I survived ION!

As you know, my son Tom was home for the Holidays.  Then ION moved in on Saturday might.  They were supposed to head back on Sunday morning at Oh-dark-thirty but … yeah, he called his CO and got permission to stay one more day.  So on my birthday Sunday, I had all my kids and their girlfriends home!  It was a lazy day of games, snow, naps and food!

Tom stated my day off by making me breakfast in bed.  Shortly thereafter, Bill left to brave the roads as he needed to get home to check on the dogs, the bird, and the pipes in both the trailer and the house.  He was practically the only one on the road and a drive that usually takes 2 hours, took 4!  But he made it home and all was well.

Austen and his girlfriend Holly made us tacos for lunch.  He had to go to the store which is just a block away – got his car stuck getting out of the driveway!  Tom took him in his 4wd truck instead.

Erik and his girlfriend Meghan made us all dinner.  Then we played several games before I retired to my room to watch some “Big Bang Theory”.  Sometime during the night the snow plow came and plowed out our circle.  Unfortunately, they piled most of it behind the kid’s cars so they couldn’t get out.   Erik had to shovel about 4 feet of snow out from behind his car to go to work.

Tom and Ali got up early Monday morning and packed up to head to TEXAS.  They made it in about 14 hours which is longer than it took them to get here but they had some snow packed roads at the start of the trip.  I worked from home on my usual Monday so I didn’t have to get out on the roads at all.

Last night Austen caught the plow again and had him move the mountain of snow that was behind the cars in the circle so today they can shovel them out.

I made it into the office today.  The car was hesitant to start at first but then decided that I was not giving up and after a nice warm up in the driveway we made it in.  The roads were in much better condition that I expected.  Everyone was saying that they were still snow packed and icy.  They ARE on the side roads but not on I64 or Hwy 94.  I have not decided yet if I want to try Hwy N on the way home.  It’s only 18 degrees right now (at 1:00pm) and I know that if they did have salt on the roads it wouldn’t work until it gets up to about 20 degrees.

I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find our parking lot pretty much clear!  We have about a ½ inch of salt on it but no ice or snow.

Bill called at lunch to tell me that one of the heaters in the house went off over night and the pipes burst.  He will spend today fixing that up and getting more propane for that heater.  I will be glad when we get temperatures back up above freezing!