Its 4:50 pm
Looking outside at 10.25 inches of snow we got hit with this past weekend. The word of the year so far is Artic Vortex. The temps at night are hitting at -30 to -50 degrees outside. Needless to say,its the coldest I have ever seen it.
Also have never seen two major snowstorms hit so close together as these past two storms. First one dumped 6 inches of snow and the last one this past weekend dropped 10 inches more. Factor in the first storm of the season in December and this has been the snowiest season yet.
I know its been a while since I have wrote anything,my main computer is in need of a check up and I just haven't had the weather to go and get it done. Most of my jaunts are to work,gas station and the grocery store. The roads are just brutal...creeping along at 20 mph saved my bacon this morning.
Its 9:23 am
Good morning...going to try and and write as long as the computer will let me.
Its still a snow covered setting here is SE Michigan. The deep freeze is very slowly fading but its still very cold outside. I have to go out later and shovel my patio off as well as my drain pipes before the snow starts to melt in earnest. Otherwise that will cause some serious problems.
Its been over a month since I last wrote. And I am feeling it,let me tell you...but I will try and share what has been going on.
As you can see by reading this,I made through Christmas. But it was a very hard time...I tried to get into it by writing some cards but I just found myself just sitting there looking at the stack. Somehow "Happy New Year" just has a mocking tone to it and I just didn't know what to write. I didn't put up anything in the house but promised myself that next year I would and I will do that.
But it wasn't a doom and gloom day. On Christmas Eve,my good friend Sue invited me over to watch the Hawaii Bowl and so I did. She is such a interesting person and a caring soul. She gifted me a pound of Biggby's cherry flavored coffee and a mug to drink it. That coffee is one of the best things I have ever tasted,its sooo good! .
Christmas morning saw me back at Sue's house as we were meeting some others to do a Meals on Wheels run. We met our good friend Tiana,our fellow co-worker Lamar and Tiana's mom and headed to Livonia to get our route. The car was pretty lively as Lamar kept cutting joke after joke. He works with Sue at my job and is a die hard Alabama fan. The roads were pretty sloppy as we made our way to the pick-up point. We got there in good shape and met other volunteers who were also picking up routes.
We loaded Sue's SUV and headed to Garden City which our route was located. We dropped our meals with nary as hitch except for one. The lady had taken a bad fall and was in the hospital. But we gave the meal to a woman who was helpful to us in finding the folks on our list.
As we headed back towards Tiana's mother's home...we suddenly pulled into a diner as Sue and Tiana had conspired to treat her mom,Lamar and myself to breakfast. The diner was pretty packed as folks were coming from church or just wanting to get away from the house on Christmas morning.
After that we headed home...it was a good Christmas all things considering.
I like to sit here and write how exciting life has become and that 2014 is going to rock it out but its not like that. Nothing has changed,there is no magical do over,no bright ray of sunshine. Instead I know in my heart that at this time last year,Lori started to slowly fade and I am once again caught up with seeing that. The long nights of uncertainty,the chemo that wasn't was helping but was making her sick,the days of her still getting up and going to work. Myself taking care of her and going to work,praying for a miracle...its a terrible feeling of deja vu reliving this journey again...but I am only sharing that in regards that the new year has the same heartbreak.
The weather has been the biggest story here as of late. We back to back big snowstorms that dropped almost two feet of snow on us. Combined with a huge arctic blast,we had temps hitting as low as -23 and factor in the wind chill,as low as -44! Yikes.
The day before the big storm that dropped 10 inches on us,I was in the ER. Woke up last Friday night with pain and cramping. After 25 minutes feeling the pain rising,I knew what was going on and so at 3:30 am,I dressed and drove myself to the ER. It was my 2nd kidney stone,I had my first one about a year and a half ago and its not a pleasant experience to say the least. They gave me some pain meds,did a CT scan and said the stone was almost ready to pass. Because they gave me morphine,I wasn't allowed to drive so my neighbor picked me up.
Later that day I went to get a few things from the grocery store. The lines were insane as you would have thought we were getting a 10 foot snowstorm. I admit,at first I was laughing at the panic that news media instills in us with their weather reports. Now normally as 10 inch storm is a headache but you shovel yourself out,drive slow and life goes on. But what made this different was the fact it was so cold...all the schools shut down,a ton of businesses did as well. And you really couldn't go outside for but a few minutes because of the cold. So yeah,for a lot of folks,they were on lockdown and getting those supplies was actually the right thing to do.
I was lucky,I was scheduled off the two days that the snowstorm fell. But I kept on top of snow as I went out and shoveled throughout the day. The snowfall was pretty impressive and I am happy we don't live near the lakes that get the lake effect snow which can dump feet instead of mere inches!
Paladin is doing okay,he keeps looking outside at the snow...I don't know if he has ever been in it or if he was just curious about it. But he sat in the windowsill and watched as we shoveled our walkways and driveways. Still working on his scratching issues however. Its a process but we are working on it.
Finished reading Scotty Smiley's book "Hope Unseen". While I thought his courage was incredible and the fact he had a outstanding wife to support him,I just never got that emotional connection to him as I expected to. It was a "by the numbers" book and I think that was his writer's fault,not Scotty's. But of course,that is only my opinion..and I would recommend buying the book at the same place I did,the Dollar Tree but I wouldn't recommend paying full price.
Now I reading a mystery set in the 30's called "The Vaults" by Toby Ball. It started out slow but is gaining steam and I should finish it this week. I am finding out I am no longer tearing through a book in a matter of hours like I used too. Which is why I have stopped buying books now...at my pace,I might outlive my stash of books yet to read!
But winter is such a good time to read....iced coffee,a big warm blanket and off you go,escaping into another world. I had a writer on Twitter ask her followers what do they look for in a book. I said "plot". It has to have a fresh plot. I see so many self-published writers hawking their e-books on Twitter. I just find myself bored shitless hearing their plots "zombies,vampires,paranormal romances,erotica". Bleech! Been there,read that by much better writers and so no,I have zero interest in reading about a haunted vampire in love with a ghost hunter who is turning into a zombie.
Speaking of coffee...I think I will finish this and make some before I start my shoveling. Don't want to lose my day entirely.
Thanks for reading and I will be back soon.
Shout-outs
Thank you everyone!
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