one to block up while I waited for it to be repaired. Just in case you don't believe me, here's the photographic evidence. I can tell you that the guys from O'Brien Glass are very prompt and friendly...

Well, after the ordeal of the smashed window, and after Mr O'Brien left, the weather had the decency to really snow. Real snow with big flakes that didn't melt as soon as it reached the ground, plants or deck. It was quite exciting, and Mr greenolive even made a snowman. And left big footprints in the snow. The forecast is for even more snow tonight... maybe we'll be snowed in!

Comments

[greenolive]

its going to be one of those stories that goes down in family folklore – even my mother-in-law in England has read the blog post! I can see the funny side now...

[kirsten]

oo la la! great snow pics and funny story (but not at the time, i am very sure!).

[greenolive]

We must be neighbours! I'm at Olinda, just past the village on the western side of the mountain. Often down to Belgrave. There used to be a great discount fabric shop there. We had more snow last night too.

[Anna Laura]

Which hills are you in? I'm just near Belgrave and while it has been raining a lot, we had no snow!