Crappy Weather and Other Happenings

Sometime last night, the sleet started coming, and then overnight it began to snow and to BLOW. While it doesn’t come down to being as bad as an Oklahoma Panhandle blizzard, we were having blizzard conditions here in the central Oklahoma area. Oklahoma City got 12 ½ inches of snow, Yukon (West of OKC) got 8 inches, and I would guess that we got about that much ourselves. It is hard to tell, because there has been a lot of drifting of the snow.

From what I heard, three turnpikes in Oklahoma all got shut down because of the blowing snow. And of course, the idiots got out this morning. Watching television, we saw three or four cars stuck in drifts. These were the low riding, sporty kind of cars like a Camaro. You would think that those folks would be smarter than that. However, Oklahoma, like many other states has its share of folks who have no clue whatsoever about how to drive in such conditions.

So far, we are still maintaining our electricity. Our Honda generator is fueled and ready and I have two extra 5-gallon gasoline cans standing by, ready if needed. When we left work yesterday, we stopped and got some grocery items at Sam’s Wholesale Club and then came home, even though we weren’t really stocked up on all groceries yet.

We had to come home because as we were driving home after 5:00pm, we got a call from a lady that wanted to look at our house. So we came home and when they showed up, we let them tour the house and we answered questions. After they left, we fired up the Ford F450 and drove to town to fill one of the 5-gallon cans and then get groceries.

The truck has sat long enough that the batteries were down, so I had to work out in the cold blowing wind to jump-start the truck from our Mercury Mariner. (It looks like I’m going to have to break down and buy some new batteries.) While I got the gas and waited outside, Jo went into Wal-Mart and purchased some groceries. We didn’t need much, and it was a good thing. She said that all biscuits, bread, milk and most of the eggs were all gone. There were empty shelves everywhere.

Just like it that people wait until a storm is imminent before purchasing their groceries. Jo bought less than $40 worth and we had something like 6 bags. (Now that I think about it, $40 for 6 bags is terrible.) Oh well, we’ll have no problem eating for the next few days.

Today, it quit snowing around noon, so I went out after it quit and worked on the drift across in front of the garage door for the Mariner. It took a couple of trips out, working for about 30 to 45 minutes each time (maybe an hour) to get enough cleared that we could get out if it is needed. However, falling short of a medical emergency, it isn’t likely we’ll get out.

We work for the state, and when storms like this come in, we usually get a couple of days off from work. That is just what I needed…..cabin fever. So, we were off today, and it looks like we will be off tomorrow as well. However, I may need to ramp up some projects and really get serious about getting them done. The lady who looked at the house last night has been communicating with us via e-mail today. It looks like we might have agreed on a price. However, I’m not going to get my hopes up too much until I see signatures on paper. She has a home in Topeka, Kansas to sell, so our contract will be contingent upon her home up there selling.

This evening, I am just kind of chilling, checking out the forums, and goofing off. But, I’ll soon start going through a bunch of my stereo LP’s to see which ones I might want to “digitize” so I can burn them to CD’s. Some will be easy to discount, but some really oldies might test me as to whether I want them or not. The Ventures just might be good “truckin’ music” if I had them on CD. I’m still trying to decide about Kenny Rogers.

That is one of the problems of being old and a lover of music. If it comes down to it, it is hard to decide to leave some albums and not work them as well. Oh, well. If these are the hardest of my decisions, then life ain’t bad.

Natural Falls State Park; East of Tulsa, OK off of Hwy 412;  March 2008