If it's Monday, it must be winter again

Or something like that.

I'm not sure why the National Weather Service calls it a "Winter Storm Warning" when it's spring, but they do. The daffodils are bent under a couple inches of snow, with more to come. The warning ends at 2 p.m. tomorrow. Our road has been plowed, though, and my tires are good, so I might try to get to the grocery today.

DID YOU MISS ME? I enjoyed my little break from writing, but I also missed my routine of getting up to a silent, dark house and having a couple hours to myself. My granddaughter is an early riser and LOVES having a grandma to play with first thing in the morning.

TJ's in Cary, NC

We packed a lot of activity into basically a Saturday. Nothing got canceled due to rain, as we'd feared, and we even made a trip to Trader Joe's, which was definitely one highlight among many. I would seriously buy all my groceries at a Trader Joe's if there were one within a reasonable driving distance from the Middle of Nowhere. Alas, I don't think West Virginians are their target demographic.

Whiteout!

The drive home took two hours longer than it should have because of the snow. I had to change my route from I-77 north to a less-traveled, more mountainous state road in Virginia because of a rockslide which had closed the interstate. I pulled over once to gather my wits and take a picture from the side of the road as I prepared to descend a very long hill.

Fortunately the snowy part didn't last long and by the time I got into West Virginia it wasn't so bad. I have to climb quite a steep hill to get to my driveway, but it wasn't snow-covered at 5 p.m. It probably was at 5 a.m.!

And finally, if it's Monday it must be weigh-in day. I really overdid it yesterday. Let's just say I'm a stress eater, and that drive was Stress with a capital S. If I did any damage, it will show up next week. ALTHOUGH ... I was well under the calorie budget for the week. But I thought about skipping the date with the scale this morning. How many Mondays have I woken up feeling like I'd made some progress, only to be disappointed?

I'm glad I didn't. I lost two pounds this week, for a total of nine pounds since December 26 – an average of .69 pounds per week, if you want to get all geeky about it.

And I do.

More often than not …

when a Major Snowstorm hits us here in the Middle of Nowhere, it usually is accompanied by a Power Outage. I've lived here 15 years and have kind of, sort of gotten used to anticipating coldness and darkness when we get a heavy wet snow, as we did yesterday.

Last night was no exception: The lights (and heat and water) went out at about 8:30. I reported it immediately and was told by the friendly computer voice that it was not part of a known power outage and repairs would be made 10:30 p.m.

More often than not, when the friendly computer voice gives me that initial, optimistic restoration estimate, he is WRONG.

At 2 a.m. I called the friendly computer voice to get an update. He oh-so-carefully told me we were now part of a widespread power outage and would have power by 11:30 p.m. on February 20, 2012. P.M.!

More often than not, when refrigerated food is unrefrigerated for more than 24 hours, it needs to be tossed. I spent the next hour or so contemplating what I might safely save (condiments other than mayo) and what would need to be discarded (everything else).

My cell phone rang at 6 a.m. Friendly computer voice again, asking me to press "1" if my power had been restored. I was groggy, of course, but I heard the furnace running, pressed "1" and went back to sleep for another hour.

In retrospect, we didn't suffer too much. It was a little chilly, but not too bad. It happened during downtime – you don't need or use much electricity in the middle of the night. We could have planned better, of course. Had the power not returned until tonight, I would surely have been wishing I'd filled a Thermos® with coffee. (Not having coffee first thing in the morning is the worst part of a power outage.)

Not sure if I'll make it to town today to hit the gym. Days like this are why we bought the elliptical, after all. I would happily trade a hazardous trip down my steep, snow-covered driveway for a short walk to the garage!
 
All in all, I'd say I had a pretty good weekend. Homemade pizza on Friday, a good hard workout and a meeting with a potential client Saturday and a beautiful snowstorm accompanied by an abbreviated power outage Sunday. Hope yours was good, too!