Ok, so this rant is really for me because I have no where else to rant! I am in Oklahoma and it is FREEZING! We are under a "State of Emergency" and my present employeer (Im NOT naming the company since they are closing OKC's call center which is the LAST one in the US to be opened) refuses to shut down the call center due to the solid ice on all major roads and highways (since Saturday). ALL of the local schools have been closed since Monday and will be closed tomorrow. Majority of the daycare centers are closed. So, my company expects me to keep my foster and bio kids at home by themselves so I can come into work. Ha...my life is way too precious to risk driving the 30 miles to and from work. Plus, my kiddos cant stay at home by themselves.

Im freezing partly due to my anemia and because I have eaten nothing but liquids (except a few times!) since the 8th. So, Im gripy, hungry, frustrated, and freezing :help: . And Im supposed to keep a postive attitude since I am the "Matriarch" of my family. Hmph. I know many people out there are used to the ice because of where they live. Well, I am NOT and I am trying hard to find a silver lining in all of this. For example, now that me and my 5 kiddos are at home, I can spend unlimited amount of time with them before my lapband surgery. That way if something bad happens on Thursday, they will have had spent ALOT of quality time with their mommy (for almost a week)!

Okay, I feel a little better...no, please be merciful and forgiving of my whining! Thanks!

Keep believing that it will end soon and just hope for a warm spell.

Be glad that you are with your children rather than being separated and unable to get to them.

Life is hard, but I know you can make it.

Thanks! Im in much better spirits now that I know it is supposed to be 38 degrees tomorrow. However, when it freezes again this weekend, I will restrain from griping because I will be so focused on my new lapband!!! Yay!!!

I feel your cold, Stephanee. I'm in Texas, so this white stuff is pretty alien to me, too. No newspaper as of 9:30 AM....no school, of course. Cheyenne just asked me if we could "go pick up Whitney". Has she lost her mind? If the roads were that good, there would be school.

There was a big black bird frozen to my skylight this morning. YUK! I assume it's dead. I told Bob that after the weather clears up, he has to get a ladder and remove said bird from my skylight. I don't want to be taking a bath and look up and see a big, slowly decaying bird as the weather gets warmer and warmer. He said the buzzards would take care of it. Not gonna wait for the buzzards. He thinks the weather has made me cranky. I think the idea of a buzzard smörgåsbord on my (visible) roof did the trick, never mind the weather!

Let's see---looking for the silver lining---as we too are snowed/iced in, in New Mexico.

OK, just think of what a great start all the moisture is going to give the ground come Spring---it should pop up green and beautiful!

And---it is time for work, and you are logged into LBT!!!

And the #1 thing I can think to say right now Stephanee---is that we are not having to watch poor Carlene's dead birdsicle!!! Sorry Carlene--not laughing at you, hopefully just with you. I mean I know birds die, and I guess they just fall where they fall---but I never thought about it!!!

We are sitting at a big 8 degrees right now, and are not supposed to go above freezing again today. But tomorrow we will---and then another storm is due on Friday---aarrgghh C'mon summer!!!

Enjoy your kids, drink lots of warm broth if it is something you are allowed. Just keep busy, it will help keep your mind off of it!

Good luck on the upcoming surgery---you will be so glad you did it!

Kat

And the #1 thing I can think to say right now Stephanee---is that we are not having to watch poor Carlene's dead birdsicle!!! Sorry Carlene--not laughing at you, hopefully just with you.

No offense taken. I'm not exactly laughing, though. It's a BIG bird - like a huge crow or something. A sparrow I could maybe deal with but something the size of a chicken going all necro on my skylight.....EWWWWWWWW!

Well, a few days ago winter finally hit Toronto, Canada. We finally had our first snow of the season, only a couple of inches, and below freezing weather as well. I am wearing winter gear now: a sheepskin coat and boots! I have to confess that I am kinda thrilled even though the weather is causing my torn rotator cuff to hurt more than usual.

Animal biologists have been concerned about our extended fall. Animals that should have been hibernating have been up and about and using up their winter reserves of fat. And animals who switch to winter whites in order to blend into the landscape have been easy targets for predators.

Their concerns extend to the local population of green frogs, a critter who dines on mosquitoes. These frogs should be in the water under the winter ice. They have been seen hanging out in the mud flats and there is concern that they will not make back to the water in time in the event of a quick freeze.

Winter is here now but I have saved a bunch of money on heating costs.

I'm going to rant about this ice storm in Oklahoma. We were without electricity for 7 days. They closed the university for 3 days and I didn't go in on Thursday and Friday because I was trying to keep mother warm. I am absolutely pooped what with toting all that wood. I usually go through a rick of wood in about two years. I went through half a rick in one week. My arms are bruised and my trees are destroyed. I ran around town trying to get supplies for the storm for two days. I couldn't get much because everyone was sold out. By about Tuesday or Wednesday, my friend suggested that I buy a generator. I went down to Lowe's and got on the list. I was number 178 on that list. Amazingly they got 200 generators that night and a very kind man stayed down there and picked it up for me and put it together and got it running. It was the best $750 I've spent lately. Lowe's got 250 more generators the next day. Unfortunately they didn't have any gas cans. I probably got the last gas can out of the return bin so I had some gas, but I spent days trying to find gas cans. I finally got some on Friday and filled up about 5 of them. Then the electricity came on on Saturday. I have never been in a situation where everyone was sold out of everything. I had two oil lamps but couldn't find any oil for them until I already had the generator. I bought more oil anyway. The only good thing is that roads never iced up and I don't have a dead bird on my skylight. I don't have a skylight. But I have lots of live birds eating birdseed in my feeder and two squirrels who are little pigs. A branch fell on my cable line so we had no TV for weather news or internet. My friend called me with weather reports daily except for the day the phone went out. My neighborhood looks like a tornado went though it and it will cost me a bundle to get the limbs cut down and the yard cleaned up. This was the worst ice storm I've even been in. Meanwhile someone used my credit card number to charge $514 of stuff from Walmart so I was a victim of wire fraud. And my mother is having a colon resection this coming Friday and she's not a good candidate for surgery. But she's tough as nails and we think she can come through it. The problem is that my brother will be here bugging me. He's supposed to alleviate stress but will probably just create more. Well, at least I don't have a dead bird on the skylight.

You guys are crazy! Now, bitteroldhag, hang in there...it all happens the way it is supposed to...and things will work out. Hopefully the electric company will kick their butt in gear to help you guys out. My prayers are with you and your momma...and I cant wait for the thief to get their butt thrown in jail!

Take Care!

Wow! Bad news indeed! Hang in there, Bitter. I hope that you and your Mum make it through all of this.

Well, at least I don't have a dead bird on the skylight.

I am so thankful for my dead bird, which by the way is gone now. BOH, you have indeed had a rotten week. You are such a good daughter. I hope, if you have children, that they will learn from your example and when you are elderly they will give you the same care.

I don't have any kids so I will be the one getting beat up in the nursing home unless I croak soon. I've been having strange arm pain so I've been popping nitroglycerin a lot. I think it's just tension though what with the rigoes of the ice storm. I am hoping to die early to avoid the nursing home horrors when you don't have anyone to take care of you. My brother and I have figured out that it is a good idea to go up in the Rocky Mountains and freeze to death. After the first part, you just go to sleep. We like that idea.