SPECIAL Blizzard February 2010 Edition ... aka The Day The World Closed

Welcome to my Winter Wonder-Mess!



It's official! The Blizzard Advisory has been lifted.
But NOT the Winter Storm Warning.
Gee, take a look at the pics I took after 24 hours of snowfall... I think our whole state has been closed until further notice.
(oh- and there is a 4ft fence UNDER the bent cypress trees in the pic... you just can't see it... but I SWEAR it's in there!)

I was awakened, suddenly and without apparent reason, around 5am. I think it was the sudden absence of sound after an hour of Thunder Snow- loud crashing booms and bright flashes of light while the snow fell at 4 inches an hour.
As I dozed off and on I realized there was no sound in the house at all.
Not a good sign when you have an electric heat pump heating system during a snow storm!
Upon fumbling my way to the first floor I found the power off and the house warm, but quickly cooling.

Being the NON-Fire-Starter that I am, I awoke ManChild and ordered he get the fire going immediately. Being the wonderful son that he is, and not wanting to freeze to death, he got a roaring fire going in our BEAUTIFUL wood-burning fireplace.
Thank God we had that or ... well the meaning of Family Togetherness would have been put to the test!

ManChild cleared the back deck of the 3 ft of snow, but left the dinosaur eggs that we found had been deposited on the table and chair overnight.






Problem-solver that I am, I found a stainless steel pan, with metal handles AND lid, filled it with water, then placed it on the coals in the fire to heat water for coffee.

Never has a cup of HOT COFFEE been appreciated as the one I made HeMan Hubby to keep him warm while shoveling the front walk to the driveway!

Alas! Our winter weather was not without it's small catastrophies!
Our poor Gazebo collapsed under the weight of the snow, becoming entirely engulfed by the swirling white stuff.

The bikes that were being stored UNDER the gazebo may not be seen until the Spring Thaw...which at this point looks like it might arrive with Easter.
The Weather Man is reporting another storm to hit our fair state sometime on Tuesday... a mere 3 days from now.

The dilemma we face is not what will we do between now and then, but rather, how much do we even attempt?

With a 60 foot pine tree blocking our driveway, we have no way to gain entrance to the rest of humanity.

This pic is looking down my driveway to the tree that fell during the night. It is laying across the drive at the halfway mark- the drive is 350 ft long with a 90 degree turn right where the tree is.
The trail thru the snow is the one we made to check out the tree. We were walking on about 2ft of packed snow and there is about another foot since we made the trek about 6 hours ago.


Maybe we can just cut away the dangling branches to create a tunnel to drive thru...
Sort of like entering Narnia through the Wardrobe...
Only different.

The Saints Go Marching In... to Miami that is!

"I can guarantee it's gonna be bad. And you'll take a lot of flack. And you might not make it back alive."

Okay- this does not sound like a pitch I want to get from my squadron leader BEFORE I take off in a rickety old WWII airplane, that may, or may not, have all it's gadgets working properly.

Of course this was a line from an old movie that I was watching/using as white noise.
And of course the pilot and gunners and all the other 6 guys that were needed to keep the plane in the air were all like "No problem Sir" And "We'll get there and it'll be a blast" or something pretty close to that .

I seriously doubt that is how those guys really talked.
In reality they were more likely saying "WTF! This bucket of rust will be lucky to make it off the airstrip!" and "Those damn japs are friggin crazy! Whose idea was it to go looking for them?"

But I guess those lines wouldn't be very inspiring for the audience and then no one would have run out to buy War Bonds and then the economy would have crashed...

Like now. And that's the problem. Those censorship people fell asleep at the wheel and have been letting movies use too many un-inspiring lines.

So the mess we're in now is all Hollywood's fault.
Well, Hollywood and the Banks... and...yeah, just Hollywood and the Banks.

Shake Your Groove Thang.... unless you have sciatica then maybe you should just tap your toes.

I love music. All kinds, except that Screamo crap that TeenGirl likes to listen to on her iPod at full volume WITH the earphones IN!

Since when is dancing in the kitchen with the radio on while cooking breakfast an age defining event?

Oh yeah, since TeenGirl and her TeenFriend walked in the back door and TeenFriend said, "My Mom dances the same way. She's old too."

Yep, out of the mouths of babes... I can only hope that one day she has children who say the same thing about her.

As for TeenGirl, did she defend her mother? Oh No! She did not. She agreed with TeenFriend that not only am I old, but I embarrass her by listening to "Her Radio Station"...

My job here is done... mission accomplished!

Whew! I can stop dancing around the kitchen to 'Sexy Back' and go make an appointment with the chiropractor to repair the damage of Justin Timberlake!

Scorecard:

TeenGirl= 0
Mom= 1

Half Empty or Half Full ... THAT is the Question

This picture is from the snow last March... the snow is now to the 4th step of the porch and none of the bushes are visible. It's still falling over an inch and hour...great, just great!


Snow is falling. Again.

Don't get me wrong, I love the snow. It's the cold, wet, slushy, brown mess it becomes that I dislike so very much.

And it's the decreased amount of sunshine and warmth. And the sloppy mess left on the floors when kids tromp through the house a hundred times a day to change out of their wet clothes.

But I do like that it has brought out the enterprising spirits, and I'd like to think, Good Samaritanism, in my children.

Instead of sitting in the house bored, staring at the tv, playing video games, they have combed the neighborhood, snow shovels in hand, finding clients in need of snow shovelling services.

They targeted the elderly and those with very young children as potential clients as these are the ones least likely to be able to do it themselves, but most in need of ice-free walkways.

I am proud of them for their entrepreneurial attempts. But even more so because they did not ask for specific amounts of money. They asked for whatever the cleint felt was reasonable.

BoyChild, aged 14, asked for $5 for his efforts, and was rewarded with $20 AND a cup of Hot Chocolate at one house alone.
He also learned about competition. TeenGirl, aged 12, and her friend were working the same area.
They learned that by dividing the streets there was plenty of work for them all.
And that a job well done will give you loyal clients.

Lessons they will call upon many times in the years to come.
This is all great, of course. But the very best part is...

I don't have to entertain them!

The Fall and Rise of the American Family... or the AWESOMENESS of Moms!

Hind-sight is 20/20.

Yep. It's true!

Looking back on any event in our lives we can, without any doubt, see where we went wrong and what we should have done to change the outcome.

Unfortunately, we can only do this after the fact.

This, I think, is totally screwed up.

I mean, if scientists can send a man to the moon, find cures to horrible diseases, why then can't they find a way to help people make better decisions?

I guess the main reason is that it would make things like MOMS and GRANDMOMS obsolete.

Just think about it.

If there were a way to fix your problems before you made them what would the Moms and Grandmoms of the world do with their unsolicited, and yes, albeit rarely, solicited advice?

All the knowledge they have gained in their lifetimes would be for naught.
No one would listen to them (assuming anyone actually does in the first place) and they would lose their place in the hierarchy of the American Family.

What would 'Everybody Loves Raymond' be without Marie?
'The Simpsons' without Marge?
'The Waltons' without Grandma?

The American Family may appear to be breaking down. The nuclear family appears to be failing. But in reality, it is making a come back. More families have mulitple generations living under one roof then I can remember in my lifetime.

Maybe the generations that have gone before are getting their message across?
Maybe Generation X is finding they don't know everything after all?
Maybe the Recession is making it impossible for young families to survive without the help of their elders?

Or maybe, just maybe, the American Family never stopped listening to the Matriarchs after all.

I think that the decline of the American Family Unit was a bad rumor spread to make younger generations THINK they were growing up and living their lives...
a rumor propagated by very wise women.

The Moms and Grandmoms who in their infinite wisdom knew that the only way to teach is to let their young make mistakes. Always secure in the knowledge that these fledglings would come back to the nest when they needed help, whether they realized it or not.

I have been a Mom for 29 years, the words coming from my lips falling on deaf ears.

Or so I thought until recently, when I became a Grandmom and heard my daughter telling her daughter the very same things I said to her as a child.

Then I heard my 20 year old son giving his 14 year old brother advice, the very same advice I have given him over the years.

Which leads me to believe that I am AWESOME!
Or I heard more of what my Mom was saying to me than I realized.

Probably a little of both....

But more that I am AWESOME!
(which I am sure my children will agree with as soon as they are parents themselves)

And that The American Family is not crumbling at all... that was just a rumor spread by those much wiser than the rest of us...

Our Mothers and Grandmothers... and for that I Thank Them.

If Today is Today, where did Yesterday's Tomorrow go? You don't know either, do you?

I was sitting in the garage, smoking a cigarette, wondering why.

I only smoke a handful of cigarettes a day, and I have to go either outside, which is NOT happening in the frigid weather we're having, or sit in the garage where it's a tad warmer. Well, there's no wind blowing in there. Because we don't smoke in the house.

Well, I don't smoke in the house. HeMan Hubby smokes in his office in the basement although I have repeatedly asked him not to.
There's a lot of things I've asked him not to do, or to do for that matter, that he doesn't listen to. Sometimes I wonder why I bother with that too.

Anyway, I was sitting outside smoking and reading one of those mags from the grocery checkout line with tips for Valentine's Day and how to make your relationship better, when I came across the "NEW" rules for relationships.

Here's the gist of it-

Old advice- never go to bed mad
New advice- take the night to cool off

Old advice- do things as a couple -like date night
New advice- double date with another couple with similar lifestyle, kids, jobs etc. This will create a more intimate bond for you as a couple, while building a friendship with the other couple which apparently helps your realtionship.

Old Advice- Schedule "private/intimate" time
New Advice- Be spontaneous and break the rituals of a scheduled life since everything else is so scheduled.

There were some more but these are the ones that stood out to me.

Not because I have been doing them wrong, but more because I haven't been doing them.

Except the don't go to bed mad one. I hate that. So we always talk before we go to bed so we don't sulk or simmer over something that wasn't worth the effort to begin with.

And who has time to double date?
I'm lucky if we can find a time to hit a late showing of a movie once in a blue moon, let alone find a couple that can clear their schedule to fit ours so we can actually go out at a regular date time for dinner and a flick or drinks.

And Private time???
Well, we have never scheduled that. But then there isn't much time for the spontaneous happenings either. It's sort of a hit or miss to see if we are both in our room at the same time while we are both awake. That doesn't happen often, but we do try. Really, with 5 kids still living at home, it's not easy to swing but we do try.

This got me thinking that maybe I ask too much of HeMan Hubby? He works a lot and has a very demanding job. And he is a really great dad and he does little things for me all the time that I don't ask for so...

For Valentine's Day I'm going to show him I love him by not asking or expecting so much from him. And I'll let him know he doesn't have to...

Whoa! My thinking almost got too carried away!
Let's just leave it at I'll try not to ask too much of him and give him more downtime when he's home from work...

And I'll make him a nice Valetine's Day dinner.

Yeah... I can't get too carried away or he'll be suspicious and think I'm having an affair, or hiding some terrible secret, or bought a new living room set.

Can't have him thinking any of that now can we?

I wonder if he can find the time to put in some new carpet this weekend?
BEFORE the Super Bowl, of course!

Sometimes I think I sound like the grownups in Charlie Brown cartoons.... the rest of the time I KNOW I do

I just watched What Not To Wear-episode 250- and was so happy to see they gave me a makeover!

Okay. It wasn't actually me, but it was someone of my age, with my body shape and my sense of fashion.

They even gave her a great RED hair color that I would love to have.

Crizti looked HOT! And if she can look that HOT! I know I can too.

HeMan Hubby even commented on how great her hair looked and said- "Hey Hon, you would look good with that hair and your pale skin in the winter".

Yes, he was paying me a compliment... no, he isn't always good at it.

But, he tries.

Time to re-think my current wardrobe of sweats and t's.
You KNOW I'm not getting rid of them, but I think I need to add a few more comfortable items that I can throw on and dash out the door in without, well looking like I just THREW them on.

Or looking like a reject from the 80's.... or a Bag Lady... or both.