Saturday, January 10, 2004

• We can go places again! There's just a wet, slushy mess outside now and it's melting fast. I was able to actually drive the car to the grocery late yesterday afternoon.

   

  My neighbor gave me a jump yesterday and my battery seems fine now.

   

  Late yesterday, some friends of ours called. They live just a few streets over, not quite as high on the hill as we do, but they have a steep driveway and have had a hard time getting anywhere, even yesterday after the thaw had begun. They have three kids and the two younger ones are the same ages as my kids.

   

  They invited us to come and watch a movie with them. They are the kind of people who put on a video and then talk all the way through it, stopping once in a while to ask, "Who's that guy?" or "Why are they doing that?"

   

  Anyway, I picked up a pizza and we went over and watched Pirates of the Caribbean. It was fun. When it was over and we were leaving, they invited us to stay the night. Their whole bottom floor is empty, just extra rooms with a full kitchen & etc. I was reluctant, because we have the psychotic dog and because really, we live about six blocks away. They said the dog could sleep down there too, and the kids were all gung-ho, so we did. My back was killing me this morning, and I'm not sure why we did it, but it was still kind of fun to wake up and all have breakfast together.

   

  The kids are going roller skating this afternoon, and I was going to try to go see Monster, but it's only playing downtown and the times won't work for me to be able to pick up the kids later. They're going with a bunch of other friends.

   

  Things are starting to get back to normal here, even though there's still a lot of snow on the ground. It is melting, so the next thing we'll have to do is deal with flooding.

   

  I was really thankful that I bought those 8-can-packs (or whatever) of chili, different soups, green beans, fruit, etc. from Costco. It always seems like too much when I buy it, but they really came in handy when we were stuck. Someting to keep in mind as you never know when you might be stuck at home for a long time. I also made two loaves of bread because we ran out. Thankfully we never lost power or had any pipes break or anything, so we should come through everything just fine. I'm hoping Mr. S will be reasonable (ha) and not make me take unpaid time. I've put in tons of extra time anyway, time that was never paid.

   

  Apparently this was our worst storm since 1996. I remember the storm of '96 and the flooding that followed, and while the flooding was bad (though the worst was averted), I don't remember having this much snow and ice. I remember snow, but I don't recall the entire city coming to a halt, and I think I would remember that.

   

  Hope everyone has a great Saturday! You have no idea how happy I am to be able to move about again.

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