Why am I bothering to tell you about the Hillmomba weather? Because it means I WILL BE RIDING WITH FARMER H tomorrow morning, to my regularly scheduled
I instructed Farmer H to put fresh cedar chips in the dog houses for the cold snap which appears to be the new normal. Good thing he did. It was his THIRD warning to do so. I also told him to check Juno's ear, because something smelled not-so-good when she greeted me on the side porch. Farmer H reported that Juno's ear is not smelly, but that she has a big deer leg inside her house. So there's that.
He also said that Juno spends her days in her Farmer-H-built insulated house with the shingled roof, which is right outside the kitchen door. And her nights in a store-bought house on the end of the porch, the side by the goat and mini-pony pen, with Jack. They sleep in separate houses, both alike, with the doors facing each other.
Farmer H didn't exactly volunteer to sweave me over to bill-paying town for my appointment. I mentioned the weather, and asked if he wanted to sweave me. So he agreed. There's also a chance for freezing rain. I don't like to mess with that, but I AM perfectly capable of driving T-Hoe in such a mess. I managed to transport both boys and myself to Newmentia, Lower Basementia, and Elementia all those years without incident. Even though one time it took us TWO HOURS to make the 30-minute drive home, when we were dismissed early. Huh. Not early enough!
If I was still working, this forecast would have me whipped into a frenzy! I'd understand that the snow wasn't supposed to arrive until the time school let out. But there's always hoping the TV weathermen are wrong in the GOOD kind of way. Besides, the school wouldn't want a repeat of that time when they were stuck with students late into the evening, and had to feed them, and even assigned the athletic director to drive some home in his JEEP, with parent permission, of course, because they couldn't make it to school.
The boys and I barely dodged that bullet, because the counselor of Newmentia, who was acting in place of the principal, told me to get on out of there. The hill between Newmentia and the main road was ice-covered. THREE cars had slid off the embankment. Let me tell you, I put T-Hoe in 4 Wheel LOW, and inched my way down. The main office had decreed that none of our buses would traverse that hill until further notice. That was the problem. Middle School kids from Lower Basementia couldn't get up it, to pick up the Newmentia students to complete the routes. Elementia students could get to Newmentia to pick up their older bus riders, but couldn't go down it to complete their routes. That's how Newmentia ended up with High School students and Elementary students, to hold them for safekeeping until their parents could come get them, or the roads were passable.
Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if some schools cancel classes around here, just from the forecast. But even if they don't, such a forecast always puts me in a good mood. Even though I will be riding with Farmer H.
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Made it back safe and sound! No precip yet, at 11:18 on 11/12. Guess I cried
All that snow and ice is something that has me wondering how on earth your country stays afloat. All the people unable to get to school, work, other appointments. Now there's the internet, which is unreliable in such weather, so at least some people could work from home, but before that why does your country (and others in the northern hemisphere)not grind to a complete halt every winter? I can't imagine ploughing through piles of freezing wet stuff just to stand behind a desk or checkout for months on end.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteHere in Hillmomba, we are about halfway between the balmy gulf shores and the Canadian border. So are winters are not even that bad. We are just overly cautious, I guess. And the news hypes up every little snowflake, broadcasting doom about snow and ice accumulations. The worst time I can remember was the Great Icepocalypse of '06, when we had no power, no heat, no way to get gasoline out of underground tanks. It lasted a week or two until the ice melted. If I can find the posts, I'll come back and put a link here.
People in Minnesota or Michigan would laugh at us for calling off school so easily. And the cities, too, but they're not likely to slide off a road and lay there undiscovered for days.
That's why I live in Southern California, where it never snows or freezes the roads, but we DO get wildfires!!
ReplyDeletefishducky,
ReplyDeleteYIKES! I would not trade our snow and ice for your fires! No siree, Bob! Be safe.
The Great Icepocalypse of '06 Files
ReplyDeletehttp://hillbillymansiontwo.blogspot.com/2006/11/power-out.html
http://hillbillymansiontwo.blogspot.com/2006/12/bah-humbug.html
http://hillbillymansiontwo.blogspot.com/2006/12/giving-generator-finger.html
http://hillbillymansiontwo.blogspot.com/2006/12/more-of-same.html
http://hillbillymansiontwo.blogspot.com/2006/12/genius-slapping-morons.html
http://hillbillymansiontwo.blogspot.com/2006/12/caught-in-act.html
A flash from the past, showing you what it's like to spend five days without power. Okay. Not exactly. Because we became freeloaders at my mom's house.
I'll check the links later, right now I'm coughing up a couple of lungs, damn asthma/hayfever.
ReplyDeleteWe get wildfires too, but we call them bushfires. For a while media people started calling them wildfires too, but the Aussie populace howled them down.
Which state do you live in?
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteThe fire thing scares me. So unpredictable. At least we have a warning and can prepare for snow.
We're in Missouri, about 60 miles south of St. Louis.
Hope your lung situation improves. I'm coughing up my own right now from the sickness Farmer H spread to me.