Blizzard Watching

Our blizzard watch officially took effect around mid-afternoon. It was snowing a bit then, and was quietly still, though the weather radio kept warning of strong winds to come. Sure enough, at close to 4:30 p.m., the wind suddenly kicked up out of the northwest, and blizzard conditions took over. Its a good thing we'd received only a couple inches of new snow today, or the blowing and drifting would be much worse tonight.

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Here was the scene around 5 p.m., looking toward the lighted milkhouse windows. Son's basketball game had been cancelled again, meaning he was home to help with evening chores, meaning I could stay in the cozy warm house and finish baking and frosting cookies. Hooray!

I was concerned about Daughter getting home safely from her job at Kohl's......she had to work until 6 p.m. Before she left this morning, I said, "You call me before you leave Cedar Falls, so I know when to expect you home, and if the snow is blowing too badly, you go to Grandma's house in town." Well, she was obedient and did call home around 7:30 to say she was leaving Kohl's (she had stayed to shop awhile after her shift). A couple minutes later she sent a text saying that her car windows were iced up on the INSIDE as well as the outside! So she had to scrape ice inside, too. With the snowy roads, I figured it would take her about an hour to get home; and I called her twice during that time to see how things were going. She said the east-west roads were the worst, having strong, gusty cross-winds blowing, and sometimes she couldn't see the road at all. She said she felt like Someone was helping her drive at those times.

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Finally, we saw her headlights pull in the driveway, and bounce up and down as the car bucked snowdrifts coming up the farm drive. She nearly made it to the garage, but was stopped short by a big drift. A quick shoveling session by Husband took care of that, then everyone was back in the house for the night. THANK GOODNESS! Everyone is home; I can go to sleep in peace for once and not worry about kids out driving around in dangerous weather conditions.

I may end up sleeping like a baby......or like a Mookie!! Daughter caught this photo of Mookie deeply lost in a nap the other day. Ah, so adorable!


Daughter loves movies, so we're going to watch "Frantic". I found the DVD the other day at Target......the first time I've ever seen it for sale on VHS or DVD. We have an old, poor quality VHS recording of it from probably 20 years ago. I think the film got bad reviews, but I like it......mostly because it takes place in Paris. I enjoy movies set in famous foreign cities. In a strange way, "Frantic" is like a less comical "Planes, Trains & Automobiles".......it involves a person getting caught up in very odd, unexpected circumstances, being forced to depend upon someone the polar opposite in character and demeanor. And in the case of "Frantic".......its all because of a suitcase picked up in error. Its rather slow-paced at times, but all-in-all, a pretty good mystery movie.
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I know Iowa is not the only place experiencing bad winter weather tonight, so take care wherever you are!
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