Blizzard: Our First Outing

For the first time since Thursday, we were able to get out of our house, off our street, and into the great, wider world.

Which meant a trip to the store!

Actually, the very first trip this morning was to the clinic because Mama was on her fourth day of feeling rather miserable--headache, congestion, and, yesterday, a fever.  Yes, she officially has Flu B.

So, when she returned, I went with a neighbor, Miss K, and the kids to the store to fill her prescriptions, as well as pick up some more food, a couple of household items (I don't want to risk running out of toilet paper!), and a few distractions.  This was wonderful in several ways:  Mama got to rest; I didn't have to drive on the single lane snowy roads; and Miss K, whose road was still not plowed, got to get out to the store, too.  And the kids got new Legos! We even had lunch out, a nice treat for me especially after cooking the last 13 straight meals.  How often had I ever actually prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday for 4 1/2 days?!?  No sack lunches, no take-out, no skipping breakfast.  Again, I wouldn't have made a great pioneer woman (in the 19th century or even here in the 21st.)

Better yet, while we were out, the town plowed Miss K's road!

But the town is still a mess and school has been canceled again tomorrow.  The friendly plow driver told us that it will probably be Friday before we have school, so that crews can finish all the streets on Wednesday and then clear the schools on Thursday.  I'll believe it when I see it.  But I'm in no rush.  We're having a pretty good time.

The only down side is the real vitriol that is developing in town about the inefficiency in clearing the roads (and ill-informed statements by the mayor that town is clear) and the bad timing of winter break next week (which cannot be switched with snow days this week for a variety of logistical reasons).  There is a serious lack of patience and compassion, a real lack of communication and information, and a plethora of name-calling and mud-slinging.  People desperately don't like to lose control in their lives and there is nothing like an historic blizzard and 36" of snow to take away some of your power; it's getting ugly.  I'm trying to take things as they come, even if it means Sis and Bud won't go to school three weeks straight, excluding the weeks they both missed for the flu.

I type a good game, but it was definitely nice to get out of the house and have another adult lead the kids around the store while I did my shopping.  I was getting a mite snippish myself.  But an afternoon of quiet Lego building and reading has done wonders and I'm ready to face the days off this week and next.

And the snow is still pretty.  And pretty amazing.