White Weekend

Michigan got hit with it’s first real winter storm this weekend. It was no joke. It started Friday afternoon after I got to work. In the short couple hours I was there, the snow accumulated quickly. It didn’t take long for patients to start cancelling their appointments for that evening.

Believe it or not, despite the 6-8 inches of snow that had already fallen, there were still a couple patients who were going to drive in. The problem was that our techs were having trouble getting in. We ended up having to cancel everyone for that night. This was probably a good thing, because I got to go home early.

My wife didn’t want me driving in the storm, but I certainly didn’t want to sleep at work. So I ventured out and my normal hour and ten minute drive wound up being about 3 hours. The drive was treacherous. There were cars flipped in ditches, semi-trucks jackknifed, flares surrounding cars that had stalled, and many freeway closures. It was a white knuckle drive and I was glad to finally be home.

Saturday, the kids and I took advantage of the snow and tried out their new sled.

I pulled them all over the yard and up and down the street. It didn’t take long before my copy cat (Andrew) wanted to pull his sister in the sled. I really didn’t think he’d be able to, but he did!

Daisy was having a blast in the snow and kept trying to bite the cord we were pulling the sled with. Naturally, Ella had to pull Andrew as well.

It was very cold out, so I had to really beg them to come inside. They didn’t want to, but I promised hot cocoa, so they came in.

Sam was supposed to work Saturday, but all the patients had cancelled. So we enjoyed an evening at home. Ella decided that she would give us a spa day.

Sam got her nails done first. As I chuckled about how hard it was going to be to get that polish off, Ella informed me that I was next!

I still have nail polish in my cuticles!

Before bed, we made an obstacle course in the living room for them to burn off all their extra energy.

Sam was teaching Ella how to tuck and roll. She stood on the foam nugget (above), touched her toes, tucked her head, and they rolled over. She wanted me to try it. Three times I did it and failed miserably each time. My wonderful and loving wife took video and posted on Facebook for all to see. It is not my proudest moment and I look like hell! I will NOT be sharing here.

All the running out in the snow did tucker Daisy out. I had to laugh as I sat on the couch next to her and I looked over and saw this:

My brother and his friend had tickets to see the Madonna show in Detroit last night. He drove up on Saturday night and stayed at a hotel. He stopped by Sunday and hung out with the kids. They were so excited to see their Uncles. At one point, Andrew kept bringing books to my brother to read. He’d read it right the first time and then (when asked to read it again) would alter the story with humorous comments.

Any time I get to see my brother is treasured. We need to take a trip down to see him in Ohio this summer.

Sunday Night, the Detroit Lions beat the LA Rams in their first playoff win sin 32 years. I wrote about this in the previous blog, but had to share this. Coincidentally, the Detroit Free Press posted a picture of the temperature in the little town of Hell, MI on Sunday night.

Go Lions!!!

A Striking Query

I am about to pose a question to you. I already have my answer, however, I hoped you might contribute to the “conversation.” Let me set it up for you.

This morning, Sam and I are sitting in the living room drinking coffee. She tells me that we are supposed to be getting some really nasty storms this afternoon. I opened up my weather app and sure enough, it looks like there will be some heavy stuff rolling through.

While the kids eat breakfast, Sam jumps in the shower. When she gets out I tell her that I want to shower early before the storm. She chuckles and says, “You don’t believe that old wives tale, do you?” I stood their looking at her thinking, “It’s no wives tale. It’s a fact.” She keeps staring at me and can’t believe that I don’t want to shower during the storm.

Now, my wife is usually right about things. So I wait a bit before getting ready to shower. I know I want to shower early anyway because rain always slows the drive. As the rain starts, I look at my weather app.

It’s really coming down. I tell Sam I am going to shower real fast. She laughs again and says, “You are not going to get struck by lightning in the shower!” So naturally, I Google it. “Hey, Google. Is it safe to shower during a thunderstorm?” The response read:

I show this to my wife who laughed it off. I know that this was not something that I learned second hand. I want to say that they even told us this in school – probably the same time they told us not to stand under trees during a storm.

So I know the answer to my question. It is not safe to shower during a thunderstorm. So let me pose another question to you –

Did you know this to be true or die you think it was an old wives tale or urban legend? I’m interested to know.

Ice, Ice … Maybe

cartoon6825 http://www.andertoons.com

“Meteorologists are the only profession where you get paid to guess and be wrong every day!”

I have no idea who is responsible for the above quote, or the many variations of it, but it is SO true! About 5 days ago, they started talking about a “major storm” that would bring snow, rain, and ice. This storm was “capable of causing power outages that could last more than 72 hours”! As we got closer to the storm hitting, the predictions became worse. There was talk of anywhere from a half inch to an inch of ice or more being possible.

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Meteorologists were all over it. This storm was to begin moving in Friday night and continuing into Saturday. We were to get tons of rain (which we did), and there was going to be lots of flooding (which there was), and by late Saturday the winds were going to pick up and turn the water to ice. That ice on trees and power lines, would cause “massive power outages” and lots of damage.

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Before picking up my sons on Thursday, I stopped for gas. The place was nuts! People were lined up, filling gas cans, propane tanks, and their vehicles. The workers were worried that they were going to run out of gas because so many people were coming to get it.

We stopped at the store to get some groceries. As you can imagine, everyone was out trying to stock up in case they were “iced” in. Our stove is electric, so we altered our normal grocery list and got stuff that we knew we could make on the grill outside, or stuff that we could easily throw together without having to cook. We got milk and cereal, bread and lunch meat, and stuff that we could throw in a cooler if we lost power. We also made sure to have flashlights and candles ready. We also grabbed some water, just in case. We weren’t the only ones….

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Around 11am Saturday, the State Police were all over social media telling people to stay off the roads unless it was an emergency. The rain was to start changing to sleet and ice around 2pm. I texted my ex to see if she wanted me to bring the boys home early so that neither of us would have to venture out on Sunday morning. I hated to cut the time with them short, but at least they wouldn’t be out in a car on icy roads. They were back home by 3pm.

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Did we get ice – yes. Was it a lot? Not really. Snow ended up covering most of it. Kudos to the folks who took care of the roads. Local roads still had some snow on them, but the expressways were clear. The funniest thing I saw when I woke up for work was this:

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This happens so much that I wonder if the meteorologists are in cahoots with the local grocery stores. “We really need to get rid of all this bread, milk, and eggs…..can you whip up a nice winter storm to help us move it off the shelves?!” With all the modern technology, you would think that the predictions would be more accurate. Obviously not.

The last weather man I trusted was Sonny Elliot! He was a fan favorite here in Michigan. He did weather on radio and TV for 70 years!

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He made up words like “Cloggy” which was a combination of Foggy and Cloudy. Clousy was Cloudy and Lousy. Huggy was Humid and Muggy. His forecasts were full of silliness and jokes. He’d say things like: “Today will be as pleasant as diaper rash,” “The storm is as suspicious as a dermatologist with acne,” and “Driving will be as hazardous as tap dancing in a canoe!”

I digress. Let me wrap up by saying that I am glad that we didn’t get as much as they predicted. I am also glad that we didn’t lose power. While I enjoy cooking on the grill, I’d much rather do it during the summer.