All of a sudden: Winter

Sheesh. It was -11 degrees this morning. One day we're running around without coats on and the next... winter arrives with a vengance! It was the howling of the wind that lulled me to sleep last night, warmed and comfy under a heavy winter style quilt. But only a couple hours before that we were driving smack dab in the middle of a blizzard. We has been just a mile out of town baking cookies and watching football with friends when we decided we needed pizza. That involved sending "someone" into town to pick it up. That "someone" called me as soon as they got to town and said, "We will eat one piece of pizza and then we are going home. You don't know how awful it is out here." 10 minutes later as they made the trek back through the dark blizzard he called again and said, "gather your stuff up, we are going home immediately." No pizza only a one mile dark ride in a raging blizzard. Let me describe... Can't see the road, can't see the center line or the side, the flashing lights of the car ahead of us disappears quickly and we are totally alone. The words, "white out" mean that all you can see is white. There is nothing behind or before and you are left with the mere memory of the road. And it was only one mile. It was not pretty, but we made it.

I have been in 'white-out' before. After the last one, I swore I would NEVER do that again! What could I be going to that could possibly be worth risking life and limb for? I can tell you. It was Christmas Eve. We drove a few short miles from my mother's to Ron's mother's for the afternoon. Family Christmas Eve supper was scheduled at my mom's for the evening. The whole family woud be there. We enjoyed a quiet afternoon at grandma's then started out for the Christmas Eve meal. Imagine our surprise when we found barricades across the road and the big words ROAD CLOSED. We sat a minute. "well, we can't not go." I said. "Mom's expecting us for Christmas Eve Supper. She's got everything ready!" So we drove around the barricades It didn't take too long for us to figure out why the barricades were up. The right hand lane was completely blocked with drifting snow. We drove on the left hand shoulder, unable to see more than just a couple feet, praying that no semi truck heading the opposite direction would also have been foolish enough to be out in such weather. It was the longest, most terrifying six miles I have ever gone. And did I mention that we had 3 kids in the car? I have always said that God watches over fools and little children. There were both of them in the car that night. To boot we were the only ones that managed to get out to the farm for my mother's Christmas Eve meal. And I promised..."NEVER AGAIN" Sometimes there's nothing for it. You are stuck with it. I don't want to have to do that too many more times in my life.