Tuesday, January 22, 2019

TRAPPED, Like A Rat In An Ice Cube

The TV meteorologists were way off with their snow prediction for the city this past weekend. For days, they'd been amping up this storm. Another 4-6 inches, they said, to hit St. Louis after that record-setting snowfall they'd lowballed. Until the morning OF the storm's arrival, when they walked it back, proclaiming that the storm had take a southern track, and the city would get a dusting to one inch.

Well. Hillmomba ain't the city, folks! We got at least 4 inches out here, as predicted. So I can't say it was a surprise. The timing was a little off, with snow swirling as I started to town at 10:00 Saturday morning. I needed to mail my DISH bill. You know. The one that gets here so late that I barely have time to return it by the deadline by putting it in the mail the very next day.

Anyhoo...I knew this storm was coming, but thought it wouldn't get cold enough for snow until around 1:00. Just in case, I'd dropped some heavy hints to Farmer H on Friday evening, about the mailing of my DISH bill. He was going to the auction, and could easily have taken the route through town, detoured a mile to the dead mouse smelling post office and back, and still made the auction in the same amount of time as if he'd taken all the back roads.

As you might imagine, if those heavy hints had been anvils that I was dropping, Farmer H would still be recovering from surgery for a crushed skull. He gave nary an inkling that he was picking up what I was laying down. Rather than flat-out command him to mail my DISH bill on Friday night, I figured I'd choose a different, more crucial battle in the future, and mail my own DISH bill before the weather came in Saturday afternoon.

Anyhoo...I was a little apprehensive, walking up those rapidly-icing concrete steps, holding onto the already-iced black metal handrail to mail my DISH bill. But T-Hoe is sure-footed on such surfaces (not that I was going to drive him up the steps, of course) and I knew I'd make it home safely, after a stop for my 44 oz Diet Coke. I did. And the heavy snow continued all afternoon and part of the night. The temperatures dropped into single digits. And by Sunday morning, the roads showed no sign of clearage.

I have been a prisoner in the Mansion for TWO DAYS now! Sunday AND Monday. I'm hoping to venture out on Tuesday. If T-Hoe will start up after two days of single-digit weather. Farmer H has been saying he needs a new battery, but of course without shopping for one, thus showing no intention of replacing it.

Farmer H was also kind enough on Sunday morning to text me that the county road was 90 % covered with snow and ice, and that if I met a car, there would be little room to get over to the side. So I got his drift that it would be best for me to stay home, and let The Unstopperable Man pick up a 44 oz Diet Coke for me.

I'm taking his word for it. But I keep thinking of that movie MISERY. Even though THE SHINING might be more appropriate.

7 comments:

peppylady (Dora) said...

Not much snow in North Idaho but I hear we're getting around of it.
Coffee is on

River said...

I think you need to stop with the hints and straight out ask or tell Farmer H to post your dish bill for you. Please. And while he is out there perhaps he could bring you back some Diet Coke, but the bottled kind in case he stops for several hours at some other place on the way home.
I'm set to stay home for the next couple of days while my state fries itself under an increasingly hot sun.

Hillbilly Mom said...

Dora,
I hope you get your share of snow if you want it. And not too much if you don't! We've had two weekends in a row, with more snow possible this upcoming weekend. I kind of like it, when the roads aren't icy. I got out Tuesday (today) and they were fine.

***
River,
He brought me one Monday, and I swear he drove it all around town while he went to Goodwill! Because that Polar Pop was not NEARLY as cold as a Polar Pop should be. He denied it, though, and said he just got it on the way home. I'm pretty sure that wasn't true, but I had no evidence. He gave too detailed an explanation, so I just had my people-reading skills to go on. Which are usually pretty accurate.

Anonymous said...

Farmer H is not very good with hints, as we ALL know by now!!

Hillbilly Mom said...

fishducky,
Yes, Farmer H wouldn't notice a hint if it bit him on the butt. Not even if it had piranha teeth and hung on like a snapping turtle. He'd sit down on that hint, and then eventually leave it flattened, perhaps wedged in the cushions of his La-Z-Boy.

Kathy's Klothesline said...

I don't do hints when I want something immediately. Hints are for long range goals. HeWho would have jumped on that post office run like it was a lifeline to the outside world. He would have done all the other things he wanted to do as well without ever revealing them to me. They love to think they have secrets, don't they?

Hillbilly Mom said...

Kathy,
Heh, heh! I have that image of HeWho racing like a bat out of Not-Heaven to do your bidding. And his own. Around here, the well-known secret is Casey's donuts for the diabetic.