Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Snowed in with a houseful of kids...

Here it is, 9:30 am on a tuesday morning, and I have a houseful of (mostly) sleeping children. Liisa got in a bit after 9 last night after an eventful last 90 minutes of her drive here: we were under severe winter storm advisories and she encountered greasily icy roads as she hit the entrance ramp to I-64 from I-70. The car in front of her came to a stop as it headed onto the bridge over the Mississippi, and despite the fact she was only going about 25 mph, she couldn't stop, and slid into the median/bridge abutment on the left side of the freeway, creasing up her quarterpanel on the kia. She got herself back into traffic, totally shaken up, when the same car that caused her to slide did a 180 in front of her and almost hit her again! As she told me on arrival, she put on her hazards and drove the rest of the way here in the right lane, going about 35 mph... (she had semis boxing her in when she slid into the median, so all in all it was a terrifying experience for her, and she didn't even look at the damage to the kia til she got here... It's creased along the same place that the school bus had hit it previously, but is driveable). I poured her a glass of wine and we lounged on my bed til long after midnight. Other than being a bit shaken up and freaked out, she's fine and glad to land. In fact, she says she isn't leaving until the snow is melted and may be here til spring!!!!

In the meantime, the snow was falling at a steady pace, and school closings were being posted on the news, so I had premonitions the kids would be home today... Sure enough, Aurora woke me at 5:30 to say that school was closed and she was headed back to bed. Brie didn't go to work either (I hope she got up and called in at least) as she has no working windshield wipers on the CRX, and the van needs better tires on the front in particular--it slides pretty easily on wet. Probably for the best she stayed home... But that means I have Cliff and his best friend in the living room, Aurora and Kimmie in Aurora's room, Patrick, Rei and Brie in their rooms, and Liisa in the "loft"... And me, three dogs, and three cats... What a concept! I have an appointment today to have cable tv and internet put in so I hope this doesn't delay that process to severely... Cable would be lovely with all these kids running around! (We got a really good deal on the bundle package, and for just a few dollars more than Eric was paying for wireless internet and telephone we can add in the cable tv and have it all on one bill instead of 2--and have cable to boot!).

Eric's first day of classes went fine, although they too were getting freezing rain down there and he wasn't sure if he was going to be even going to class today as they too had schools being closed right, left, and sideways... Even the military base there had shut down to only essential personnel being required to be there. I hope that doesn't end up tacking on days he needs to be away. That would suck!

Anyhow, kids are getting up, so I guess that's my cue to get more coffee and direct traffic so-to-speak... Wish me luck getting them all to help shovel~

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