Not Today . . .

This morning, I made a decision that I have never made in 55+ years on this planet – I am staying home.  We had more snow last night – only three or four inches, but the winds have whipped up and it’s blowing all over the place.  To top it off, I have been reading reports from most of the local highway departments that they’re not able to clear the roads as well as they normally do because they have used up their salt supplies and are waiting for more (we have had a lot of  piddly snowfalls in January that were hardly worth mentioning but caused roadways to become skating rinks).

This is the view out my front door this morning.  The snow has blown onto the front porch and my front walk is missing – it was completely clear when I went to bed last night with 6”-8” of snow piled on either side.

The view out my sunroom door, protected by the back of the house.  The tracks are from Zoe and me walking out to try to find the newspaper – I’m sure it’s near my garage door someplace, but we didn’t find it.  So I read my paper on the iPad this morning.  And since I took this picture five minutes after we went out, you can see how fast the blowing snow was covering the tracks.

A little fuzzy from the lack of light – this was yesterday’s sunset viewed from a stop at a country traffic light.  If the old adage “Red at night – sailors’ delight” still holds true, then sailors must love snowstorms . . .

None of this has ever stopped me before – I just get in the car and go.  But this morning I feel different – and I realize that with one minor exception, everything that I need to do at work today can be accomplished from my laptop at home.

So I’m sitting here trying to determine what has changed.  Is it maturity?  Fatigue?  The memory that the furnace at work could only get the temperature up to 64 yesterday?  I do know that I have had my fill of snow-covered roads and bone-chilling cold these past few weeks – and I showed you the long range forecast yesterday.

I had already made the decision and was working on this blog post when Ryan texted me that he had arrived at work safely – but had to use 4-wheel-drive to get there because he was sliding on the interstate in 2-wheel.

So here I am at my desk at home, with Zoe and Nala wandering in occasionally to check on me.  Stay safe out there . . .