Snow and Lego

Posted on 12/29/2021 by Andrew Reynolds

Well, it’s been weird. It started snowing last week and so far the greater Lake Tahoe area has seen the largest snowfall in 51 years. Interstate 80 was closed for 5 (five), yes FIVE, days. Never in my life have I seen that. It opened last night and is now about to close because all the tourists decided to drive up in what might the worst driving conditions possible and are crashing everywhere threatening to block the freeway again.

For those who don’t know, here in Reno I-80 is our major artery for everything from food to gas to cat food. When I-80 closes we don’t get stuff. Most of our food and gas comes from California to the west, but luckily for us a lot of stuff comes from the east, routed through places like Salt Lake City. Yesterday Heather and I decided to venture out to the grocery store for the first time in a week hoping we could get some bananas, fresh veggies and some eggs.

Yup, the stores are all out of that stuff. The good new was that there still was a health supply of frozen pizza, boxes of popcorn and bottles of distilled water. Oh, and cat food. We got cat food.

My message to all who want to travel here right now: Don’t. But if you ignore that, bring your own popcorn, we’re out.

Yesterday I did have to shovel the driveway in order to get the car out. That was fun. Here’s what it looked like when I was done:

I only shoveled enough to get one car out.

The Christmas decorations now have added snow:

Soon I’ll have real snowmen to put lights on.

I wouldn’t have minded shoveling the driveway if we’d managed to at least get eggs, but it now seems like a hollow, eggless, effort to have cleared all that snow.

To pass the time we did build a few Lego things to go around the Christmas Tree and sorted out our Lego bins. Last time we let the grandkids use OUR (not their) Lego they managed to get red bricks in with the gray, door parts in the wheel boxes and people parts just about everywhere. They’re now banded from using our Lego until they learn to sort properly.

Here’s what’s under the tree:

Heather built the red building, I did the stairs and one of the kids did the gray thing (it’s a Santa hat on top).

The Lego collection lives in these boxes:

This isn’t all the boxes, only about 2/3s of what we have.

On a final note, our 17 and 19 year old grandsons did buy me this really cool Lego train:

It’s about 18 inches long, has 1,200 parts and took me about 8 hours to build.

Next I’m going to build a display cabinet for it.

Well, as soon as the snow stops and I shovel a path to my shed …

About Andrew Reynolds

Born in California Did the school thing studying electronics, computers, release engineering and literary criticism. I worked in the high tech world doing software release engineering and am now retired. Then I got prostate cancer. Now I am a blogger and work in my wood shop doing scroll saw work and marquetry.
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25 Responses to Snow and Lego

  1. robertawrites235681907 says:
    01/07/2022 at 9:02 am

    I really like that lego train and I understand exactly what you mean about the sorting of the lego. I hate muddles too.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Diane Henders says:
    12/31/2021 at 5:28 pm

    Wow, your own Lego set! I’m in awe! 🙂 Your snow is mind-boggling. Crazy climate! I hope you get your eggs soon, and that the tourists either stay away or learn how to drive in snow (as long as they leave you some eggs in the store).

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Debra says:
    12/31/2021 at 5:21 pm

    That’s an impressive Lego collection, Andrew. I love the train! And I’ve thought of you so often in your new “snowy location” and wondered how you were getting by. I don’t recall ever seeing snow quite like this. And we’ve had a lot of rain in Southern California. Hope you continue to do well, and wishing you all the health and happiness in 2022. We do need that!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Flojo says:
    12/30/2021 at 2:30 pm

    What a wonderful time you must be having! Except for the egg situation. Do you do jigsaw puzzles? That’s what keeps one daughter’s family busy.

    Hope good weather returns soon. And Happy New Year, Andrew. Thanks for the fun, informative posts.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Sheila Landry Designs says:
    12/30/2021 at 6:15 am

    Happy post-Christmas, Andrew! 🙂 Funny you like Lego . . . My significant other (Keith) has a renewed interest in Lego and Santa brought him some of his favorite Star Wars sets for Christmas. He has been Lego shopping for several weeks now and every day the mail comes, there is the thrill and anticipation of possibly receiving another set. He also wants to make a display of sorts for his. 🙂

    He actually just got back from town and did some (what I call) “Covid Shopping”. We are anticipating it getting worse again before it gets better, so we stocked up a little more than usual on stuff for the duration. They were completely out of cat litter last week. Thankfully, he got a bin of some today.

    I have taken my sabbatical from ‘work-work’ and have been drawing and painting a lot. I think that many have turned to inside hobbies, as our little business is still thriving. Maybe there is good in that. Sorry about the popcorn, though. It sure makes us reevaluate taking some things for granted.

    Hang in there. Eventually, things should get better. Right?

    Take care and have a great week. 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    • Andrew Reynolds says:
      12/30/2021 at 9:30 am

      I just love Lego and it’s been indoor activities for a few weeks now. Likely there won’t be much outdoor stuff happening here until March.

      We never thought the highway would close for 5 days so when we stocked up last week we did it with the plan of maybe a couple of days of low supplies at the store. The good news is that the road opened yesterday and the supply trucks are coming in. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out tomorrow for more popcorn and maybe some eggs.

      Like

  6. jfwknifton says:
    12/30/2021 at 12:34 am

    That is indeed a very impressive train, and so is the Casey Jones one behind it.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Andrew Reynolds says:
      12/30/2021 at 9:22 am

      The one behind, is a G scale train I bought about 20 years ago. We used it as a ’round the Christmas Tree train until this year. Sadly the track, wheels are worn and the power transformer finally died so now it makes a nice center piece for the table.

      Like

  8. Pied Type says:
    12/29/2021 at 7:26 pm

    I’ve seen some photos of your snowstorm. Spectacular. If only you could send some of that snow to Denver.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Bette A. Stevens says:
    12/29/2021 at 5:21 pm

    Love those Legos! Wishing you all a blessed and beautiful New Year!

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Dave says:
    12/29/2021 at 4:45 pm

    We are bouncing on the same wavelength this week, Andrew. The post I wrote earlier today (to be published tomorrow) is all about Lego. Thankfully, my angle is a little different than yours. Love those bricks! Also, I caught a headline stating the Lake got seventeen FEET month-to-date, an all-time record for a December. Holy moly! Truckee and Tahoe City must be literally six feet under.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Jeff Branch says:
    12/29/2021 at 3:20 pm

    It is 75 in Birmingham, Alabama right now. Yesterday we hit a record high for that day. Send us some of your cold weather. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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