Friday, February 04, 2011

More (And Probably More On the Way) (For a Few Days)

More snow.  More cold weather.  More ice.

More housebound Texans.

I did get out today, I went to work and took Otter with me.  We left about 6:45 a.m. and got to work at 8:00.  We had a stop, we stopped at a Wallyworld grocery store to get the stuff we needed.  We had planned on stopping after work today, but I really needed a break from driving on absolutely horrible roads so we detoured for about 15 minutes.  The parking lot was iffy, it had been plowed at one point but it was still pretty bad.  We had a little trouble getting out of the lot, but we managed.

The ride was bad, but there wasn't much traffic that early.  There was a little, a couple of stupid pickup drivers but not much.  I figure that it's not worth having an accident, so I'm going to be careful.  If someone else is in a hurry, they can go around me!

We got to work and I got several things done, I have about a year's worth of stuff to file but I got all the major stuff done.  We had planned on not leaving at lunch (we had sandwiches) and leaving an hour early, at 1:30.  But at about 10:30, Bill called to tell me it was starting to snow again and was heavy.  Shortly after that, it started snowing at work.  So we were thinking that we might leave a little earlier, maybe around 1:00.  Then it started to snow really heavy, so we left about 11:30.  I had a fast stop to make, which took about 5 minutes, but it still took us over an hour to get home.  Normally, even with traffic, I'm home in about 20 minutes.  The snow (which is still coming down) is heavy, wet stuff and the roads were really bad.  They weren't good this morning, but they were much worse when we left.  There were a lot more cars on the road at this point, I think a lot of people had the same idea we did - leave early.  Also, the radio station we were listening to was advising people to get home while they could, because it's only going to get worse.  Not too many people actually were out Tuesday through yesterday.

The snow wasn't supposed to start until tonight and then it was supposed to be light.  Yeah, right.

Anyway.  We get home and are starting to get the car unloaded, Otter had to get out of the front seat on the driver's side since the passenger side had snow up past the bottom of the door.  She gets out and I'm standing by the open, rear driver's side door reaching in for grocery bags and the car starts moving.  It was sliding backwards and I really thought it might make it into the street.  The driveway has a very slight slope, but it was a fast enough slide and the driveway isn't very long.  Otter was close enough that she was able to jump in and hit the brake, which did manage to stop the car.  She sat there with her foot on the brake, I grabbed a couple of bags and went in for Bill since I wasn't sure if I would need to move the car back further or not.  He came out and checked, it wasn't moving anymore so he and Otter started to help me unload.  We had several bags, because Wallyworld uses plastic bags (which I hate) and they don't hold much per bag.  We didn't have a lot of groceries, just lots of bags!

About this point in time, I realize that my face is stinging and I vaguely remember the car door bumping me as it started sliding.  Then I realized that my glove has oddly red colored snow on it, from where I touched my face.  Bill is coming in the door at this point, he of course freaks out.  He's not afraid of blood at all, but he thought I was really hurt because I bleed a lot.  Well, I'm a redhead.  It happens!  He inspected me, then sent me off to the bathroom to clean up the blood on my face.  He and Otter got the rest of the stuff in.

(It's not a deep cut at all, it's a little deeper than "just a scratch" but it's not deep and it's not going to need stitches.  It's on my left side of my face, just above the jaw line towards my chin.  It does sting a little, but it's not serious.  It just bled for a while, but that happens.)

Among the stuff we bought was a 40 lb. bag of birdseed.  I wanted a 20 lb. bag, but it was either a bag that weighed 40 lbs. or several 2/3 pound bags.  So we went with the 40 lb.  Besides, it's not going to go to waste.  I have a feeling that we're going to be feeding birds for days and days and days.

The snow was expected, but not until tonight.  And then it was supposed to be light.  But it's not light.  And it's not stopping.  I'd say that we are going to be at home for a while, probably a couple more days.  At least.  I'll be surprised if there is Church on Sunday, Pastor David will probably cancel.  I don't know when we're going to be able to get Otter's cell phone checked, that was on today's list but we didn't even try.  Same thing for the post office, our box is probably going to be very full.

But we have milk, oj, bird seed and I bought a couple of bags of chips.  So I think we're well stocked for a while.

Toadly asked me to send him snow, he said he was jealous.  I told him I'd see what I could do about that.  Austin got snow today, so I've done as requested Bro!

We got more, if you want some of it.  I'll share.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you sent it to Toadles, you also sent it here. You also sent ice. Please keep these items where you are. We do not appreciate them.
We now have sunshine and most of the ice/snow has melted. We will have a hard freeze again tonight and may have some ice problems in the morning. It is a good thing that you have all the firewood. I would think that you are going through it pretty fast. Send pictures. Poor otter with no cell phone to call bf on. Froggy

Otter Mom said...

We do have firewood, but we've used a great deal of it and will probably have to buy more. But not today, it's not something you want to buy when the weather is cold - talk about price gouging!
Otter has to use the regular phone and (gasp!) actually talk!