Here is the proof that no one was expecting this snowstorm: the grocery store this morning was practically empty, with full shelves of milk and toilet paper. The guy at the fish counter sold me a nice piece of salmon, even though he wasn’t officially open yet.
In the afternoon, by the time I realized this storm was serious, the kids were already up at the high school at the musical rehearsal. Mr. P, who runs the musical, overrules God and the weather, and will not cancel rehearsal for anything. So I expected rehearsal to go to the bitter end at 6:30 pm.
My husband was able to leave work early. He had been thinking of taking the bus, but in the end had driven the car. I prayed for his safe arrival home. On the way home he saw a city bus and a truck slide sideways right off the road.
After a long and arduous trip he arrived home. But the Snow Fairy had been lulled into complacency by recent warm weather, and had not shoveled the driveway. So out he went to do the task.
Then the kids called to report a small miracle: Musical rehearsal ended early; “please come pick us up.” It turns out Mr P. was not at the rehearsal at all.
Outside
We had arranged to bring home our friends’ son, plus our two kids. My husband and I had a brief argument about who would go get them. He challenged me, “Do you know how to drive in the snow?” He thinks my answer to that should be No, I do not but he does.
I said, “I drove around this afternoon,” thereby proving nothing.
“But do you know how to drive in the snow?”
He grew up driving in snow, but on flat land. It ain’t flat around here. And the fact is we’ve lived in this town for 17 years and I have not yet had an accident while driving in the snow. I will not mention the few Amusement Park Moments I have had. I said, “You finish cooking dinner while I go get them.”
He said, “No way! I don’t want to make dinner! I’m going.” So he did. Everybody knows that at our house, cooking dinner is far worse than going out in a snowstorm.
I stayed and cooked, and prayed a quick prayer, and shoveled some more snow. Youngest Daughter was surprisingly helpful. It turned out that in the afternoon my husband had told her she wasn’t being helpful enough, so she had taken his words to heart.
Inside
Yesterday, my husband had just gotten 4 new tires for the van, just in time for this snowstorm. The previous ones (put on by the car dealer) were practically bald.
My husband called when they were leaving the high school, and he said, “For reasons I can’t explain right now, I am going to take an alternate route home. If I turn right at that street after the Wendy’s it will lead to Road X, right?”
I said, trying desperately to remember which road he was talking about, “That road is really curvy. Don’t you think you should come home on the main roads?” He said no. I tried again and said, “Okay, but I really think you’ll be better off coming back on the main road.” I hung up and prayed a rather more fervent prayer.
About half an hour went by, and they weren’t home yet. I figured they were lost or had to abandon the car in a ditch on Curvy Road X. I called, and my husband said, “I’m at the bottom of our hill, but the car won’t go up. I’m going to get the kids to push it.”
It’s pretty handy to have three hale and hearty teenagers to push your car up a snow-covered hill. But the car is a minivan, so I imagined teenagers pinned under the wheels. I decided to head out with the snow shovel, the salt, and my Snow Fairy muscles, to help out. But then I realized I needed to call my friends and tell them it’s hopeless – they won’t be able to get to our house to pick up their son. So I went back in the house and called them, and then headed out again. I saw three figures running towards me in the dark, and the lights of our van at the crest of the hill. Impeccable timing on my part! The figures were the teenagers who had been excused from pushing, and had very cold feet.
When my husband finished pulling the car into the garage, he went to close the garage door, and saw our friend, the father of the third teen, standing there. ! “How did you get here?!” my husband said. “I walked,” our friend said. ! No, not from his house. He had seen our van couldn’t make up the hill, so he parked at the bottom of the hill. Eventually they too made it home safely, with some very wet and cold feet.
When our family got settled in, my husband said to me, “Next time that I call you while I am driving home in a snowstorm, and I tell you I am taking an alternate route, you must not allow me to do so. You must insist that I come home by the main road.”
All those things my husband did! He is my hero. We also prayed for safe travel for everyone else still out there, and can only hope that prayer is answered positively also. We sat down to our salmon dinner, and said a prayer of thanksgiving that we were all home safe and sound.
Tonight a friend posted this on facebook: “If when you wake tomorrow, you only had what you thanked the Lord for today, what would you have?” To which I reply, Well, we wouldn’t have any snow. And I would have my family.
And in fact I expect to have them around when I wake tomorrow: it’s a TWO HOUR DELAY.
2 comments:
That storm was NUTS. We didn't leave to drive anywhere for 2 days. Tell me you didn't have to shovel much.
Green Girl, we got a total of 8.5 inches. It was heavy, wet snow which made it hard to shovel. If we had been expecting it, though, it wouldn't have been nearly so bad. There were cars abandoned all over the place.
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