WHITE OUT

Chip's Mt. Everest metaphor for our lives seems pretty accurate about now. We're up on Hillary's step, summit in sight. We're freezing and a blizzard's a-coming.

Actually, I mean that in a literal sense. This has been an epic winter with record snow falls north of us -- north where our new boat awaits. As it turns out, we chose the only day in January that we could have managed a sea trial. YAY.

But now that the deal is done, we're Jones-ing to bring the boat here to the Outer Banks, so we can move onboard. What do we get? "Snowmageddon." "February Fury." The boat is covered in about two feet of snow. The water is frozen over again. Sigh.