Snow, Snow go away

From what I have been reading, and the pictures so many bloggers have been posting, we are not the only ones who have been living in a winter wonderland of ice and snow.

For about ten days now a cousin in Atlanta has been posting daily photos of his patios changing snow scene on Facebook. My niece in Minnesota has also been posting lots of snow shots to let the family here know just how lucky we are not to be there. For several days my e-mail has been full of a variety of cartoons and photos expressing the displeasure of my many friends and family across the country with their snow situation.

This morning I awoke to the delightful warmth of sunshine streaming into every window in my house. A peek at the patio thermometer found a balmy forty degrees. When I went outside to run an errand I heard this huge sound. At first I though it was the sound of the drum line practicing at the high school down the block, then realized it was a symphony coming from the water drops hitting all the gutters and downspouts in the neighborhood at once caused by the melting snow on the roofs.

Later I noticed a group of girls walking home from the high school doing a happy dance outside my kitchen window and shouting with glee because they could see grass for the first time in weeks.

While I am delighted with all of todays promises of better weather the weather bird on my computer tells me that we have a winter mix expected on Tuesday followed by snow showers on Wednesday. So, I am not going to put the snow shovel away just yet.

Today is a day of Rest

We awoke this morning to more snow. As the above collage shows it was coming down heavy. The top photo on the right is the parking lot of the Baptist Church behind us. As you can see they did not have many in attendance at the morning service and those that did attend came out to find their cars buried. Forecast is for 4-6 inches by night fall.

Between the new snow and the Packers/Bears game I actually get to spend the entire day at home. I am going to totally ignore the pile of laundry and other chores in need of doing and claim a full day of rest for myself. And, what better to reduce stress and boost moral then blogging. Hopefully, I will actually get caught up on visiting with all of you sometime today.

But, before I head your way I want to introduce you to a special person. I met this lovely lady last week during my trip to Omaha. The Old Salt and I were busy helping decorate for the father/daughter dance being held by the Girl Scouts when we discovered that the banquet room next door was also getting ready for another big event. I happen to meet a few of the family members in the hallway and we traded information on our respective parties. I also received an invitation to stop by later and meet the honoree.

Let me introduce you to Ms. Jessie Hall.

Ms. Hall celebrated her One Hundredth Birthday earlier this month and was the guest of honor at a large and very happening party. I was delighted to meet her and thrilled she agreed to my taking her photograph. After all, how many centenarian's do we get to meet in a lifetime. I also learned that Ms. Hall has had a very fascinating life and is still a very active member of her church. I sure hope that I can follow in her shoes.

Promised Update

Since I have been so scarce in blogland, I promised to catch everyone up on what has been happening in my world. But, since my time is still limited, This will be the cliff notes version of the last eight weeks.

We are now into week eight of caring for our sick kitty. The time and effort needed to keep her alive is becoming more than needed to care for a toddler. Please pray she recovers soon. She has lost more than half her weigh due to a liver disorder and the hourly feeding with a syringe are taking their toll on the Old Salt and me.

We recently made a trip to Omaha to do a favor for my sister. She was on the planning committee for a father/daughter dance sponsored by the Girl Scout Council and asked us to photograph the event. We had a great time and got to be there to celebrate one of my niece's birthday.

We are having the worst winter since 1982. We have been snowed in twice. Even my dentist had a snow day. The kids are having a ball with all the snow days. But, wait until spring when they have to make up that time.

· I’m learning I do not have the balance I used to have. I got out of my chair one morning and tripped on the hem of my new flannel Pj’s and will have a bruise for weeks where I banged my thigh.

· We managed to get the Christmas decorations (inside and out) down before our trip but now I have a week’s worth of work cleaning up the basement where we piled them.

· The squares on my calendar are not large enough for all our appointments so I had to buy a date book. Retirement should not be that busy!

· We just purchased our first camper. A slide-in for our new pick-up truck. We hope to be on the road by spring.

· We have been asked by one of my cousins to photograph their upcoming 50^th wedding anniversary celebration. This will be a big event for us. We are now shopping for the right light bars and flash umbrellas so we can do at least a semi-professional job.

· The Old Salt and I have been taking turns getting and passing all the flu bugs out there. Looks like I have a chronic cough settling in for the duration of winter. Can’t wait to be able to spend some time in the sun.

I enjoy posting to all the fun meme’s out there and will continue as time permits. I also love to see what everyone else has posted. Please forgive me if I don’t leave a comment. My time is limited and I am only going to comment when I have a story to

Merry White Christmas

Like most people in the world, I am a creature of habit. My morning routine may seem silly to some but the first thing I do after setting my feet on the floor (beside running to the bathroom) is go to the computer and check my e-mail. The following photo is what greeted me today outside our office window.

Our first white Christmas in recent memory. By the time I got up we already had two inches on the ground with several more predicted. We will be lucky if the cars slipping and sliding on our hill do not take out the rear of our truck (in photo). While all my Christmas shopping is complete I do need to go out for a few forgotten grocery items. Best get them early. I feel for those that waited to the last minute, they may get snowed in.

There is already no rest for the Volunteer Fire Department. The guys have been coming and going on a regular schedule this AM.

Gratefully, we have a quite Christmas Eve planned at home with our daughter's family. And, they live just down the street so they can walk up here for dinner.

Tomorrow however, is a different story. We are scheduled to make the ninety minute trip to spend Christmas with the Old Salt's brother and his family. This will be the first time since childhood that the two brothers have both been in the same area and able to actually spend Christmas day together, so it is an event we do not want to miss because of snow.

It will probably be in the new year before I have time to post again so I am sending all of our best wishes to all of my family, friends and faithful followers for a great week. May your Christmas and New Year bring you rest, cheer, joy of family and friends and spiritual renewal.

Little Things that mean the most.

We got our first snow of the season this week. It started Saturday evening and continued for most of Sunday. You would think from that last sentence we got a blizzard like the one that hit Minneapolis but that is not the case. It started with huge flakes that turned into salt size by morning. It was a very dry snow and we were having horrible winds at the same time, so, most of the snow just blew around. The official measurement posted was .25 or one fourth of an inch. I find that hard to believe because we had a three foot drift blocking our patio gate. Of course, our patio is on the north side of our house and the wind was right out of the North.

Regardless, what little there was will be here for a while thanks to the arctic temperatures. Our only worry about pursuing our past-time of driving the back-roads whenever possible is missing the icy patches that could put us in a ditch.

You never know what you will see when driving off the main roads. Yesterday, was no exception. After making a trip to the next town over we got off the main route and before long I saw this small Christmas tree standing out against the snow. When we got closer I realized someone had used it to decorate their mailbox and assumed it would be one of those all weather tinsel type trees. Boy, was I wrong.

Once I was up close I realized this little gem was a hand crocheted work of art with sequins for ornaments. Just one of the small delights to be found on a snowy drive in the country.

In fact, I found this small Chrismas touch much more heart warming than all the overly decorated big houses that shared that stretch of country road.

The Wonder of Snow

The Old Salt was born in Dallas and grew up in the Piney Woods of southeast Texas. By the time he was barely out of his teens he was enlisted in the Navy and off to Boot camp in San Diego, California where he spent the next forty plus years. While he had occasions to see snow they have been few and short lived. Before attaching his life to mine and moving to Missouri, his last sighting of snow was off the coast of Russia while serving on the USS Mount Hood in the winter of 1982/1983.

Snow has been falling here for almost twenty-four hours now. Big fluffy flakes will fall for a while to be replaced by tiny wet flakes that seem to be more rain than snow; only to return to those big fat flakes again. So, it is not surprising that I have found Frank standing transfixed in front of one window after another today taking in the expanding winter vistas.

I stood in the background watching him and thinking about all the different snowy winters and the problems that snow brought with it in my lifetime. I also thought about how uninteresting this current snow storm is for me compared to how fascinating my sixty-four year old husband finds it. I am giving thanks that I do not have to be out in the snow tackling the road conditions to keep from missing work while the Old Salt gives me the impression that he is fighting the urge to put on his boots and go join the kids with their sleds playing on the hillside outside our back gate. Heck, I would not be surprised to find a snowman sitting on our front lawn, when I returned, if I would just find some excuse to have to go to the market for a short half hour.

I did trudged out to the back gate in my housedress and crocs to snap a few pictures. Of course, the Old Salt, had to grab his camera and snap one of me from the shelter of the kitchen doorway.

Shadow Shot Sunday

SSS (Shadow Shot Sunday) has rolled around again and this week I had to go hunting through the archives for shadows. Bad weather prevented my getting out shadow hunting. I do ask everyone's forgiveness though because I'm afraid that all I could come up with were snow shots and one of the shadow being case in the kitchen window across a stack of the fresh baked cookies while doing our Christmas cookie baking.






For more great shadow shots click the camera badge to visit Hey Harriet and join in the fun.