Wednesday, Jan. 16

We were up around 7:30, and after breakfast, I did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises because, of course, the pool wasn't open, due to the unexpected snow yesterday.

In fact, area schools were closed today, and the college down the road did not open either. Some businesses were also closed, because re-freezing last night made roads hazardous today.

Tonight's local newspaper was full of stories and photos of the surpise snow that caught everyone off guard yesterday. It created chaos around the town. It's reported that virtually every intersection in the city was blocked at one time or another, due to wrecks, jackknives, and pileups. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but there were a lot of cars in ditches.

Because of the jammed roads, highway department trucks couldn't navigate to areas that needed sanding, salting, or grading; and because there were so many accidents, the police and sheriff's departments couldn't work the huge number of wrecks. They just advised motorists to exchange insurance information. Frustration caused a fist fight in the middle of one accident scene.

Schools were dismissed around 11:30, but by then the roads were already slick, so bus drivers were instructed to just take their students to the nearest school, so they could stay warm until parents picked them up. Parents were notified at 4:30 to pick their children up. But there were about 38 kids whose parents couldn't come, so school officials drove the school's four-wheel-drive vehicles to deliver the kids to their homes.

I spent my morning after exercising making phone calls...to the other two scrapbook club members, both of whom said they were in no mood for a meeting tomorrow (and neither are we); to the beauty shop to cancel Mother's and my appointment this afternoon (no answer at the shop, but later my hairdresser called to assist in making new appointments); and to the doctor's office to get information on how to access Mother's clinic portal to retrieve information (had to get a new password).

Hubbie also called the doctor's office to cancel his 8:30 a.m. appointment for fasting lab blood work.

After I got the phone calls out of the way, I finally went upstairs and got ready for the day. Mother wisely opted to stay home today, so I heated chicken noodle soup for her lunch, which Hubbie took to her, along with crackers, and cheese.

The temperature had risen by 1 p.m., so the roads were clear, and Hubbie and I could run a few errands...to the library to pick a few movies; to the newspaper office to deliver this week's word search puzzle contest, and where I had hoped to speak with a couple of the reporters about the upcoming readers' theater, but neither was there today; and finally to pick up the truck at the gas station where Hubbie had to leave it yesterday.

I feared that someone might have pilfered stuff out of the back of the truck overnight, but everything appeared untouched, thank goodness.

On the way home, we noticed a small car up to it's axle in water in a ditch...a casualty of yesterday's snow, I'm sure.

Back home, I worked on publicity for the readers' theater, sending an article to various newspapers, including the two local ones.

Later, I heated Dragon Soup, cornbread, and biscuits for our supper, and Hubbie delivered a serving of the meal to Mother.

I was scheduled to attend an art gallery visual arts committee meeting at 5:30, but I decided to call the gallery first to make sure the meeting was still on. It was, but the director was not there, and those who were meeting were going to discuss an upcoming juried art show. I have nothing to contribute to that discussion, so I begged off going to the meeting.

This evening, Hubbie and I watched TV, including our favorite college basketball team, as they played to a real nail-biter win in double overtime. Exciting.