Nothing new

I have to be sure to call my mother tonight. She's up at my sister Martha's house and has been there a few weeks, after spending the start of the winter down in Georgia with my sister Susan. Martha says they'll be taking Mom back to her home in Ohio on Saturday. I'm sure she'll be glad to be there again!

My sisters and their husbands have really taken good care of Mom. I hope to visit in May or June with Katherine and Michael. We'll be flying and rent a car. I've already told them I'd pay for the rental but I'm not driving, even if it means paying extra insurance for the kids to take the wheel. Frankly, I'd rather we drove, but Katherine says, no way.

If the kids can't go, then Mike and I will make the drive in later spring or early summer. I'll have to talk to him about that. I still want to take some kind of road trip, but don't see how that's going to happen this year.

Weather-wise, it's cold but the sun is shining. I didn't post about the four inches of snow we go on the first day of Spring, since I've griped enough about snow this year. I'm finding it hard to believe Easter is only about 2 weeks away.

ssdd

That could stand for "Same  snow, different day," but the other s word fits better, IMHO.

Out my backdoor this afternoon:

I think we got 8 inches. 8 more fricking inches.

One miracle, though: I actually heard a cardinal singing this morning!

More Damned Snow

Yeah, I get that it's winter, but did we need this?

I think we got 5 inches on top of the over 20 from the blizzard. And that icicle could be a murder weapon.
And it's flipping cold--single digits.
I hate winter with a passion. Definitely have to start working on getting this house sold and heading to Florida.

The Day After

So, we ended up getting about 2 feet of snow here, maybe as much as 3 in some places. This morning, my deck looked like this:

And from another angle:

It has been a very mild winter--until now. But last night's blizzard made up for the snow we haven't gotten! And to think there are still two months left of winter!

Winter Storm 2015

I think they even gave it a name, like a hurricane! As of 10 pm, this is what it looks like out my back window:

It's hard to tell, but the snow is already several inches deep and the wind is crazy.

Real blizzard conditions are supposed to happen overnight, and we could get 30 inches of snow. They're predicting about 2 inches per hour. The railroads and roads will be shut down at 11 pm to all but emergency vehicles. I really don't know who'd want to be out in this at night!
I was so worried about Nick getting home today, but Amtrak was running on time and he made it home by about 6 p.m., not bad at all.
I kind of like this weather, as long as I know my family is safe and there's plenty of food and heat. We have a generator but I'm hoping we won't need it. Since it's impossible to go anywhere, I don't feel my usual guilt about sitting around doing my crafts. Not that I should anyway, but I do.
Will try to update tomorrow morning, if we don't lose power...

59 Today

Today is my 59th birthday. Hard to believe I've almost completed 6 decades of life. My sister posted a picture of me as a baby on Facebook:

I'm about a year old here, I think. I was cute up to about age 3, and it's all been downhill since.

Mike, Katherine and Michael took me to Catfish Annie's for dinner. James had to work and Nick is at a gaming convention somewhere in Maryland. He left Friday and should be back tomorrow. It is a worry because there is a blizzard headed our way that is supposed to be a 'record breaker.' It isn't supposed to get heavy until 5 pm tomorrow, so I hope Nick and his friends are safely home by then.

I had lobster tails and shrimp cocktail for dinner, plus some cookies and cream cake Katherine brought that said "Happy Birthday Mum" on top. The kids gave me a  new office chair that I'm using at the moment--so much nicer than my old, broken one! Plus Mike gave me a $50 Bed, Bath and Beyond card. And Katherine gave me Lindt chocolates.

A very enjoyable day!

Trying to lose weight again

I have been on the WII Fit faithfully for almost 2 weeks now and have also stuck with Weight Watchers. Haven't really lost anything yet but I'm hopeful. I have a physical next week, which I am NOT looking forward to, but I guess it is long overdue. I figure if I get it out of the way the doctor will stop bugging me about it for a while.

I have a new 'baby' in the house, a little dwarf hamster our friend Patty gave us. His name is either T-Bone or T-Bo. I have to ask when I go for my haircut later this week. He's very sweet-natured, unlike most hamsters, but super-shy. He hides in the loopy climbing thing on his cage.