054 ~ Blizzard 2

Sunday - 11th -

.... started at 5am with a phone call from the nursing home Mack works at... 

they were asking me if there was any possible way my son could come in to work then - on his day off! - because the day cook had just called to say she'd gone off the road and was in a ditch waiting for help and probably wouldn't make it in.  Poor Mack; he was up until 4am rearranging his room... not expecting to work or need to get up so early.  He spent 45 minutes shoveling snow away from his car... so much more snow had fallen overnight you could not even see where plows had been the day before (they had stopped running about 10pm unable to keep up with the snowfall... just doing main roads).  It was even hard to see a difference between road and yards! The unplowed road had snow anywhere from 8" to 18" deep depending on which way the wind blew it overnight.  Mack cleared his car but was unable to drive even 30' without getting stuck repeatedly... and he had about 5 blocks to go before hitting a main road.  Another neighbor, out shoveling too, helped him get unstuck and get his car reparked.  

At 6am we called the nursing home to report that he could not get there... 

after having tried numerous other ideas to see if ANY vehicles were moving about (city, local police, county, sheriff, state patrol, cab companies, etc) 

--- not a one was moving yet.  

State and county road crews (snowplows) went back to work at 3am and 5am respectively... moving snow at least 12" deep to somewhere off the roads.  The resulting piles of snow amassed easily topped road signs and fences!  It was 9:30 before we finally got one on our street and it took him four passes to clear the road - tho I must say he did a SUPER JOB in helping to move a couple feet of snow away from one side of Mack's car without even a scratch! :)  

It was 10:30 before Mack was on his way to work... 

since now, none of the day cooks were going to make it in, 

he'd be there to prepare lunch and dinner.  

The night shift had to feed all the residents cold cereal for breakfast.  

Near 11am the girls all worked together to dig out our 2 overnight guests - 

18-24" around the car, 

and about 4 or 5 FEET of snow at the end of the driveway!  

An hour later they were at their original destination of the night before. :)  

A couple of hours after that Becca & Jessi left with their dad

 to see Allyssa's play: 

UW-L production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" 

for their closing show.  

Not long after they left our friend and neighbor, Bob, arrived with his snowblower!  I'm so grateful for his kindness in clearing all the sidewalks and the driveway, including widening the end of it where the girls had dug thru for their friends to leave earlier. :)

The rest of the day was quiet... not much left of it really since by this time it was about 3pm... but the quiet was nice. :)  I should have taken the time then to actually work my business but I held off because I really don't want to get into working on Sundays.  I'm still struggling with scheduling time for it.  It's so hard to find the time.  There are always problems to tend to that can't be put off.  When I'm finally done with dealing with it/them I find myself in too much pain or far too down to be of any good at work. :(

026 ~ Alone

LONE STAR BEAUTY

Sometimes I find myself feeling all alone, like there is no one else in this whole wide world who gets me; who understands who I am, what I want, what I need, why I do what I do, or say what I say.  Ever feel that way?

I love Bluebonnets almost as much as I love yellow roses.  This one is especially enchanting surrounded by a rare spring snowfall.  It appears to be all alone.  In reality it is surrounded by hundreds of other bluebonnets also popping through the snow.  It just seems alone.  I know that's the same for me - I'm not really all alone.  :)

Today we woke up late but got to the meeting on time anyway.  Today we got two invitations to lunch after the meeting.  Today the muffler fell off my van.  Today we had our first snowfall ~ but it didn't stick (ground was too wet from all the rain)... north of here about 30 minutes or so they got several inches (from 3 to 12) all across the northern part of the state... very wet, heavy snow!  Today lunch was wonderful... we enjoyed the meal and the company, even if we were the mild-tempered but very tardy sisters. lol  The sun even made a brief appearance shortly after dessert. 

008 ~ Not My Fault!

I'm going to have to come up with a plan for dealing with inclement weather and downed internet connections!

Today's pic shows the choppy waters of Lake Tomah from a month ago.  The winds from the Oct 26th and 27th make this look tame!
I wish I could have taken some pics of that, but illness kept me inside so no new pics of any kind right now.


All over the news I've seen videos of what this massive storm system has done.  Huge waves in the Great Lakes make their shores look like ocean beaches in a surfing championship.  Some reports said waves on Lake Michigan were 22-24 feet high!


This system beats out the worst of the worst storms of the past, especially since no tropical system was involved in it's formation.  Very rare!  


Just like it's rare to have so much prolonged issues with internet connectivity.  Charter's been very good about getting things up and running as quick as possible.  And you would think that if we were going to lose service it would be during the worst of the storm ~ but this came near the end, as the winds were dying down some.  Not sure what exactly went out, but around 11ish on Wednesday night (when I was reviewing pics for this blog) internet connections started "fritzing" (going off, then on, then off, etc) and after about 30 minutes or so of that we lost it all!  Not just internet, but cable tv, and our phone!  Perhaps I should consider acquiring their "backup" plan for phone service so I'll at least be able to make emergency phone calls during times like this.

006 ~ PINK Sky At Morning

'Red sky at night,
Sailor's delight.
Red sky at morning,
Sailor take warning!'


That is the first thing I thought of when I went outside this morning about 7:20a.m.!
I called a friend of mine to take some pics because I was without my camera at the time and wasn't sure I'd be back home before this eerie pinkish gray sky faded away.
Happily, she indulged me... and she went outside and took ten pics right away!
So credit for today's pic goes to my best, best friend, Lori of Lori Lokken Photography and she has a blog about her photography business as well.
Thank you Lori, for taking such great pics!


The sky lost it's eerie pink coloring by the time I returned home. :(  It continued to change all day however: pink turned to gray, which later turned to blue, and still later back to various shades of gray.  The clouds came and went and came back.  We do have storms moving closer from the west and the system is set to bring us really strong winds for a few days!