Ice Ice Baby...

Yesterday I celebrated that most of our snow was gone, and the roads looked clear. I climbed into my Subaru Forester with the studless snow tires to take my nearby mom some groceries. And thus commenced one of the scariest drives of my life. My car thermometer said 36 yet the road glittered. Then I realized that I was shimmying, and unlikely to be able to stop at a stop sign, thankfully NOT on a hill and not with any traffic coming. Although my mom only lives about 3 minutes away from me, I still aged by 10 years while white knuckling it home. I found out today that I should have tried the X-mode which is enhanced AWD; I really need to read my Forester booklet more closely. Would it have helped at all on ice though? Does anything besides staying home?

Being a retiree, I didn't need to go anywhere this morning; those who did slid everywhere. There were accidents galore. School bus drivers were instructed to pull over and not drive, so children didn't get picked up. My friend's car slid sideways on black ice out of her parking spot at school while she wasn't even in the car. It was CRAZY. Meanwhile, Margaret was cozy at home, having a second cup of coffee...

I granny nannied the Little Guy who loves to use my dustbuster and is excellent at spotting crumbs. He also dusted, played and requested many stories. He has such a sparkling personality and delightful sense of humor. If only he would go to bed at a decent time without major fussing! I've forgotten what it's like to have a toddler around: exhilaratingly wonderful and frustratingly stressful. 

This is my new family room decor! :)

My driveway is now decorated with piles of rocks-- glaciation at work? 

My chef Older Daughter makes sure that we eat well, in spite of my current lack of exercise. I can't be entirely blamed, right? The weather has been very uncooperative. 

This was a winning recipe, absolutely delicious. You would have to be a fan of cheesy polenta though which I definitely am. In the meantime, our county covid numbers (14-day rate out of 100,000) have gone from around 500 to 200 (vaccine) and now have suddenly jumped to an astounding 841. I've never seen numbers that high. Eight deaths, many of them not elderly. I'm living and enjoying my life the best I can but am feeling extremely discouraged about where we're headed...on many fronts. Finding the good is becoming increasingly difficult although I intend to keep trying.  

Comments

[Kathy]

Hoo boy, that pic of the bus! I'm sure you heard all about our nightmare 27-hour traffic jam on I-95. The snow came down hard and fast and wet, and it was a total fiasco. Of course, one has to wonder what those folks were doing trying to drive in/right after a major snow. Our sidewalks didn't get cleaned till yesterday afternoon, almost 48 hours after the snowfall. The crews finally arrived to clean them after the folks who live here (me included) had already mostly shoveled everything out. As I chipped away at the ice on the sidewalk with my shovel, I thought, "Didn't I move here because I was tired of shoveling snow?" Almost everyone fell down on the job cleaning up from this storm, it seems. And there's a couple more inches coming tomorrow night, that ought to be interesting.

[AC]

Scary conditions, but you had good times at home with the grand. How long are they staying?

We have a lot of restrictions here again to try to get things under some kind of control. Visiting a small, nearby town yesterday, many were masked outside in the cold. I guess it's a good idea. I haven't done outdoor masking except for once and briefly.

[Luftmentsch]

That ice is scary. I'm glad you're having a good time with your family.

[Ed]

AWD drive is great for getting going and maintaining control but does nothing for you when you want to stop.

Your daughter can cook that for me anytime she likes. Looks delicious!

[Donna W]

We had icy roads on Sunday. I didn't even go church, which is less than two miles from our house.

[Ally Bean]

I want to borrow your grand baby & have him clean our floors! What a hoot that he likes the Dustbuster. As for Covid numbers rising, it's scary and annoying AF. The recipe with photo of the meal looks delicious.

[DrumMajor]

I'd heard AWD is great, but it still doesn't help on ice unless one tire is in some snow. Yep, stay in to avoid ice and covid cooties. Try cracker crumbs in the grandson's bed. He'll use the dustbuster to lull himself to sleep, and with a little sleepy time music, and pajamas over the dustbuster, maybe he'll go to sleep. Or, try a white noise machine to lull him to sleep. My kid was pretty good with swimming lessons, then a bedtime story. He went from a crib to his own waterbed. Maybe he needs a big dog to cuddle. Goldens let their little humans have some of the bed. Linda in Kansas

[Susan]

You will like using X-Mode in the snow. This will be very handy especially if snow plowing is not always available or timely. It's raining here again and I suspect as the night closes in, the temperature will drop and ice will form on the roads. I have no place to go at dusk so all is good. When my son was little and we were traveling, bed time was sometimes tearful. I attributed this to all the change and excitement. A story often helped ease him to sleep. He also liked playing with the Lego set half an hour before bed time. MA has reported 16k+ new Covid cases as of 1/4/22. I continue to hope we will hit a peak and start to decline. That said, if another variant shows up, we could be in for another round. Being fully vaccinated means we could still get sick for a week or two. At least, we'd likely not die. We just have to hope for the best.

[Karen]

I hate driving in the snow/ice! Be careful out there.

My family has been hit with covid (son in law got it from work and then spread it unknowingly on Christmas). We are all currently on the mend.

[PipeTobacco]

Polenta!!!!! And, cheesy to boot!!!! Sounds wonderful!

I would like a little dust buster friendly fellow to help us out too! But, I sadly suspect grandkids are still a long ways away.

I could just “wing it” but for the electronic stuff that we will need for all the food out due to Covid, it will be excessive stress to do that all on the fly. And, so, I just keep trudging right now in a hope to make the actual semester more calm.

As for my pipes, I fear I would be filled more with guilt…. that is likely the major factor keeping me from them…. a very Catholic sort of idea in my mind…. I would be failing at what I said I would do, even though I no longer want to refrain.

PipeTobacco

[Joanne Noagon]

I'd be bringing that Forrester manual in to read, over and over.
I agree, a dustbuster kid is a universal requirement.

[Tonya Watkins]

Good god, that's scary!! Yeah, that's the primary reason we were trapped here for so long -- ice. 4WD just doesn't help much with that, especially stopping.

Adorable grandson with the Dustbuster! How frustrating that bedtime is difficult. I was lucky with Nate when he was little, as he really did embrace the bedtime routine, but I realized that it was atypical. Quinn doesn't really have a bedtime. He sleeps with his parents, so he goes to bed when at least one of them goes to bed. (IMO, not ideal, and it means it would be impossible at this point for him to spend a couple of days here with his Nonna and Papa).

[Zazzy]

Ice is so much worse than snow. I had to cancel my appointment yesterday as, once I got past being misdirected several times by the folks answering the phones, someone answered my question about the roads around the hospital. If the road still looked bad today but my drive is nice and dry and the snow/ice is melting. It was so much less than what you've gotten but still frustrating.

[Musings]

I know what you mean. We went from 150 at the start of December to over 4,000 a day ago. It's crazy!