Snow Day

Can the month be 1/3 gone already??  I had bigger plans for January than this.

Christmas is still in force here at the Scraps household.  Tree's still up, inside and outside lights are still up (but not on!) and there are still gifts in their boxes, waiting for someone to play with them. Seems all I've done is work and lie around in bed or on the sofa. The sinus infection left me so congested, I couldn't use my C-PAP for 9 days, so sleeping was a distant memory, and I think that's why it's taken so long to get over this virus thing.

But Friday night I found the right combination of meds and got my first night's sleep in over a week and wow, what a difference!  The bathrooms are now cleaned, groceries were bought, the sewing room was put back together, Mount Washmore has almost been conquered and there was even some cooking done! 

And then it snowed.

And it snowed some more. 

And I shoveled.  And shoveled. Then the snowplow came and re-deposited snow onto my driveway.

I have a love/hate relationship with the snowplow.

Thurs. night I was put on call, which was great for me, since I was so tired, but they called Fri., Sat, and Sun. to ask me to work.  I felt really guilty saying no, but I had worked sick for 3 shifts, and was exhausted and the house was a mess.  When I got up Mon. morning, I was so glad I'd said no.  There was no way I'd have made it home until 3pm when the snowplows finally got to my road, and I have to work Tues. and Wed. nights as it is. 

Tandi amused herself by attempting to prune the rosebushes for me.

But after sticking with me through repeated shovelings, even Tandi was losing her enthusiasm for the snow.

So was I.

Then my little Halloween helpers came by and spent some time re-posing Napoleon Bone-apart.

Napoleon sported a Santa hat for Christmas; now he just serves to remind me where the edge of the driveway is.

Maybe on my next offday, I can get the cars taken care of, and on the one after that, take down Christmas, and THEN maybe I'll get to sew.

Maybe.

Hotel Life

The snow has stopped, for the moment at least, though they had said it would snow all day until about 6pm.  It wasn't snowing at 4:15 this morning, either.  Guess how I know that.

I'd forgotten how hard it can be to sleep in a hotel room. The bed is too soft and slopes towards the edges, and I tried to find the balance between sleeping in the middle and stretching the C-PAP tubing enough to pull the machine off the bedside table.  I did okay, actually.  No C-PAP was harmed in the making of my night.
The microwave almost was, though. It's not working because the door won't catch, apparently.  That's the message on the front when I try to start it: "door". But the light inside works exceptionally well. Once I got up and turned it a little sideways in its cubicle, everything was hunky-dory.

At 2:42, my phone rang.  J-Man woke up and found my message.  Yes, the phone was by his bed, but he slept through 3 calls. (!) He was fine, no fever, and the power was still on. I reminded him to plug in his cell phone when he actually got up, and then we both went back to sleep.

At 4:15 I woke up again.  One of the lab gals  said that someone had volunteered to shuttle people from the hotel to the hospital starting about 6am, but she has to be at work at 5, and she wasn't sure if she could make it.  I'd told her to call me and I'd throw some clothes on and drive her up there in my 4-wheel drive, because I could go back to bed and sleep all day if need be.   

I got up and checked my top to see if it was dry.  In my haste I forgot to pack daytime clothes for today, and about 8pm I realized I had packed extra socks and underthings, and I could really wear the jeans again for a few hours, but I had no shirt to wear. Did you know shampoo is multi-functional?

When I realized she wasn't going to call, I fell back to sleep.  At 6:15, some alarm went off. And off. I think someone tried to go out an emergency exit, because, although there was running, there was a lot of laughing and no smoke. Part of me thought about staying awake until 6:30, when the continental breakfast was served, but the sleepy part reminded me I had a package of bagels, and some cream cheese and boiled eggs in the fridge, and the much-appreciated coffee pot in the room.  Once everyone left for work, it got quiet again and I had the best sleep between 6:45 and 9:23.

After calling Jack and reminding him (again) to plug in his cell phone, I poured my coffee and pulled out the cream cheese and boiled eggs.  I noticed the eggs were cracked, but hey, it was a bumpy ride and I made lots of trips from the car to the room. They weren't just cracked, they were burst.  As in frozen-burst.  As was a can of diet Coke.  The cream cheese is frozen, too.  I think maybe I turned the refrigerator thermostat a tad too low.

But the coffee was nice and hot.  I stirred in my sweetener and let it sit a moment while I placed the cream cheese container on top of the coffee pot to warm.  The eggs are in their plastic baggy, floating in a sink of warm water.  The coke is sitting on a washcloth on the bathroom counter, steadily fizzing and leaking.  And my  biodegradable plasticware has started biodegrading.

I don't think I get out enough.

Here We Go Again....

No, that's not the picture from December.  That's today, as I was leaving to drive to the motel down the road from the hospital.  Just once, I would really like to stay home during a snowstorm instead of go to work.  Just once.  I believe this is my 4th one--third one in less than a year!

We knew it was coming--and it's supposed to be worse than the last one. I left J-Man at home with a 102 degree temp and Tandi for company. He says his temp's gone and he feels much better now, which makes me feel better about leaving him. After all, I don't even work until Sat. and Sun. nights, but with the prediction being 10-14 inches this time, I'm not sure the snow plowing will be done in time. The snow wasn't even supposed to start until this evening, but when I got out of the grocery store at 2:30, it was already snowing AND sticking. And it's supposed to keep snowing until about 6pm tomorrow night.

Thank goodness I had already reserved a room.  I must have seen a dozen employees here already, and the parking lot is filling up. Since I was bringing food, I booked a room with a refrigerator.   There's a microwave, too, and even though it's not working, the one in the little dining room of the motel is. When I went to heat up my Lean Pockets, I heard tales of people who have come because they can't travel any farther.  One gal is here with her husband, 2 children and a bun in the oven. She thought to buy a gallon of milk and had one bottle with her for the baby, and they stopped at a chicken place to get chicken and fixin's--but the servers forgot the chicken part of the dinner.  I offered to bring them some of my food (I brought LOTS), but she said they were fine.  Another gal was getting stuff out of the vending machine to snack on.  It wasn't much, she said, but then she thought about the folks on "Survivor" and those who might be stuck in their cars and said she was fine, too. Perspective.

I'd thought to make it a bit of a party--got snacks, got a scented candle, a couple of paperbacks, even brought a movie, but there's no DVD player in the room. (Was I overdoing it just a little?)  But hearing those few stories reminds me just how serious things can be. I'm hoping we don't lose power at the house. If so, I'll leave and go get J-Man and the dog and bring them back here.  And lots of food for stranded travelers. 

That's looking out my window and up toward the roof.  I can't figure out how to quicken the shutter speed a little so you can see those big fat individual flakes coming from the dark sky, but that's pretty neat, too.

This is what it looks like outside my window right now.

We'll see how it looks later.

BRRRR

It's still lower than freezing here--25degrees with a windchill factor of 14F.  I can't get my truck out of the driveway.  Tried to start her the other day, after slip-sliding across the frozen tundra to get to it.  Poor Rose, she gave a mighty effort, but finally couldn't even turn over.  I'm thinking we may have to call our auto service here in a few days to jump start her. In the meantime, J-Man and I continue to share the SUV--when we're absolutely forced to leave the house.  I have yet to reschedule my missed dental appointment and my missed bone density scan/mammogram.  I am going to have to bite the bullet and get my haircut, though.  Carrie hasn't seen me since before Halloween. Then there's that pesky rule the hospital has about not issuing paychecks unless the staff actually shows up.

The birds are having a turf war at the feeders.  Just watched a possessive male cardinal literally chase a little song sparrow all around the feeder until a tiny Carolina wren scared them both away.  Usually it's at least a half hour after filling the feeders before the birds venture over, but it was less than 10 minutes today.  It's difficult for them to find anything to eat these days. The ground is so hard that I was able to take the yard card down today, but not the stakes holding it or the spotlight or the extension cord stakes.  They are frozen in place.  Maybe next week, when we get that heat wave of 44 degrees they're predicting....

Can you see the snow boulders still lining the streets?  That snow was almost 3 weeks ago!  I know you folks north of the Mason-Dixon Line aren't impressed, but we Southerners are ready for some warmer temps to go with this lovely cloudless sky. 

Guess this little guy will hang around just awhile longer.

After the Snow

Well, the snow surely threw a monkey wrench into all kinds of works this weekend!  I think we got a total of about 10 inches--and it was a wet snow.  There are some pretty sizeable snowpeople around town.  Wal-Mart and the little neighborhood mall  plowed the parking lots, but piled it up in random spots, so cars are parked crazily throughout--and this is NOT the time to be skimping on parking spots.

I shoveled snow for 5 hours on Saturday just to get out of my driveway.  The plow was late getting our street done, so the neighbor's car had to be manipulated to the side of my drive so I could get to work.  I went out Sun morning and brought in my day nurse replacement so I could sleep there at the hospital and work Sun. night, then took my aide home Mon. morning.  Some folks just worked their buns off trying to get in to work--and some didn't bother.  It was an unusually tough weekend at work anyway--only the sickest of the sick were there--and the scant amount of personnel really made the workload heavy.  When I left to come home Mon. morning I warned everyone the phone would go unanswered if they tried to call!

DD got about 2 feet at her place and she was homebound from Fri. evening to this morning.  She stopped by the grocery store on the way home to stock up and said the Blockbusters in town were all empty--there had been a run on folks stocking up for the weekend.  Here's a photo of her car after it quit snowing:

That black spot is her driver's side view mirror!

And here's one of her parking lot and neighborhood townhomes:

Looks like a Christmas card, doesn't it?

Now I would have loved to be homebound for 4 days with plenty of food and movies and snow on the ground and nowhere to have to be, but she was having major cabin fever.  The HOA plowed her parking lot, but the street to the main road didn't get plowed until yesterday.  We were afraid she wouldn't get to come home for Christmas, as there is another front coming in on Thurs., but she's leaving this morning.  Hurray!

Just a couple more pictures before I finish getting the house ready.

This is the yard card that goes up every year in front of our house:

See that white glow out in front? That's not a UFO--that's the spotlight that shines on the card.  It's buried.

It occurred to me that with the spotlight and the cords submerged under the snow, we were just asking for an electrical fire, so it's all been turned off for a few days. Mon. evening after I got up, I decided to take a wooden spoon and scoop snow away from the lights and outlets.  Now the top of the snow is all crusty and Tandi can run all over it, but not an overweight adult female.  I lost my balance and fell face forward into a snowbank.

Dignity is my middle name.

BTW, the wooden spoon was no match for crusty snow.  Maybe it'll melt down enough today that I can turn the lights on to welcome DD home, as I'll be at work before she gets here. 

Two more nights and I'm off for the weekend!  Woohoo!

Snow!!

Look what's going on at our house!

It started snowing about sunrise and has been going all day long.  There must be sleet mixed in, because it's not a quiet snow at all.

Our neighbors can't get up the hill to their house, because her tires are bald, so they've backed into our driveway for the time being.  Fortunately, I don't have to work until tomorrow night, because we can't get out of the driveway now. It's usually my lot to have to work when it snows--but I lucked out today! 

There's beef stew in the crockpot and flannel sheets on the bed and the rest of the ornaments to put on the tree and a great recipe for caramel apple cider ready to be tried out and a Christmas movie playing on the TV.  Could it get any cozier?

Actually, there needs to be a quilt here somewhere.....

Home again

We had SNOW! LOTS of snow! Well, lots for us, anyway. Up to 6 inches in places. Enough that the schools closed, the little mom and pop shops didn't open, and some of us had to bunk in at the hospital.

Since we had advance notice, I was able to pack extra scrubs and an overnight bag. I knew the interstate would be fine, but the local roads wouldn't be easily navigated that hour of the morning, and I live on a little mountain. No problem, I can just stay in an empty room.

Wrong. The case manager said the patient rooms hadn't been released, and the sleep center rooms were already committed. What was left? 4 cubicles off the emergency room. One had two cribs in it, one had a bed, one had a stretcher, and one had a chair. She thought she could get us mats for the floor. But she couldn't promise we would be able to get a shower. WHAT????? For this, they want me to stay so I can work the next night? Come on, we're not talking Hurricane Katrina, here. Just a little snow and ice.

So I booked a room at the Days Inn next exit up. Four miles away. Interstate is clear, rooms are plenty, there's a coffee pot just for me, and a SHOWER. The receptionist was very nice. She gave me a 10% discount. She put me on the back side of the motel, across from the pool and away from the noise, no one above me or for several rooms around me. Nice and quiet. My own thermostat. My own blankets. 3 pillows just for me. No sleeping on the floor. No sharing the remote. Days Inn, I love you.



No reason not to sleep well, right? Except that pesky sleep apnea. And I forgot my meds, so no sleeping pill, no Claritin-D. It was the worst day's sleep I've had in months.

Thank goodness for a moderately busy night and a new orientee. Otherwise it would have been so difficult to stay alert. Today the roads were clear in most places, my driveway melted clear, and tomorrow it's supposed to snow again. But I am safe and warm in my own house, with my own sweet little cold-nosed barker, my snoring, blanket-hogging husband, my meds, 3 flavors of coffee, my sewing machine and stash, a new DVD--and 4 nights off.

Life is good.