Snowy Days

Well, the Cincinnati area has set and/or broken a snow record. We have had 40 days of accumulating snow, according to official records. There's something Biblical in that, isn't there?

In many ways, it's been an apocalyptic winter. Definitely, it's been a record setter, in many ways and in many places. In Washington state, it has ended with a massive mudslide that has wiped out most of a community. They are still looking for the people, combing through homes and digging through slop, and the rain will mingle with the tears as too many are lost or left. I hope the winter is over for them, and I hope they get a miracle or two or twenty.
People have died of cold while inside their homes.
Whiteouts have taken lives on the highways.
Cabin fever has led to murders, assaults, and other insanity.

I hate this long cold winter. This is not the kind of historical time anyone (except maybe meteorologists) wants to live in.

But -- March is ending, and we have the proverbial wisdom of coming in like a lion going out like a lamb. I'm ready for some lamb, how about you?
Little lambs, and green grass, and blue skies with puffy white clouds, and fruit blossoms shedding a different kind of white on the ground.

I'm ready to put the cold and snowy days behind me, and look forward to the warm and colorful days ahead.

If it's really stopped snowing, and there is an end to the killing power of winter 2013-2014.
Too many have died.

Roaring? Try Growling. Like a Tummy.

I went and got my little ones before the weather turned bad. The plan was to keep them if it seemed necessary, depending on the weather.

At least, that was the grown-ups plan. The little ones had something else in mind!(Not purposely.)

Friday night Warren cried and kicked like his belly hurt. Babies do that, and our water is different from theirs at home. No biggie, right. It was even funny when he spit up on me and Hailey while Tracy was holding him. Babies do that, too, after all.

Saturday was a wonderful together day, arguing with Hailey over the computer and the tv, wrassling around with Warren, who  was determined to chase down Tracy everywhere she tried to hide. That kid is really nuts about her. I think it must be the combo of Pappaw and Mommy, but it could be Tracy's childlike playful side.
Anyway, if she's in the house, Warren will track her down!
He also likes to walk under the curtains that are the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. He likes to step up over that little step, too.

Then came Saturday night, and one of the nightmares pf parenting. Hailey's belly started hurting and we couldn't make it stop. We tried warm packs and milk, and sipping diluted alka-seltzer -- that one sip was the only one she took, too. She didn't like the taste at all.
Soon enough the sick came out of her, and she immediately started wailing that she couldn't go to school with that brown stuff coming out! (They had sent a girl home from school Friday when she had the same problem.)
She also needed a shower! She had already had her bath, but Hails doesn't ask for  showers at Mammaws. She can get showers at home.

Poor little girl! I told her it was just a pookie bug and when it all came out she'd be okay.
She told me again that she couldn't go to school.
We were up all night with that pookie bug. I took a plastic pan into the bedroom with her/us, and she managed to use it as needed, crying all the time. I could tell she was really hurting, but any medicine came right back up.
Eventually she went to sleep, more dozing than real sleeping. I was grateful for that, you can believe. She was being pookie in my bed, and worrying herself about it. I told her me and her and the pillows and covers would all wash and to just get the sick out.

It was almost noon when we got up Sunday morning. Hailey was weak and wobbly, but no longer in pain and no longer sick.
When we got Bubby up, he didn't want to play.
ai thought it might just be a dozy day, getting ready for the "Titan" blast of winter.
Well, I hoped that was it.

Futilely, as it turns out.
The pookie bug had him too.
he wanted Mammaw.
he spiked a fever.
So I had to tell his mommy she needed to come and get them. Even put Warren on the phone with her.
Bapbapbap" he kept saying.
He and I had several bapbapbap conversations while he snuggled against me. He thought it was funny when  I'd say "Bap bap?" to his bapping.
Such a loving little bunchkin!

Eventually the sick caught up with him and got all over me.

Eventually (Titan was now upon us) the parents arrived. Of course by that time they were both in recovery mode, silly babies.

Of course it caught up with me too, Thank goodness the babies had gone home, that's what I say. I think Mammaw having the pookie bug would have scared Hailey half to death! Of course she could have helped take care of me. She would have liked that, I think.


But all is well now. She's back to school, he's back to toddling, and I'm back to sitting at the computer.

One more challenge met.

(I'm too old for this.)

Is "Snow Emergency" Legally Valid?

We're in the grip of our first snow emergency of the 2013-2014 winter. Winter Storm Cleon. With Dion already following closely.

Now, this isn't about what makes a snow emergency in any specific place. Minnesota and North Dakota would probably laugh at what Cincinnati calls an emergency.Maybe even at what they would call a significant snowfall.

But, the fact is, Cincinnati communities are calling snow emergencies of various levels.

Big whooping deal. It means, for the most part, that communities can write tickets and write off damage to cars parked on the streets.

They say not to go out unless absolutely necessary.
But who decides what is necessary?

I can tell you who does NOT decide.
Service industry workers. They have to go to work or lose their jobs.
The owners of various businesses don't care much if the police say don't go out.
The police don't care much, either. If you are driving slowly and carefully, they aren't likely to chase you down and possibly cause an accident, as well as keeping you both out when you could be getting in somewhere.
But the gas stations HAVE to stay open.
McDonald's MUST stay open.
Facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes, by their very nature, need to stay open. But must they insist on workers coming in in a "snow emergency"?
(I don't know what they could do instead. They should work up snow emergency protocols. Reduced staff, maybe sleep-breaks for people who will remain instead of go out I believe some hospitals do do that.)

Not only do these businesses insist on insisting, they punish those who don't risk life and limb to serve coffee to idiots. (Road personnel excepted from this category.) They write them up(disciplinary action); they brand them as unreliable; they reduce their hours; they even fire them.
They do not pay the fines for tickets received.
They do not pay for damages caused by an accident when their employees should never have been on the road in the first place.
They do not compensate for extra gas burned in longer, slower drives.
They don't pay hospital bills for slip and slide crashes.
They do NOT pay for funerals.

It's not just the service industry. There are factories with this same mindset. Never mind that their product is nonessential -- they have quotas that must be met, come hell or high water. (Hell or high snowdrifts?) The work must be done.

No mere employee can protest any of these disciplinary actions by pleading a snow emergency. The designation has no standing in labor law.

So, a "Snow Emergency" is a money maker for the municipality.
A "Snow Emergency" is an out for insurance companies, who will not pay (easily) for an accident caused when the driver wasn't supposed to be driving.
A "Snow Emergency" is no reason to not go out; thus says American Industry.

So, I ask you, why bother.
Why bother?

A New Page of the Calendar

Well, October the Horrible is over.
It's November now.
Cold.
The first snow flying.
Thanksgiving.
November 2013. The first November in 27 years that I won't have my chosen companion to spend it with.
There's a germ of acceptance in the turning of the page.
A grimness.

But the calendar is only doing what a calendar does. Marking time passed.

I know that this year, it will be different finding things to be thankful for.
I hope one of the things will be a job.
Another would be a place for independent living.
But even if those don't happen, I will still have my wonderful sisters to be thankful for, my friends (and don't  let anyone tell you Facebook friends aren't 'real'. They are more real than the next door neighbors.), my daughters, my grandbabies. For November, I have a roof over my head and enough to eat.

Maybe December will change that or maybe it won't.

I won't know until it is once again time to turn a new page on the calendar.

Spring, oh Spring

where are you, Spring? The calendar says you are here, but a look out the window says it just isn't snow. I mean so.
Because it is snow. In places, it is a lot of snow.

I like snow. It has a way of prettying up a drab world, abd it spreads light in a dark season.  It isn't rain, and it isn't dull gray sky and it isn't soggy dripping, muddled brown trees. It' snow, and it's clean and bright.

But it isn't spring; it's not a usual part of Springtime.

Last year, we had no winter, practically. We had record-breaking, record setting high temperatures. Without a proper winter, we skipped from right into summer, skipping over spring.  Flowers and fruits rushed to cstch up, and cheated themselves of the leisurely growth that adds flavor and color to the fruits and flowers.

 The weather-wise, in February, began shaking their heads and murmurring about "a BIG one". It seems someone says that every year, but there's usually a truth beehind it. Weatherbalances itself, and if thete is a wild careen on one side of the scale, the reciprocating bounce can be vicious.

Last year, the year of no winter, was proof of that. No winter rushed into Early summer, witha twist.

Make that twister. s.

People I knew, places I've been were harmed by that rush into summer. (For me, no immediate family, but I shudder still at how close it was.) Many people lost homes and family when warm weather came too quickly.

I, like everyone else I know, am tired of winter. I'm ready for Spring.  I want the green and groeing season, sun on my face, earth on my hands, blooms before my eyes.
But if Mother Nature this year wants to bless us with snow -- if "the big one" this year will be the cold covering beyond its time -- that's okay with me.
Coast-tocoast winter suits me more than coast-to-coadt whirlwinds. And that's just fine with me.

lighting the darktime

For centuries, Christmas lights and candles in the windows and blazing fires have spread the light in the darkest time of winter. That solstice, every year, is the time of briefest light, and mankind has been fighting back from the beginning.
After the season -- whichever of them you celebrate, daylight begins creeping back into this old world. Minute by minute, day by day -- or maybe it's minute by day -- the time of not-dark increases. Our joyous blazing celebrations have brought back light, even if we don't think of it that way.

Recent years, the wooing of the light starts earlier and lasts longer. We begin, now, with ghost lights in October. Orange and white, only the orange has a tendency to look a lirrle red. We leave the spakling clear lights on through November, and then comes the extravaganza of Yuletide.
Carnival, which culminates in Mardi Gras, begins at Epiphany -- the twelfth day of Christmas.
But, between then and now, there are more secular holidays, made for fun and cheer.
Red lights and reshaped wreaths on doors celebrate Valentine's Day, the time of year when the sap rises in our spirits as well as in our yards. Green lights replace the red, and the wreaths are joined together in threes, to celebrate St Patrick and the return of the Green to the northern hemisphere.

And the twinkling lights give way to pastel ornaments and blushing bouquets, awaiting the full touch of sun as they burst into bloom.

From ghost lights to green lights, we keep away the darkness.
Or at least we try.

Snow and ice/ not so nice

well, we had another 'winter storm' last night. This one was mostly ice, making everything slick and slippery. (Yes, both.) It was a Friday night, no big sports events. If we have to have a winter storm, that's the time to have one.
With no sunshine this morning after, the aftermath hasn't looked too impressive. That makes it more dangerous in many instances.
But it could have been so much worse.

Chicago and points not-so-far north measured snow in feet. Winds and temperatures didn't melt anything, to say the least. Traffic pictures were horrible. Seemed to be miles of cars going nowhere on the freeways. I hope there were plenty of blankets, plenty of juice, lots of blankets. I hope there was enough to share for the few and the fools who set out unprepared.

There were accidents here, too, of course, but no national station is broadcasting our stopped traffic.

This winter has been cold, but not too wintry -- as yet. It always makes me uneasy when the forecasters call for big storms that turn out to be little ones. It's not unusual for winter to not 'hit' until after Groundhog's Day. The cold usually makes an earlier appearance.

I don't want to see winter storms, but I really hate it when they are predicted to the point of hysteria, and then the reality is fractional.

I should be as thankful for that as I think people should be that they aren't more northern. But, like them, I am only annoyed that we are all inconvenienced by whatever has come our way.

And I hope everyone on that horrible roadway is safely tucked in at home tonight.

My Good News/ Bad News Life

We all knows what happens during the coldest part of the winter, right?

Several of my friends know. Your furnace quits running.  (Adams County Heating and Cooling is currently getting rave reviews on my Facebook. They are Johnny-on-the-spot, and get the job done.)

If only that was my problem.

 

We're out of fuel. We do have some Kerosene, got it for that first big snowstorm. Have credit at Community Fuels in West Union. We can use that to buy jugs of K, but had hoped to get enough paid in to get a delivery. Guess that won't happen now.

But I also have electric heaters for every room, as long as we keep them on the low setting. Just what you need to do during a freeze wave. If we put them on high, they trip the breakers. Hooray for old houses.

 

EXTRA NEWS:The wick is all burnt up in the stove we have here at the house! We have other stoves, in storage, miles away across the ice and snow and cold.

 

I'm back in my good news/bad news Life Story. Someone screwed up -- I wasn't getting bored yet! Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter!

More Snow, More Cold -- but less of "The" Cold

It is winter, after all. We aren't even out of January yet.
I have some curiosity about what February will bring. February is usually when we get the worst of winter, although there have been a few 'big snows' in early March.
Recent years, though, the weather has seemed to have shifted about six weeks in its changes -- which would have us warming up for spring in February, if that were to hold true.

I don't think it will. For one thing, in spite of the perceived pattern shift, our recent winter storms have been in February. On one 02/10/09 and then on 02/09/10 -- I have the dated pictures to prove it. For another thing, the early nature signs are lacking. No greens peeking and poking out of the ground, no subtle changes in the dull gray branches of the trees.

I know, because I've been looking.

Time will tell.

On the home health front, this nasty cold is finally loosening its grip. I can stay awake now, and when I'm awake, I can actually do things, like dishes. Like sweeping. Like taking out garbage. I am thrilled, even when I have to stop to catch my breath. Because I got so much more done before I had to breathe this time!

Hooray for healing!

snow 'storm' -- yeah, right

We are in the midst of our first winter storm. From the forecasts, it's got the potential to be nasty. A day of heavy rain, changing over to snow, then plummeting temperatures, rising winds, and more snow. Up to 7 inches in places is what they are saying now.

I know this isn't a lot for many places. People in this area like to feel superior because Atlanta and Charleston close down for an inch or two. You'd think they would figure that that Chicagoans and Canadians sneer at them in the same manner -- and justifiably so.

No matter where you are, this sounds like a bad sequence of events. I'm going to be ready for ice on the power lines and the wind whipping them around. I took it upon myself to warn facebook friends and family who are local to get alternate heat. Even if they don't need it this time, at least they'll have it.

Makes me wonder, though. How do places like Buffalo and Chicago and points north not have problems with power outages?
clearing roads and keeping businesses open -- a lot of that is just better systems and better products. Spraying roads with an antifreeze solution for one thing. That's not cost effective here., although it is occasionally tried and used.

Is it possible that  these snow cities have a more laid back attitude? Here, the counties and townships have to post snow emergencies and tell people they aren't allowed to drive, and then peopled do anyway, because they'll get fired if they don't come to work. Do the snow cities have a greater tolerance for snow days for adults? Or are adults just more prepared for the weather because it is the norm?

How do they avoid the sometimes days-long power outages that we have here? Or do they as a rule 'just' prepare for that, too?  Do most homes have an alternate heat  source? Or a non-electric dependent furnace?

I'd like to know, so I can be more prepared myself. So I can help others be more prepared.

As it is, if you have problems, but can get out, my door is always open to anyone in need. We will have food and heat, if we need back ups, and you are all welcome here.

(written Saturday December 11)