Sunday, January 14, 2007

Ice and wind in Redneckville

You know it's bad weather when the OSU-Nebraska basketball game is postponed.

And indeed it is bad weather. Here in T-town, we are now bracing ourselves for the third wave of ice and sleet. For those that may live in other parts of the country and only see ice in their mixed drinks or refrigerators, this may sound like a typo. Ice? Falling from the sky?

What makes this really amazing is that a day before the first wave of ice and sleet (yes, there is a difference in the two) we had temperatures of 66 degrees. I barely used a coat while on deliveries. This is why I believe here in the midwest we believe in the stories of the bible, like Noah and that big boat thing -- we understand that weather conditions of biblical proportions can happen suddenly, cancelling important things such as school, churches and when it it gets really bad -- collegiate basketball games.

I'm pretty steamed that my date with comedian Brian Regan was postponed because of all this weather. (OK, it wasn't exactly a date - -2400 other people would have probably been there AND my husband who was suppose to go with me celebrating that 21 years of marriage thing...) So I have hunkered down and done what most obsessive compulsive types do when there is nothing that they can do -- started cleaning out closets, surfing the web and of course, watching endless hours of my favorite TV shows. (And a few of my not so favorite).

Dan and I did tromp out to the local home/garden store in the midst of the calamity. I claimed I needed to get laundry detergent (washing clothes becomes a bigger priority when you're stuck at home for endless days) when I really was looking for exterior lights for patio. A project that seemed remote and unimportant began to haunt me with an urgency so intense, I found myself surfing the web at odd hours of the night looking through images of lights, chandeliers, lamps.

The mind works strangely when the fear of being house-bound takes hold. I started noticing every stain on the carpet, every dust bunny in the house and have started a cleaning campaign that will no doubt entail the need for a new Dyson vacuum cleaner and a truckload of cleaning supplies.

Getting back to work will be a relief for all of us.

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