Cig @ MindSay 
Mother Nature needs to hide the Viagra from Ol Man Winter! Enough already! Take a longer cig break you two!!! You don't need to make up every single inch of snow that the midwest/west/south states have missed out on earlier this year in snow, rain, ice, and sleet!
It wouldn't be so bad having an occasional winter weather advisory but when your only going a day at the most between them it is getting bad! Monday, I barely made it to work because my lil truck kept getting stuck at the top of our drive due to the lane being covered in ice! Just because my cousin Brian came and dug the snow out doesn't mean he took the ice with him! I got to work though, after 30 minutes of Randy and I taking turns pushing the truck up the final crest of the hill on the drive. The roads were still a bit slick but okay going. After work, I took my time because the roads were still slick and went to my parents house down the road from my house to pick up the kids. And promptly got stuck in their drive! The temps were in the 30 and melted some of the snow and ice and left a snowy muddy mess! Between my parents and I, it took us about 45 minutes of pushing, pulling with my dad's truck, and rocking my lil truck to get it un stuck and pushed up their drive to sit at the top while we ate dinner and then made our way home! Where I promptly parked in my Uncle's drive so I could get to work on Tuesday!
Tuesday, no problems! The weather was nice and the weather folks were only hinting at a possible storm coming our way. After work is when my problems started! My truck wouldn't start! Hubby works across the city in IA down by the airport, my parents outside the town we live in (about a 45 minute drive in good weather), and my cousin who works at Gateway was already up and out to make it to his Band's rehersal! A co worker tried helping me get my truck started (single dad and had already left his girls home for the day by theirselves due to late school start-ages 15 and 8). We ruled out alternator thank Gods! But it could have been the battery, the starter, or a cable/connector of sorts. Got a hold of my mom and said come get me, called Randy and he said no worries we have had the truck for 12 years and this is the first problem it has given us.
Wensday, got to work an hour late due to fixing my truck! Thank Gods it was only the battery connectors needing replaced! And then all of us in training, on the floor, and in the bays started watching the weather. We were in a Winter Storm Advisory and by the time we left work we were in an offical Blizzard Advisory. Guess who didn't go to work today? :D
Thursday, today, I took one look outside and said fuck this shit! I don't care if I could get my truck up the drive, I am not risking my life to go to work when every weather person on all four channels, state patrols in SD, IA, and NE were saying if you go to work on Thursday be prepared to stay there till Friday afternoon at the latest! And they started closing down interstate and hiways! I called in. Randy made it home last night about an hour and half late because he took his time coming home and this morning he said the same thing. Fuck this shit! I don't care if it is only my 4th day on the job I am not driving in this shit and getting stuck there over night! My mom who only works 15 minutes away in the next town said the same thing. Of couse the kids are home from school today, schools across the three states are closed for the day, the idiotic ones are trying 2 hour late starts and already they are calling parents and putting it out on the news that they decided to close after all!
Across the midwest and midsouthern states, there is snow (blizzard), rain, flooding, and even tornado warnings, watches, and advisories! Yes you read that correctly! Tornadoes! They started out in parts of OK, KS, and MO last night and early this morning the southern part of NE has spotted a few tornadoes!
So since Mother Nature is feeding Ol Man Winter the Viagra, grab yourself some protection folks! We are in for a doozy of a storm system!
Well it looks like Ol Man Winter and Mother Nature decieded to extend their Winter Foreplay for awhile longer this winter!
Mother Nature was giving us midwest and west states a break with warm weather so we all assumed that Ol Man Winter torked her off a bit! He must have wooed her back because we got hit with a pretty good storm this weekend.
It looks like a winter wonderland around here as long as you don't go looking at the roads!
Our family day went really well yesterday even if we didn't do to much. We, like the rest of the tri state residents of the area, loaded up and headed to the Home Show, Movies, Lunch, and Shopping realitivly early so we could beat the storm. Yes, we are all a tad bit crazy. Most folks hear a big storm is coming their way usually just do the shopping and go right back home and are preparing for no power and all that jazz. Not us midwesterners!:D We are the ones that hope Mother Nature will tease Ol Man Winter for another few hours so we can have our weekends:D
The Home Show was a disappointment. We try to go every year even if we rent because they usually have a lot of great ideas renters can even do if they rent houses. This year I was not to impressed even though their giveaways and drawings were bigger! After the Home Show we jaunted from downtown to the east side of the city so I could hit Target. (I have been going there over Walmart anymore-better quality items) I walked out with a Timex watch for $5 cheaper then Walmart, some hair items, and one work outfit. A pants outfit of course:P A nice pair of black slacks and a tourqouis blouse that can also be warn with jeans if I go out or skirts!:D I debated about getting a pair of black loafer type work shoes but I am extermly hard on shoes due to my size 9 feet, and the fact I have really high arches. Okay and the fact I walk on the insides of my feet and my toes:D So I looked at Randy and said I am going to hold off on another pair of shoes till I can get to a better shoe place. He of course rolled his eyes. After Target, we jaunted from the east side of the city back over to the Nebraska side of the city and hit my grocery store were I just added a few things that I didn't have and then we tried hitting the cell phone store that I want to get a prepaid phone with but they were closed for hte day. With a big HIRING NOW poster in the window. Looks like they can't get anyone in the shop:D So then we hit Wally World because I know they have the company I want back in electronics. Well they only sell the plans and the plan phones and tried getting me to buy off the shelf pre paid phones. Kiss my ass on that one because their calling prices are outragouse and normally don't let you roam on anyone elses's towers.
We finally headed home and were just saying that Mother Nature is really holding out on Ol Man Winter and then we passed the third to last town on our way home and Ol Man Winter got what he wanted! The storm hit when we were about 20 minutes from home. Rain, sleet, and snow Oh MY! We and many other folks slowed way down and started busting our way through the fast covered hiway of snow and sleet. A car behind us must have hit a patch of black ice because we slowed down and pulled over to make sure they were okay after the car did a few 360 circles in the middle of hte hiway and ended up on the shoulder facing the right way! Randy ran back and asked if everyone was okay and of course it was a couple of ol ladies heading home from the River Boat Casino! So I took over driving the big truck and Randy hopped in and took over driving for hte ladies. They lived in the town before ours and luckly not on one of the hilly side streets but near the hospital (the hospital we are hoping Randy is trying to get on at). We got them home and Randy and I walked them inside and told the one lady to call her grandson to come get her and NOT to try driving her butt home (she lives clear down bottom on country roads-yes I knew who she was and went to school with her grandson). Then we headed home and were the first ppl on our hiway to head east so all the cars coming out of our town were making sure to stay in our tracks a good ways back because they knew we would end up turning on top of a hill to our drive.
We made it home safe and sound right when Mother Nature and Ol Man Winter really started the Foreplay! By the time we got the bags in, kitty boxes emptied and re filled, all the snow in my bags melted and my kitchen floor was one small pond of very cold water! Me being me and as I told Randy in our marriage vows, "I am not your domesticated bitch"; Randy and the kids put grociers away and mopped up my kitchen while I cleaned up my very snowy and muddy mudporch and got my mudporch rugs washing!
Now since Mother Nature and Ol Man Winter have climaxed and seem to be smoking their pleasure cig with light snow, I am hoping my cousin Brian remembers that we are down here in the Valley and comes and digs us out! Normally I wouldn't worry about this but my aunty and uncle are out on a cruse and they left last week and aren't back yet! My uncle usually is the one that snow mobiles over to the farm and brings back the tractor to dig everyone out! If Brian doesn't come anytime this morning I am going to have to call him and ask him to have us dug out by tomorrow morning even if the kids dont' have school because Randy starts his job tomorrow and I have to get to work!
Today is a day of cleaning since we can't do to much with Ol Man Winter and Mother Nature still getting it on:D
I finally found the right cable to hook up my camcorder to my computer. Im transfering a bunch of stuff over tonight so I can start playing with the editing software tomorrow....whooohooO!! I had searched for the cable about a month ago & gave up. I was arranging some hardware tonight & noticed my dvd burner uses that very same cable. DU-uh! I know Im a dork & Im way too excited but Ive been looking for my next project/time waster. Im feeling creative lately with no outlet to control the energy. This rocks. Just waiting for this last capture to finish so I can get to it.
Think Im going to start carrying around my camcorder or my camera. Havent decided which one yet but I feel I should be recording my life somehow. Even if I dont document personal things, I feel it would satisfy the recent itch for a creative hobbie. I was sitting in my car the other day having a cigarette in the parking lot of work. It was a cold, sunny day with a few whispy, fast moving clouds. There was a row of cars parked in front of me & the windsheild directly across looked like a mirror. It caught the sun in the center, but the reflection was silvery opaque & I had sunglasses on so it was easy to look at. The clouds raced past with that same silvery-white color, shadows bold and then fading....it was hypnotic like gazing into a fire.
Just wish I had a camera.
