So My Sister Doesn't Send Out A Rescue Expedition

I got a text from my Big Sis all worried about me and Matt, so I guess I'd better post a quick update. Although I'm not sure anybody will actually see it, since I went and screwed up my domain name and all.

We're snowed in. We were stuck here for a while after last week's Snowpocalypse, but then on Saturday I managed to dig out the car and go to the store to re-stock some supplies. Which was a good thing, because then it snowed again, and we've been stuck here all week. We've still got plenty of food, but we're both starting to get cabin fever. It's starting to thaw, though, so I should be able to dig the car out again this weekend.

Meanwhile, I've been busy reorganizing things and developing some products over at The Web Wrangler and laying the groundwork for their marketing campaigns. One of those projects includes a new blog, Coffee & Soft Pants, that will focus on freelancing and working online. This is mainly because I realized that neither of my current blog audiences are really the right target audience for my e-book about how I started my business on a budget of zero dollars, so I need to go out and find that audience. Anyway, if you're interested in my business goings-on, here's a vlog entry I did about it.



I wish I could say that things are moving right along, but they've kind of stalled out this week. I'm not sure if it's because I overworked myself and now I'm a little burnt out, or if it's the cabin fever with a touch of SAD, or a combination of all of the above, but this week I've been struggling with a lack of energy and motivation and a fuzzy-brained feeling that's making it really hard to focus. I've managed to push through it to a certain extent, but mostly all I'm good for lately is lying around and staring at shiny moving pictures. It's a bit frustrating, with so much on my plate, but I guess my body's trying to tell me that I need a break, and I should probably listen.

So that's what's up lately. We're mostly good, albeit a bit frazzled and stir-crazy, and I clearly need to work on the whole work/life balance thing. I think that will get easier once I get these products launched.

And how are you?

Emergency Storm Preparation FAIL

Matt woke me up from a sound sleep around 5 AM this morning, saying he thought there might be a tornado. I sat there, groggy, asking, should we get in the closet? Do I have time to get the cats?

I don't know, he told me as he fumbled with the weather radio. Why don't you just turn on the TV and check the weather, I asked. Because there's no power. As he said that it sunk through my sleep haze that the only light was coming from his flashlight.

On Monday night, the night six tornadoes swept through various parts of Oklahoma, we spent the scariest part of the storm cleaning out our hidey hole -- a.k.a. our bedroom closet -- and prepping it for just such an emergency. The bedroom walk-in is the only space in the house that's both big enough to hold both of us and our pets and has no exterior walls. Prior to Monday night, the floor was littered with shoes and clothes that had fallen on the floor, both of which I'd been too lazy to pick up. After tidying things up in there and clearing enough floor space for us to sit down, we stocked it with water, batteries and flashlights, and even a pack of playing cards and a Bible. We already kept a box of MREs in there, and added to that a baggy each of kibble for the pets.

By the time we finished, the storm had moved past and Tulsa was in the clear. Feeling sufficiently prepared for the next storm, we both went back to what we'd been doing before the storm hit. It didn't even occur to either of us to make sure the weather radio had good batteries -- which is why I ended up fumbling in the closet for them in the dark this morning while it sounded like a freight train was bearing down on our house.

Finally, Matt got the radio working, and a weather station told us that is was not a tornado, but "merely" straight-line winds up to 90 mph. Good thing, since if it had been an actual tornado we'd probably have been halfway to Oz by the time we got the radio turned on. At about the same time, the winds died down enough that we could hear the eerie sound of the storm sirens, which blew for another minute or so before going silent. Only then was I awake enough to realize how dumb we were not to just grab the cats and get in the closet and THEN mess with the radio -- which, incidentally, is now the Official Plan for Next Time.

It turns out that there were at least three tornadoes that touched down in the vicinity, and the National Weather Service is apparently still debating whether or not whatever it was that hit our neighborhood was, in fact, a low-grade tornado. Either way, there was a lot of damage. Thankfully, our power's back on, and we didn't have any property damage, which is more than a lot of people in the area can say. But our yard is littered with downed tree limbs, some of which are too big for us to remove by ourselves, and our patio furniture got knocked around. The chair you see sitting upright in the picture up above was lying upside down on top of the potted tomatoes and peppers when we found it. Matt was understandably upset, because he just potted that little garden two days ago, but I was just grateful that the chair didn't get flung through the glass door.

I'm so grateful that we're safe (as are all of our local family and friends) and we don't have any expensive damage to take care of that I shouldn't complain, but I will anyway: it's supposed to continue to rain and storm for a solid week, so who knows when I'm going to finally get a chance to clean up our war-torn-looking yard, something that's going to take all day once I finally get around to it. But I'll worry about that later. For now I'm just grateful, and hoping that the coming predicted storms won't be any worse than this one. And that we'll manage to be a little quicker about utilizing our carefully-prepared hidey hole next time.

Go, Snow

I am a fan of snow only when it's the very first snow of the season, when it's falling and shortly thereafter, when everything is hushed and magical and clean, and it looks like the world has been tucked in with a really big, unblemished blanket. After that, the snow gets dirty and pocked and ugly, and the practicalities and inconveniences of having to live with it sink in, and I'm ready for it to go away and stay gone for another year. Which doesn't usually happen, at least with the first snow.

Of course, here it's never JUST snow. There's always ice mixed in, giving everything from walking to driving an EX-TREEEEME! edge of danger of bodily injury or death. When it sleeted and snowed on Christmas Eve, we were fine with it, because we were all stocked up on provisions and had no reason to leave the house. Until we realized we were out of cat food. And then it was the end of the world and everyone in this house who matters was doomed to starvation unless I put on my snow boots and schlepped myself a mile (round-trip) to the grocery store along sidewalks that were piled as high as three feet with lumpy gray snow and ice boulders cast aside by the snow plows.

At this point, I could have driven, IF said snow plows hadn't dumped said three-feet high piles of lumpy gray show and ice boulders right across the entrance to our street. That barricade didn't deter all of our neighbors, and so we garnered some entertainment from watching from our bedroom window as cars kept getting stuck trying to get over the mini ice wall that stood between our icy street and the completely clear and drivable main road. I learned enough from the mistakes of others to make the wise decision to walk to the store. Although, with all of the uneven snow, and especially on the return trip loaded down with 20 pounds of groceries, it was more of a hike, and also the most intense workout I've gotten in a while. But in the end the cats were fed and our cars were still safely parked in the driveway, and no pushing or digging had to happen, so I call it a win.

More snow is supposed to happen in the next day or two, so we decided we'd better load up on significantly more than 20 pounds' worth of groceries while we had the chance. Thankfully, by now the ice wall at the end of the street had been sufficiently melted off and smooshed down by other cars for mine to be able to make it over without any problems. Aside from some slight fish-tailing on the still-frozen side street, I made it there and back okay, and grabbed another bag of cat food just in case, because MAN those girls can eat. So now we're ready to hunker down and be total shut-ins for as long as the weather forces us to be. But that doesn't make me any less ready for the snow to get thee gone.