In which snow precludes the weekend trip

I was pretty worried on Tuesday, but as of 8 am Wednesday morning, the claim was still that evening flights would be heading out only slightly delayed. Boy, was that ever a bait and switch moment. By 2 pm, the flight was cancelled. I got on the phone with the airlines to find out that there were no flights available until Saturday afternoon and those were multi-stop flights that would result in more time in the air than if Florida. Decided Wednesday was a snow day and sent out the invitation for folks to join us for wine and cheese. Several took us up on the invitation and we had a lovely time and drank quite a lot. I headed out to shovel (again) after the guests left and think the wine might have been equally to blame with the ice for my lack of stability, but got the sidewalk well-cleared. Thursday morning, called the airlines bright and early to see if anything had changed, but not, so talked to Hilda and the final plan was that she would take Sioux in Finn’s place and that Jenny would ride Tribute. Thursday was another work from home day. We (mostly Henry, but I helped for a while) shoveled out the cars, then headed off for yoga (me, not Henry) before working at home. Thursday evening, we enjoyed wine and dinner at Salt & Pepper, one of our favorite Philadelphia BYOs after trekking the two miles from our house to the restaurant. Friday, back to work as usual for me, though many had still not dug out cars and the smaller roads were still a bit questionable. Friday evening, no traffic at all as we headed up to Lambertville NJ to see David Fraser’s most recent showing of his interesting twining art (a version of basket weaving http://www.fraserfiber.com/gallery/index.html). Amazing all the things to do when not heading for Florida. The remainder of the weekend included work, yoga, the movie From Paris with Love and plenty of basketball watching. Susie had a good run at Pine Top after the snow delay! Amazing that there were 6 inches of snow on the ground there, but the super crew at PTF made it happen and the folks at hoofclix documented it http://www.hoofclix.com/Pine-Top-Farm/2010-02-14-USEA-Horse-Trial/A-Snowy-Pine-Top/11225963_U2wFG#787631173_3EsHt. In Ocala, it was sufficiently cold and rainy that even Hilda abandoned propriety and rode in rain gear and half chaps. Isabella put in a lovely test, prompting the judges’ comment “very good test in very bad weather” at the bottom of the dressage test. At the end of the weekend there, the Carpenter’s Cracker won his first event with Hilda aboard at Intro. Eddie Wideman and Duke were 6th at Eddie’s BN move-up after an unlucky rail moved them down from the dressage and XC second place. Isabella wasn’t so sure about going on in the conditions and Hilda retired her on cross-country. Godsend and Extravagance jumped like pros, although the weather was apparently distracting enough that Hilda had a TE on Extravagance. All in all a good and busy weekend, but I’m looking forward to being back in Florida for Rocking Horse III next weekend.