The final total was 23 inches. We think. Some folks not far from us claimed 30 or 40. National Airport said 17.8 (but that's always low due to being right on the river).

Whatever. It's a lot of snow.

School has been canceled for Monday and Tuesday, though the Caps did manage to get in their nationally-televised game with the Penguins on Sunday (5-4! Overtime! Ovie hat trick! 14 wins in a row!). And then there's the forecast for Tuesday night: Mo sno.

Like ten to twenty inches, which will sit nicely on top of the two feet or so that is definitely not melting any time soon.

We did all the right things, starting with beer/wine/liquor/food runs on Thursday. By the way, that is the proper order. Good beer is always the first thing to disappear in this sort of panic, and it is always the last to be restocked. Wine and liquor never quite sell out, through lines can be long. And you can always find some kind of food that will keep you going--there are always plenty of dry beans on the shelves.

So I bought beer and wine and food--dry beans for chili, sausage and veggies for jambalaya, flour for biscuits. Oh, and some frozen waffles.

By Saturday evening, I had two massive pots of chili--one veggie and one "Super Bowl style," which had chopped brats thrown in with the burger, beans and onions. We've spend the last two nights feeding a fair portion of the neighborhood, and there's still some left.

Three bags of dry beans (and some nice, greasy carne) will take you a long way.

But now, there's this new forecast. Mo sno on Tuesday. Even mo sno on Friday. And no melting until, say, March.

I know there are plenty of places across the country that deal with this every winter. I, myself, happen to like snow. My sons are having a ball, creating sled runs and ramps and snow caves and forts and speculating whether or not the remaining branches on the pine tree in our front yard will crash down and take out our power.

Snow days are the good life.

Of course, the bill comes due in June (and, perhaps, July), when these missed school days get made up. I've never had a school year run through the Fourth of July, but if we skip all of this week and get another week out at some point during the rest of the winter (a scenario that is seeming more and more likely), then school will dribble in July. Like the World Series in November--it just ain't right.

But hey, that's life inside the Beltway in the aftermath of Snowmageddon: The Snowquel. We've already had more snow this year than D.C. has seen in a hundred winters. More is on the way. And we'll keep digging. Because, you know, we've still got beer. And wine. And liquor. And dry beans.

Life is good.

Jon Worley shovels snow in short sleeves.