Challenger 22 Years Removed

For the first time in several days I was awake and up at 5:20am. I was still a little tired but got moving anyway. Glancing outdoors as I descended the stairs I could see that everything was covered in wet ice. Furthermore, I could hear what sounded like rain and ice hitting the windows. It wasn’t looking too pretty. I completed my sit-ups before checking the forecast and school closings. As suspected, almost all the local schools were closed, including Ohio State University, which rarely closes, even in the worst conditions. I finished my exercise routine then leashed up Ykraps and headed out. I was very careful navigating out the door. Our front stoop was solid ice. And making it worse was the rain/ice mix currently falling on top of it. As you might expect, Ykraps struggled to get around, let alone taking care of his business. I struggled as well. I also worried how I might get my run in under such adverse conditions. I even slipped on the stoop as we made our way back into the house. Everything, the roads, drive, and walks were solid sheets of wet ice. A check of the forecast revealed that the ice/rain was expected to turn back to snow shortly. In fact, after turning on the TV to catch the weather, I saw that it had already turned to all snow in Delaware. I figured I’d wait it out and run once the snow built up a little. We were expecting 4-6 inches through the day. Besides, I couldn’t drive in this crap anyhow. I delivered Mindy’s coffee despite knowing that she didn’t have school. I needed her to be aware that Jacob didn’t either. I logged onto my laptop and connected to work by 6:15am. I talked with a peer of mine, who said the roads weren’t that bad coming in from Grove City at 4am. I worked remotely for an hour or so. By 7:00am the rain turned back to snow, and by 7:30am we had a good base of white stuff on top of all the ice. That was my queue to leave for a run. I must’ve been about 7:40am. I made sure that Mindy knew my plan just in case something happened. She was still in bed when I left. I knew almost immediately that I’d have the footing I’d hoped for. The stoop was even easy to navigate now that it was covered with fresh snow. The snow was coming down at a good clip. It was piling up fast. Like several recent mornings, the fresh snow made for a nice running cushion. A few shovelers commented about my antics. I shrugged it off and completed my run like any other day. With the new layer of snow, it was easy. I knew that there was about a half inch of ice under the snow, and as soon as I got back home I went right for my square landscaping shovel. I plowed up the snow and underlying ice by making scraping runs laterally from one another and about two feet apart. After freeing the heavy ice, I fetched the snow shovel and pitched it all into the yard all the while the snow continued coming down at full strength. It took me about 30 minutes to do the entire job. I was simply happy to have the ice up. By the time I went back inside everyone was up and had eaten their breakfast. Mindy had my eggs ready in the microwave. I woofed them down then headed for a shower. Mindy asked if I could work from home, but I felt it important to be in the office along with my team. I left at 9:30am. It was a slow steady drive in. It was snowing so hard that it clogged my windshield wipers even with them running at full speed. I can’t recall that ever happening. I arrived at work just before 10am. Because of the inclement weather, we had a few people out. But most of them were out because school their kids schools were closed. We decided early on to order pizza for the team since the weather was so poor. That proved to be a challenge in and of itself. Bottom line, our pizzas didn’t show up until just before 3pm, and that was with us picking them up. I ate four pieces. I was hungry and didn’t pack a lunch. Word had it that about 6 inches had piled up during the day. Mindy phoned late afternoon to tell me about her snow day at home with all four kids. They played in the snow for a good while, Landon included. And unless I am mistaken, that was his first time spending any appreciable time out in the snow. Mindy said that he loved it. She also reported getting lots of chores done while he napped and that we would be having meatloaf for dinner – her mother’s recipe. I left for home around 5:25pm. I forgot that I parked out front. That caused me a handful of minutes. Plus, I my Trooper was caked in ice and snow. It took a while to warm-up and scrape the tough coating of ice away. I arrived home just before 6pm. I wasn’t all that hungry but didn’t dare mention as much to Mindy, who slaved away all afternoon making the meatloaf. I walked Ykraps before sitting down to dinner. It was cold and somewhat difficult to navigate the fairly deep snow. Lucky for me, Ykraps found a spot to crap. Dinner was ready once I was back. The meatloaf was delicious. Perhaps the best I’ve ever had – no kidding. Along with the meatloaf, she made mashed potatoes. We topped the taters with the meatloaf juice. Landon was in an extra good mood. Must’ve been the long nap. The kids had donuts for dessert. I had none. After clean-up, Mindy let Rocky and Jacob visit neighbor Jake. In turn, Bella had Makayla and Lilly over at our house. The kids all left and came home at 7:45pm by design. Mindy immediately got Landon and Rocky bathed. Jacob & Bella were allowed to skip. We didn’t get the kids settled and in bed until just after 8pm. I finished updating my blog around 8:35pm. Afterwards I tuned into American Idol. It was over at 9pm. We watched Lie To Me after that. Like I often do, I fell asleep during the program. We headed up to bed around 10pm. I’m quite sure Mindy received a call informing her that school was canceled again tomorrow. But unfortunately, she was scheduled to be at an off site conference, which she figured would still be held. Ex-Kelly let her know that Rocky’s school was canceled again too.