Winter Weather

I found a neat show on HGTV this afternoon that I'd never seen before. It's called “Beachfront Bargain Hunters”. It has beautiful scenery – but the major impact for us today is the warm, sunny beach scenes. Quite different from the weather we're actually having outside. The scanner has been really busy today with auto accidents. Hubby went out the back door this morning and ended up at the bottom of the steps much more quickly than he'd anticipated. Luckily he was holding onto the railing, so he stayed upright.

I just can't wait for the call back next week from the person handling my healthcare appeal. After trying to forget all about it, I pulled out my file of notes and went back on the marketplace website. And I got nowhere. I went back into my incomplete enrollment, and it wouldn't let me edit any information or continue – I was locked out of actually going into the shopping area.

I backed up and chose the option of submitting a new application. It made my current application inactive – then wouldn't let me past the next page, which gave me a dire warning of “you may only submit one application per state”. I like to think I know when to quit – and I did. So when I get that call, the ball will be thrown back at them.

There's still another week of school before Christmas break (and the long-range forecast for next week actually looks pretty decent), but today's weather really took me back to one Christmas when I was either in 2^nd or 3^rd grade. We had a huge snowstorm hit on the final school day before Christmas break. Mom and Dad were monitoring the radio reports, and they headed into town mid morning to pick up Grandpa and get me from school. I hated having to leave early and miss the party. But they really made the right choice.

One bus's second route never made it out of town that afternoon. The school was scrambling to find households to take in the kids until they could make it home. My cousins were on that bus; luckily for them, their other grandma lived in town. It was Christmas Eve before some of those kids got home. I was happy to already be warm and snug in my own bed.

I believe we were snowed in for four days before the road got cleared......Mom, Dad, Grandpa, me – and a 22 lb. Turkey that was thawed and had to be baked. It was good the first day, not too bad the second. By Day 4, though, Grandpa and I had a mini-revolt and we had fried eggs instead. I wished we had a freezer so some of it could be saved until later. No such luck, though, and so we ate turkey.

I had received two pair of new pj's for Christmas, one from Grandpa and one from Santa. I stayed in them most of those four days. Mom asked me if I was going to bother getting dressed, and I remember telling her something about there not being any reason to. I'm surprised I got by with that cheeky response.

My Grandma and her sister had planned on taking the train from Independence and spending Christmas with us. A lot of people, including us, had no phone then. But we figured with the storm being what it was that they were smart enough to stay in the City. No such luck. They rode down and ended up sitting in the local train station all night thinking someone would eventually come get them. They gave up the next day and got back on the train to KC. They were furious with all of us, because that's how they rolled. I should say we all missed seeing them for Christmas that year. But Mama always taught me if you can't say something good, don't say anything at all. Bye – have a good weekend!