Snow-verload, part 2

Back at home, we were prepared but facing new challenges. The lights went out temporarily and we thanked God and Father R that we had a generator. We kept in frequent contact with my parents an hour away. Father R had brought in supplies while in their neck on Monday so we knew they were supplied.
    I tried to maintain some routine in MeiWei's life. We couldn't afford to keep taking snow days along with the school system (who will be going until July it seems). While she worked on a map of--no kidding--Hawaii, she giggled about getting wet. "I knew it couldn't be rain because it's snowing!"
   I looked up and found drops coming from the ceiling.  Father R was concerned, but was busy with the plow.  When all was quiet and I was making lunch, I was alerted to a tapping sound nearby. Now the drips were coming from the middle of the room.   Snow piling up on the balcony over head was blocked and melting into the house!  First one, then two, then three pots were lined up on the floor. Father R came in and immediately headed for a ladder and a shovel. I tried to squelch the idea of going up on a ladder in a blizzard, but he  wouldn't be stopped. Thankfully, he got down the offending blockage  without harm and the leaking stopped.
    The doors on all sides began to be blocked and finding a way for the dog to relieve himself presented a new challenge. Dad R had shoveled a path early on but it had filled up. And opening the slider onto the deck brought in snow-filled gusts.
   The front door, protected in part by the porch roof, provided the only means of "escape" for the dog who still had to wade around ankle deep for a spot and ended up choosing the doormat.
     We expected the snow and wind to let up by nightfall, but it maintained the same pace. The radar showed us to be on the southern edge of a rotating ball of clouds spinning in place over the Mid-Atlantic.  We had played the board games we bought in prep for more cabin fever, had dinner, talked and read weather news until there was nothing left to talk or read about.
   Then Dad got the idea.
    He "double-dog dared" MeiWei to walk all the way out to the "potty patch" that he had just dug in the yard for the dog---in bare feet.   For a piece of chocolate.  And she agreed if he would do it too.  And he did. So Tai and I laughed and grabbed cameras and watched their Polar Bear Stroll.
    Then Tai was dared and she did it. And then MeiWei went out three more times. And I didn't and was accused of being a "wooss" and I agreed to that.
    And it snowed for another hour after everyone went to bed.
    And Baltimore has a new all-time, since 1884, record of total yearly snowfall of 74.5 inches. And it's only mid-February.