Snowed in

For the past two days, the city of Carbondale along with most of Southern Illinois, Eastern Kentucky, and Southeast Missouri has been at a stand still. The university even closed down which is no small feat. Yesterday this was primarily because of a solid 4-5 inches of ice that was dumped on us overnight. We spent the entire day with our neighbor Brad at our house having a Lord of the Rings marathon. We successfully completed the extended editions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. We have plans to tackle The Return of the King today.

There were a few truck and SUV-owning neighbors who were able to make it out of our lane yesterday, but last night we got about 4 more inches of snow and ice, so we'll see who can make it out today. I can tell by the covered tracks that no one has tried to get out yet. I know that we won't be attempting it in our compact cars.

Our house sits on a slope and all day yesterday people would try to get out and then get stuck right in front of our house. The snow-driving novices would just sit there and burn their tires. After laughing for a few minutes, either Kyle or I would put on our boots, walk outside and tell them how to get out. It seemed like common sense to me, but apparently people lose their minds in this weather. "You have to back all the way down the hill to where it is flat... keep going... okay, now you have to gun it and pick up as much speed as you can and do not slow down until you've reached to top."

I have a hard time imagining that they would close the university tomorrow too, so let's hope that this melts a lot today, or we'll be stuck again. I don't really want to think about that right now, though... I just want to think about enjoying the day at home!