Sunday, January 22, 2012

Snow, Sleet and Sunshine

One week from today I will be on board the cruise ship and sailing away to St. Thomas, San Juan and the Grand Turks. I am so looking forward to a week of sunshine, warm breezes, calypso music and fruity umbrella drinks. Not to mention the wonderful company of my brother in law Ray and his lovely wife Diane, who by the way, has become the sister I never had. We are flying to Florida on Saturday and staying in Miami overnight, then boarding Sunday morning. And no...the recent Cruise ship disaster in Italy does not scare me nor will it stop me from going. If I worried about things beyond my control, I'd never leave the house. While my heart goes out to those who lost their lives and their families, I am confident that a repeat incident will not occur.

A couple of weeks ago we had a very nice post Christmas brunch with the Ferland Family. We had about 14 people here and served scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries, muffins, pancakes, Swedish meatballs, ham and tuna salad rolls and fruit. It was nice to have the entire family together and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Next year it will take place at Ray and Diane's house and I am looking forward to that.

Last week was probably the stormiest week we've had weatherwise, all winter. With temps in the 50's most of December and very little snow up until recently, I guess we were a bit spoiled. None of the storms last week were big in snowfall totals but more like nuisance storms. It seemed like every morning I had to deal with some kind of precipitation on my way to work. On Tuesday, we had 4 inches of snow to drive through that changed to rain by afternoon. Of course, the temperatures dropped during the night, making the roads completely slick. I had a very difficult time getting out of my driveway. I actually slid sideways down the driveway on my first attempt to get up the driveway...which was a little scary. Once my car came to a stop, I pulled out my cell phone and called George, who was inside asleep, and asked him to come out and help. He put down some salt and after a few more attempts I got up to the main road and was on my way. 90 minutes later, I pulled into the parking area at work, only to find out that there was no power and everything was completely in the dark. I sat in the car debating on going inside but the thought of making that return trip home on ice covered roads was not appealling to me so I ventured inside. Everyone that had managed to make it into work was sitting in the cafeteria waiting for someone to make a decision. Do we stay or do we go? No one wanted to leave unless we knew we were going to get paid and that decision had to be made by someone from the front office and of course, no one of that level was at work at 5:30 am. 2 hours later, the lights came back on and we all headed upstairs to get to work. I was a little out of sorts all day but managed to get through it. The drive home was much more pleasant with clear roads and no rain or snow for a change.
We've been in a strange weather pattern and had annoying snow showers Friday morning and all day yesterday but today the sun is shining and it looks beautiful outside. It is very cold though, it was -9 when I got up this morning at 7. I hear we will be having more snow/sleet/rain crap to deal with in the morning. Wonderful!

Eric invited Sara to be his guest at his company's after Christmas Holiday party which took place last night. They were having a ball, it was a dress up affair and Sara sent me this pic of them.


I am so glad they are close and look out for each other. These types of pictures put a huge smile on my face. Eric looks good...he's lost a little weight in recent months and I love seeing the smile back on his face.
And we all know how much Iggy loves Sara's bright smile!

Well I guess I should get moving and get some chores done. George has taken Hunter down to Petco for a pedicure and I have a couple loads of laundry to deal with. Later we will be watching the Patriots/Ravens football game (Go Pats!) and then I imagine we'll watch the Giants/49ers after that. I can't believe football is coming to a close...the season is so short. But that just means baseball spring training is not too far behind I guess!

Have a wonderful Sunday.

6 comments:

AliceKay said...

I hope you have a wonderful time on your cruise. Sunshine, warm breezes and calypso music sounds good to me. :)

I'm glad you arrived to work safely that day. Sounds like it was pretty tricky driving. The weather has been crazy here, too. We have four inches of snow on the ground and had temps in the subzero range this morning...according to other people. I didn't want to look.

That's a great picture of Sara and Eric. I'm glad they get along so well. :)

Enjoy the football games. The Ravens just tied the Patriots as I typed this last line.

ChicagoLady said...

Go Ravens! LOL

Enjoy your cruise. And maybe take a few pictures?

Winter has been strange here too. We've really only had two significant storms, but both occurred during the afternoon rush hour, making for long trips home. I wish I could limit the snow to the overnight hours and weekends. It's supposed to be back up to 40 this week, so this snow will start melting in a couple days.

Toriz said...

I'm glad you arrived to work safely that day! *Hugs*

Hope you have fun on your cruise. I like the way you look at things, and agree; you can't live your life worrying about what "might" happen. It's a terrible thing when lives are lost in tragic accidents, but living in fear of it being you next all the time will only mean you miss out on fun experiences. Good for you, and have fun! :)

Intense Guy said...

I hope you are getting a sunny tan right now!! You should be eating and sunning and swimming and sleeping and Georging as I type!

:)

And yes, I love Sara's big, beautiful smile. :)

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