Ice, ice baby

So, an ice storm blew through here yesterday and left about a quarter inch of ice on my car and about 2 inches of it on the road.  My car doors are frozen shut.  Thank goodness I have already communicated with my boss, because it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere any time soon.

We're lucky where we are, though; we didn't lose power.  Tananda, who lives just south of us, hasn't had power since about 10:30 last night. She says thanks to camping gear, at least there is coffee.  She even covered the cold cat with her Jack Daniels t-shirt.  Now that, my dear readers, is luv.

The big road in front of my house has been plowed, but it still looks treacherous.  I have a vague inclination that I will be working quite a bit extra this week to make up for time lost.  Hubby says there's really no sense in trying to chip away at the external ice on the car, but I dislike being away from work when I should be there and there is stuff to do, so I'm feeling very unsettled.

Kiddos are thrilled with the time off, though. They were both completely entranced by the falling sky icicles yesterday and boy-child kept commenting on how many inches he thought had accumulated.  (I think I may have a little weather man in the making...along with a master gardener, an architect, and an environmental scientist.)

Anyway, I suppose now that it's nearly 10:00 in the morning, I need to figure out some way of getting to the office because I know at least one other person is there, so therefore the roads in must be passable.  I shall leave you now and attempt to make myself presentable for what is ahead of me today.

Here's hoping, if you're local, that you're not suffering too much.  I think about all my friends and family up North who have not just a quarter inch of ice and a lot of yucky roads, but feet and feet of heavy snow, with the threat of more to come.  (sigh)  I dislike Winter.

TTFN
JMS

Thor's party in the sky kept me awake all night (but I didn't call the cops)

Last night, we had major storm warnings and watches all over this area.  Normally I don't worry too much about storms.  They don't scare me.  In fact, I kind of like them.  (Except those thunder BOOMS that wake you out of a dead sleep as if Thor had smashed the house with Mjölnir.)  But, I am going to admit, here and now, that I let the warnings get to me. 

I couldn't settle.  I tried reading (which is a nightly routine that helps me fall asleep, just as hubby's is to find an old black & white documentary) but that didn't work; I couldn't concentrate on what I was reading and kept being interrupted by the lightning and thunder.  (I'm telling you, Thor was in a tizzy about something last night.)  I got up to get something to drink (grapefruit juice and ginger ale, yum), I stood looking out the kitchen window for a while and watched the activity in the sky, I checked on the kids multiple times, I gathered stuff for the utility room just in case we had to take shelter, I found a pitiful candle and a lighter, I found a flashlight...

I finally crawled back into bed (it's now about 1AM and waaay past my bedtime) and turned on the radio to the talk station I like, knowing they'd have emergency weather-related break-ins to regular programming, and I lay there and listened.  I listened to the sounds of the guys on the radio, if not really what they were talking about (it was just noise) but what I really listening for is the emergency broadcast system beeps - we all know what they sound like.  And all the ones I heard had the storms just to the south of us.  So all the storm activity I was seeing and hearing was, apparently, pitiful when compared to what the counties to the south of mine were seeing. 

I don't know, exactly, what time I drifted off, but it was probably close to 2:30 am.  Needless to say, I am tired today.  I know that there are going to be a lot of other really tired people around today, too, so I need to be sensitive to that and not selfishly hanging on to my own exhaustion.  There will be no time to nap, though.  I have a 4:30 pm meeting at the church tonight, and another one at 6:00 pm; I'll be there until 7:30 or 8:00 tonight.  And then, as if that's not enough, we're expected to get another round of heavy storms tonight; so more not sleeping.

TTFN
JMS