Bi And Large

OK, first, my mom: She is out of the hospital, and she is OK. They got the infection under good control, they got her pain managed well. She saw her surgery team a couple days later and they decided not to try and move the brace and poles in her leg until January... but they DID remove 6 of the smaller pins. And that seemed to really cut down on the pain (one of them had broken.) So now she is OK, and not even medicated, and yesterday she apparently even made cookies. That is my mom in a nutshell!

 

In other news, I am sick of being sick. I know, I know, join the club you say. From what I hear from, well, everyone; the virus that's going around this year lasts about 6 weeks. I think we're into like week 3 or 4 of it but I am so over this. I have been puking today, I had the kids in to the doctor earlier, it's all the same darn thing we've had since November and can't shake. STILL with the fevers and pukies and ear infections and eye infections and snotty noses and crabby kids and aching joints and just feeling yucky. All one virus. Weeks of this. Do Not Want.

 

Speaking of do not want.... so it's coming into another weekend around here. And you know what that means! Can you guess? Wait for it... that's RIGHT, yet another blizzard! I am not making this shit up. I have seen maybe half a dozen real blizzards since moving here in 2002 and so far this winter we have had one every single weekend without fail. And it's only December. To give you an idea of how long winter lasts here, consider for a minute that MARCH is normally considered the "snowy season." Last year we had snow on the ground in May. So you know, hey, that's a lot of weekends.

 

I am not kidding... this is a copy/paste from the national weather service bulletin, which I read cmpulsively like 38 times a day around here:

 

"...SIGNIFICANT WIND AND SNOW TO IMPACT CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN
MINNESOTA AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN SATURDAY INTO SUNDAY...

.A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL ENTER WESTERN MINNESOTA SATURDAY
MORNING AND PROGRESS TO CENTRAL WISCONSIN BY SUNDAY MORNING. SNOW
WILL ACCOMPANY THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WITH AMOUNTS POSSIBLY
EXCEEDING SIX INCHES ACROSS MUCH OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN
MINNESOTA AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN BY LATE SUNDAY. IT APPEARS
THAT SIGNIFICANT SNOW WILL BEGIN OVER PARTS OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA
SATURDAY MORNING. MOST OF THE SNOW WILL FALL OVER CENTRAL AND
SOUTHERN MINNESOTA DURING THE DAY...BUT WILL PERSIST OVER WEST
CENTRAL WISCONSIN INTO SATURDAY EVENING.

IN ADDITION TO THE SNOWFALL...VERY STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS WILL
DEVELOP ACROSS WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA SATURDAY
AFTERNOON AND PERSIST THROUGH MUCH OF SUNDAY. THIS WILL LIKELY
RESULT IN EXTREMELY REDUCED VISIBILITIES IN BLOWING SNOW AND COULD
MAKE TRAVEL CONDITIONS HAZARDOUS OR EVEN IMPOSSIBLE. THEREFORE...A
BLIZZARD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...
FOR AREAS ALONG AND WEST OF A LINE FROM MORRIS TO OLIVIA TO
MANKATO TO KIESTER. A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE
REST OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA AND WEST CENTRAL
WISCONSIN FOR SATURDAY AND SUNDAY...INCLUDING THE TWIN CITIES
METROPOLITAN AREA. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS IN EXCESS OF 6 INCHES ARE
POSSIBLE IN THE WINTER STORM WATCH AREA BY LATE SUNDAY. STRONG
NORTHWEST WINDS WILL DEVELOP SATURDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUE ON SUNDAY
CAUSING CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW.

ANOTHER ROUND OF BITTERLY COLD AIR AND DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS IS
EXPECTED TO ARRIVE LATER SUNDAY."

 

(and by 'dangerous wind chills' they mean actual temp in the -12F to -15F range (-26C) and windchills somewhere close to 40 below zero.)

Worst storm ever? Hardly. But blowing snow and whiteout / blizzard conditions, AGAIN? Yes. Bloody hell. How is a woman supposed to get any damn Christmas preparation done when you can't leave the house the entire month of December due to the weather!! Not to mention the unusual cold for this time of year. Sure, it gets subzero in say, early February for a while, but you expect it then. It's not February.

 

As the local news station cheerily declared this morning: Winter Has its Mojo Back.