Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Chicken Little


For my friend in Perth...this is why I knit mostly with wool. And by the way, your quilt kept me very cozy last night. Thank you, again.

The heavens opened up at exactly 7:05 PM in my town last night. I know this because I was just getting home from the hospital and took note of the time. It snowed, the wind whistled, whipped snow sideways and I even heard thunder some time last night. I thought someone was upstairs moving furniture around, but of course, it was too late to be rearranging anything.

When the storm finally died down, I awakened to find a fresh blanket of snow, and while around seven inches isn't anything to sneeze at, it wasn't the 'Doozie' that had been prognosticated. We had a typical Michigan snow event that came without the ice. I'll consider myself blessed compared to other areas of the country.

Still, even with an average snowfall, 15 of my colleagues called in sick today.

This is what my colleagues are probably really doing today.

One of these people said to me last month, "I don't ever have enough time accumulated to take two weeks off like you're doing in February." Really? I wonder why. Since we have combined time off, if you call in sick, the scheduled amount of hours are automatically deducted from your bank of time. This tends to put a ding in the time banks of people who call off at least every first Monday and Tuesday of the month--as though they have no pattern. Since these folks can't seem to do the math, I wonder how their bank accounts look. Ah well, not my problem. It may be my problem come 4 PM, but it won't be my problem in 10 days when my plane takes off for sunnier climes.


Note my sundial. Do you see a shadow? For the life of me, I don't.

Speaking of sun, and shadows, how is it the Michigan groundhog saw her shadow? It's not possible. Punxsutawney Phil didn't see one though and today, he's the only groundhog that counts. It will be an early spring. Hopefully someone is making groundhog stew out of the Michigan rodent.

How did you fare in the storm of the ages?

18 comments:

The Bug said...

It was pouring freezing rain when we went to bed, but the wind was so fierce that it blew most of the ice away - yipee! Still treacherous to walk down my driveway, but the roads were fine. Right now I see patches of blue sky and snow flurries. We didn't have a name for that in the south like we did the sunny rain dealio - wonder what you'd call it?

Unknown said...

You are right Rudee that was not as bad as they predicted. We had sideways rain and wind but no snow. The sun is not out at about 2:30 PM but it is, with wind chill, below 0.
Be safe.
QMM

Unknown said...

Oops that should have said "sun is now out."

Celia said...

We had a little snow, but subzero temps so it turned to ice.

Stephanie V said...

Maybe someone helped out with a flashlight?
Any rodents here would have seent heir shadows but it's kind of irrelevant to us.
I'm glad your Doozie didn't materialize as advertised. Stay warm...Leo, too.

Lisa L said...

omg, the picture of leo. adorable! i was thinking about you actually - working hospice through a snow storm. and wondering wth happens if someone dies and a nurse can't get there to pronounce. awkward.

Finding Pam said...

Hug that big cute dog for me. He looks so cozy in his blanket.

Where are you going for your vacation? I sure hope you have a great time.

The weather was really cold for us and since none of us are used to it, I will be glad to see it pass. A very few tiny snow flurries, wind like a tornado which blew my patio umbrellas down and our power went out last night.

That is the one disadvantage of living in the country. I am ready to buy one of those whole house generator systems. It goes out more in the hot summer.

We have another cold night and then it should warm up.

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

we had 82 and 7 inches of sunshine... wish you were here.

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxo

Ruth said...

Glad it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be and you had a nice quilt filled with Perth warmth to keep you warm - although you would have still needed a lot of warm woolly things.
So pleased I don't have to shovel that snow.

Unknown said...

Glad to hear your doing ok.. well as ok as you can with real cold weather and snow and ice.. jeez they are having cows here cause it may snow.. I will believe it when I see it. it is a novelty though to see just flakes let alone have them stick. and those rolling power outages today drove me nuts. to me a waste of time. Stay safe and warm...hugs Birgit

Devon said...

Maybe old Phil saw his shadow from all the flash bulbs documenting the event. I'm glad it wasn't the storm of the century as predicted.

I like Leo's coping mechanisms!

Rositta said...

We had roughly 17 cm and it arrived here around 5 am. The thunder was so loud it woke me up. It was really pretty this morning but I think we've had enough. Somewhere warm sounds really good right about now...ciao

Gail said...

We got lucky...bone cold, but snowless now.

debra said...

First, snow. Then rain that turned to freezing rain and coated everything. Then more snow. And wind. Today---bring on the Vitamin D!!!

Alice said...

4am Wednesday morning, trying to get home, Telegraph still had not been touched.

6 tries to get the car up the driveway.
Mother was rather amused that the tractor that plows the driveways took the same number of tries.

Wednesday night, they still hadn't plowed the client's side street. They finally came by at 1:30am.

Anonymous said...

While you only got 5 inches...We got between 12-14 hard to tell it was blowing so hard....That wind turned to the Northeast and lovely Lake Huron dumped the rest.

FTM

Unknown said...

I hope those sunnier climates are warmer when you get there. The grasshoppers are always jealous of the ants.

We are having record cold down in the desert. So much so the kids are getting a snow day, with no snow, just very cold. It's like seeing a unicorn or something for them.

Serial Mommy said...

It was between 4:30 and 5 here (Southwestern side of the state) when I noticed it started snowing. I was chatting with a friend earlier in the day who wondered if it would even snow, because sometimes it just doesn't produce as they say it will. Our street and yard looked a lot like yours on Wed and into Thursday. By Friday (considering we Michiganders are old hats at this) every one was dug out and the blacktop was once again visible on the road. I have yet to use a lightweight fabric in my knitting. Seems like it'd be a waste of time.