Oh yes it snowed

Oh yes it snowed....and snowed.....and snowed.

Till all of the city was shut down....around 8 inches by the end of the day. I was tucked inside working on emails and phone calls for the silent auction. It was a good day to get that type of work done....because everyone was home or on their computer. I received replies in no time at all.

Although the snow is pretty...I am worried about my little wild cat. She actually came to the front door when I opened it this morning to tell me how bad it was outside. I put a little plastic on her shelter and made sure the little heater was working but she looks cold. I've fed her and given her some warm water...but this is not the season for kitten.

She is much friendlier to me today.....I guess she knows she's in a desperate situation. A few minutes minutes ago I opened the door....and bent down and actually petted her...rubber her back...which she let me. Something new....and then she licked my hand. It almost made me teary eyed...it was like she was saying...okay...I'm not quite tame but I know you are doing something to keep me alive. Oh...I'm such a softie. Yet how can you turn your back on this little thing tossed out by someone?

So I'm going to do more auction work and stay up for another hour...I have to keep turning on her heating pad because it shuts off every two hours as a safety mechanism. Despite the snow my son needs to go to work...so I know someone will check her around 430am....but in between...I can only turn it on and hope it stays warm and keeps her through most of the night. I am seriously considering secretly setting my clock and getting up at 3am to check her heating pad. The city is closed tomorrow....so I can work auction and sleep in ...if I don't fall back asleep.

I am a silly woman.

Wild cat sitting in the little shelter I made for her for the snow storm

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Waiting for the 4th End-Of-Times Snowstorm

The weatherman are practically having on-air orgasms about the coming storm.

First it was 8-10" then 6-8" and now 4-8 inches....whatever.

They are all waving their hands...having specials on TV....warning about taking water and candy bars and blankets in your car....and how we will be devastated and isolated and stuck....

for 48 hours!!

That's not a very long time.

It's supposed to be 40 degrees by Friday and maybe back up to normal and 50 degrees by Sunday. So even if we are snowed in for two days...it will all be gone in two days too.

This is not the End-of-Times...it's just a pause in the life of a busy city and busy people.

I plan to get up early ...drink some hot chocolate and get an early start to my silent auction work. I have several phone calls to make and I'll probably get in touch with the people...since they will be snow bound in their houses and not in the stores or at meetings.

See there's already something good happening out of this.

I've built a small little shelter for my wild cat which she is sitting in right now...and it should keep her a bit snug till the snow comes and melts. It leans right against my front door so I can toss her some cat food during the day if the snow piles up. Not ideal...but being an abandoned kitten in winter is not ideal either.

I'll also probably make myself an egg sandwich for breakfast....a tradition on a snow day ...followed by lots of coffee.

So weathermen and women keep flaying your arms...let's see how much stuff we get....my only concern....that we don't lose power...cause if I don't have my freaking computer I can't do my auction work....and then I will start freaking out.

Okay....no snow flakes yet...nite nite and let's see what happens tomorrow.

The End of Times at my local grocery store.

It's a snow day here in the South...and I did a stupid thing....I went to the gym early ....and then hungry as hell went to the grocery store as the first flakes of snow hit the southern asphalt.

Everyone in town also witnessed that first flake, checked their smart phones...saw the opaque mess on the weather radar moving towards us and drove like crazy people to the grocery store too.

I groaned when I hit the parking lot since quite a few folks made it there before I did. I hit the milk section first....because #2 son, although a grown young adult, can't seem to survive without chocolate milk. Thank heavens a few jugs left.

As the grocery store filled up with people... and I smelled the panic in the air......I sort of went berserk.

My hungry tummy plus all those Eastern European and Siberian ancestors in my DNA joined to form a toxic mix which morphed me into an extreme carbo hunter armed with a steel grocery cart.

Package of cookies to bake....yes!
Tortilla chips ....yes!
High energy cereal....yes!
Frozen yogurt ...yes!
La Leche topping....oh yes yes yes yes !

My cart filled and filled. My logical mind stepped in for a few minutes to buy some lean ground beef , some veggies and fruit...and then was shut off by my carbo hunting ancient ancestors who shouted in my head, "Screw the bananas .....grab the potatoes."

Yes great great grandmamas and grandpas.

Finally cart full.....I ended up in check out lines at least 12 people deep....everyone keeping one eye out the window at the snow and the other eye on people who might dare cut into the line.

The line didn't bother me.....I updated my Facebook status, texted the family that I had saved the day and procured food, and read my email. I took a deep breath.....I felt like an ancient hunter with a mastodon in my sled....we would not starve tonight...no matter how cold or how much snow.

I drove home and called out #1 son who was off work to help me empty the car. He opened the trunk and look startled...."What happened?" Which I took to me, why the heck are there so many bags of food. But hey, I have three men to feed, two dogs, two cats and one wild cat to tend to.....and since I'm the appointed hunter in the family right now....I'd rather have surplus then listen to all these men and animals moan.....about the lack of something to eat. Not that we couldn't all use a few days of starvation.....lol...

Anyways...There's a couple inches of snow........amounts people up North and on the East Coast would laugh at....but we take are inches seriously down here in the south. We are a fragile people who cannot go without bread and milk and the nice-ities of life like cookies and hot chocolate.


Actually hot chocolate sounds real good right now...so I think I'll head downstairs and make some then snuggle up in my office chair and start working on the silent auction bids and narratives I need to write.

If anything it's a perfect day to spend on the computer....now that I have faced down the End of Times.

Snowmen happen in the South.....

We only get snow a couple times a year.....so it's not unusual to see spontaneous snowmen spring up...sometimes in unusual places.

They're not just for kids down here.

Snow Day

It's quiet in my house....the 5-6 inches of snow created a thick blanket of insulation around us.

Although for most people it's a snow day....my husband is a state employee and is considered "essential personnel." So early this morning....we warmed and moved cars on our driveway....scraped windows and kicked the snow around. He'll go downhill initially to work but then he'll have to drive up "Bale Hill"....also known as "Car Hill."

There's an auto dealership on top of the hill.....but when the rare snow hits us.....Car Hill will be littered on both sides of the road with abandoned or wrecked autos as southern drivers who aren't used to driving in snow flunk the attempt.

Yesterday I had to drive through the snow to get home from a meeting. I felt nervous and panicky. Yes, I had bread and milk at home...but somehow the 2-3 inches of snow was getting under my skin. Drivers were already doing stupid things ...not giving their cars enough gas to get up a hill.....turning sharply and braking.......and then a few idiots who were driving too fast. But I grew up in Chicago and went to college in Omaha were snow drifts rule in winter....surely I wouldn't forget winter driving lessons......but I think that's what made me nervous.....I was losing my confidence. I've lived too long in the south.....and a once or twice a year practice of snow driving doesn't keep your skills honed.

Fortunately, I made it home...safe and sound.....giving my car enough gas to make it up "Car Hill" and giving the finally push to get up my own hill...where my house sits.

I'm a little concerned about a small stray kitty we were feeding....she is, probably half feral, but we put a little food out in this cold weather for her. I found her snuggled up against my front door but as I soon as I opened the door she ran away.....hopefully to a better spot to shelter.

So as far as my snow day goes.....I'll grab one more cup of coffee and start working on the silent auction.....unfortunately or fortunately......email and texts still work.

Not your normal southern landscape

This is a rare view out my kitchen window.......

and the snow hasn't stopped.....at all.....

it may be a drop in the bucket in comparison to the East Coast....Snowmeggedon

but this amount of snow is a big deal for us.....

the weathermen completely missed this storm.....

so most of city didn't have a chance to rush to the grocery store for BREAD AND MILK..... a southern tradition.....which begins as soon as the "S" word forms on the weathermen's lips

it's not known what happens to southerners without BREAD AND MILK for 24 hours.....

but I'm sure it ain't pretty.
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It's here.

The ice arrived around 6:15am....actually it arrived earlier in the night....but I knew it was here when our home phone rung.

My hub works for the state and when they shut down departments/agencies/offices....a robo caller phones us to say basically....wake up so I can tell you to go back to sleep because you have the day off because of bad weather.

That's what happened this morning.... except I left the portable phone somewhere down the hall ....which meant hub heard the phone ringing....got out of bed and starting wandering around and muttering things....probably about me not putting the phone back in the cradle. The robo caller is not very patient and within another minute his cell starting ringing. He got back in bed....but then the cell phone rang again and again and again....as different employees wanted to clarify how to proceed. By the 5th call....I just groaned to him..."Do you want to make coffee or should I?"

As we sipped our coffee, the next problem confronted us. I knew this storm was coming and like any good Southerner....I went to the store to stock up on milk and bread.

Stocking up on milk and bread is a Southern tradition and I give the routine a Midwestern spin by including cookie dough and cereal.

God forbid we should run out of Raisin Bran cause if there is one thing you do have time to do on an ice storm day...it's poop.

But obviously I had forgotten something......I tried to ignore her....but that wasn't going to work.

Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow.

Oh there was dry cat food......but we were all out of canned cat food....and the obligatory life-sustaining lump of salmon pate did not arrive in kitty's bowl this morning.

Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

I read the newspaper on line, I opened the mail, but as soon as kitty saw me.....she let me have it.

Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

Finally at noon, when the sleet stopped ( the pellets of ice made a sizzling sound....like bacon frying in pan), I declared I would drive to grocery store a couple miles away and get some cat food.

In one second, the men folks were all lined up and ready to leave too. Wait...Wait...I'm just going for cat food....I protested.

But the men folks declared they had been cooped up all day ( which means about 4 hours) and needed air.

So we all drove down to the store....where I bought 14 cans of canned cat food and decided I was dangerously low on chocolate.

After a warm cozy lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.....the men folks retreated to various nooks in the house while I became glued to the season's ending of Storm Chasers on the Weather Channel. Will the tornado chasers have an "intervention" with a tornado allowing them to film the funnel cloud as they pass through it...or will they have to wait for another season?

Oh the drama .....and I couldn't turn away.....2 hours later.....the answer was clear. They sort of got what they needed....but not enough..... so by golly they will have to film another series next year.

All this ambivalent goal achievement allowed me to wander off.....without purpose. I did a little of this and a little of that.....and time flew by and I'm not sure what I really accomplished....outside of giving the Raisin Bran a quiet day to work in my intestines.

Tomorrow though... will bring new challenges ... ...

it's snowing now....and an ice and snow combo will cause most of us Southerners to feel so faint ....only an intravenous infusion of milk and bread could revive us.
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