It is one of those nights...

The clock says it is 2:30 AM and I am wide awake.  I have no earthly idea why.  

I know that I have heard that as one ages that sometimes sleep is difficult.  I never figured it would happen to me.  As a teenager, I could go to sleep at 10:00 PM and sleep until noon the next day.  What happened in between is life.

I started having trouble falling to sleep when Rudy became ill.  He was always able to fall asleep.  I envied him that ability.  But after he became ill, I found myself listening to him breathe.  And it made me sad and angry.  So I would get up, go into the living room and watch TV until I could not stay awake any longer.

These days, there are some nights that I just cannot sleep.  Some time it is several days in a row.  But of late, I have been sleeping pretty well.

But not tonight.  I have had several busy days so one would think I would be ready to sleep.

But not tonight.

Maybe tomorrow!

A LOT of Snow!!!!!!

I survived Jonas.

That is saying a lot.  This storm caused death and destruction all over the east coast.  The deaths were from over-exertion when shoveling or sitting in vehicles with exhaust pipes covered with snow or just plain exposure to the elements.  Roofs have begun to collapse from the weight of the snow and along the shore of Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland, dunes are gone, streets and homes were flooded and boardwalks damaged or destroyed.  Jonas was a really, bad storm.

I know that around here, there were still people who were not able to leave their houses as they were snowed in and awaiting the proper equipment to get their driveways and lanes cleared of the snow.  Lots and lots and lots of snow.

On Monday, Danny Lantz, my BFF Marji's husband, drove up from Maryland with his snow blower and used it to digg into the snow in my back yard so the dogs could get out into a grassy area to pee and poop.  Until then they been using the porch.  He also used my truck to plow some of the snow and a shovel to get into tighter spots.  I spent the time he was here, removing snow from the deck so it would not freeze into a layer of ice, making my trip to the driveway dangerous.  He also helped me figure out a temporary stand for my mailbox so I could continue to receive mail.  As a result, I can move my van, get into the garage and, if needed, drive my Elantra.  Back among the living.

So my Maryland angel headed home and I spent the afternoon with my dogs.  They were not happy about my tension regarding what I had to do in this storm.  In doing that, I realized that I could see some of the plowed snow from my recliner.  I thought at first that I may not have pushed the first plowing far enough out into the yard.  But I soon realized, it was just a great deal of snow that had come down all at one.  Many people in the area were getting front end loader-type of equipment to pickup and move the snow.  I began to think that I might really need to look into to getting that done.

My neighbor to the north had such a machine.  I had really never met them.  He runs a business and I had met his wife once or twice, but we do not live in a normal neighborhood, we live in a rural area with very little interaction.  But, I decided to find a phone number and give them a call.  Marji has always told me that " the answer is always 'no' until you ask the question".

The man's name is John Russell.  I called the business number and got the answering machine.  Left a message.  The message gave me a cell number, so after a time, I called that number.  Also left a message... but more detailed, about what I wanted.  In about an hour he called me back.  He was in New Jersey helping with some of the damage there, but would happily come over and move some snow either in the afternoon or Wednesday morning.  No charge....!  Have I found another angel, living right next door??

I know that my neighbor to the south (Patty) has had run ins with Mr. Russell.  They hare a property line back in the woods and he has, according to Patty, knocked down fences to blow leaves from his land.  He also is suing the back acreage for shooting.  She does not like that at all.  I know that when he was teaching his boys to shoot golf balls, Rudy would find golf balls in our yard, so I am not sure how much regard he has for other's property.  But yesterday, he was a perfect gentleman.

He appeared earlier than I expected and I went out to introduce myself and meet him.  He was very nice and, very kind and when we were finished chatting briefly about the snow he remarked that if I ever needed anything, I should just feel free to call on him.  I told him that I wanted the snow moved so that I had easier access to the road without having my vision blocked.  I also wanted better access to the front of the house from the road.  I am not sure I communicated it all that well, but I do have better access to the front part of my driveway.  But I am still not sure where I will be plowing snow if we get another storm.  Hopefully we will have tiny storms from here on out.

I took pictures this morning.  It was fairly warm yesterday, so the volume of the untouched snow has already shrunk nicely.  The plowed stuff is going to take much, much longer.

This is the area that Danny snow plowed yesterday.  Winston is very happy to have a place to pee.  Miles is light enough and limber enough to jump on top of the snow.  If you see the little dark area on top of the drifts, Miles little, muddy feet walk out to the edge where he watches his world, sometimes sitting his little furry butt in the snow and just watching.

This is the snow pile next to the garage.  This is pretty close to the amount of snow I plowed all last year.  The pile goes several feet behind the edge of the garage.  It was a big storm!

This is looking south on Route 10.  Mr. Russell removed a huge mound of snow.  He even moved snow along the road so when the state plows come by to neaten up the road, they would not plow more into my area.

This is the big pile.If you look carefully, you will notice that the top of this snow pile is even with the roof line of my house.  It covers the end of the north driveway, across the outer edge of the turn around area and out to the street.  It is a lot.... a great deal.... a whole bunch of snow!!

And last, but not least, here is my poor, makeshift mailbox holder.  I only broke the post and put a couple of scratches on the truck  (sorry Rudy) but the mailbox survived.  So, once things melt and I can figure out what I need to do, I will get help and replace it.  For now, the mail lady is leaving mail and that is all that matters.

Weird Dream

I dream at night.  Not every night, but most.  Usually I wake up and know that I have been dreaming, but as soon as my conscious brain begins working, I forget the substance of the dreams.

But sometimes, I get into what I term my weird dream cycle and it makes life really interesting.  These dreams are very vivid and real.  Sometimes they make sense, but most of the time they do not.  They are very detailed, down to the tiniest things.  In the dream, I can usually figure out it is a dream in the dream.  But most of the time they are just very vivid dreams that feel very, very real at the time.

Perhaps the stresses of this storm have triggered this cycle.  But the last three nights,I have had some of my weird dreams.  But the last one, this morning, after I had already gotten up to let the dogs out and then went back to sleep was beyond strange.

I was in a huge complex.  It started out like a 50+ complex.  There were older people, like me, living in apartments.  It was on the water, like an ocean.  Sounds wonderful, right?  The people were herded to meals and then to activities.  In all of this, I had an amazing little dog that followed me everywhere.  Soon the building began morphing into, not only the home for older people, but a major shopping mall with lots of shops and restaurants with elevators and escalators that connected many, many floors and filled with people, in addition to the residents.

I was trying to get out with my little dog.  So we were walking and riding the many different forms of moving.  There was even a train, like a subway.  I got into an elevator, but it did not run up and down.  It ran sideways and around corners and over to an area that could only be accessed by that elevator thingy. When I got out, my dog was gone.  As it pulled away, someone suggested that the dog had gotten under the floor panels.

From that point, I was frantically trying to get my dog back and could not find the elevator I needed. I seemed to have magically moved to an area far away from where I had lost the dog.  I could see where I wanted to go, but could not get there.  I kept running into other, tiny dogs that were wandering all around, but none were mine.  And all I could think of was my dog, stuck under the floor in a moving room and no one knew he was there.  And no one seemed to care and no one wanted to help.

I woke up, almost in tears and all I wanted to do was hug my dogs.  Not the best way to start my day!

Jonas Update

Well, when all was said and done, we here in Chester County were measuring more in feet than inches.  While the official measurement in Philadelphia was 22.4 inches, out here in Highland Township was closer to 36 inches... Or three feet... Or, to those of us who sew, a tard.

I went to bed Friday night with snow coming down but not enough to even think about plowing.  I slept really well as we were only expecting 18 to 24 inches over the entire course of the storm.  I got up at 8:30 AM and the snow, along with the wind had snow almost up to the top of the plow.  At the same time, I got a text message from my weather guys letting me know that a coastal low had joined the storm and that the worst was yet to come.  So I dressed and headed out to plow.

It took a couple of tries to push through the snow, getting stuck once or twice.  Had I waited any longer, I might not have gotten it done.  The initial plowing took about two hours which included shoveling to the truck and cleaning off the windshield..

4:00 PM saw me going out again.  Wind is howeling and snow blowing making it hard to see.  Lots of snow to plow and it was much colder.  I was hurrying to get done...I did not like the blowing snow.  But when you hurry, you make mistakes and I managed to push down my mailbox.  Rudy had warned me about that.  But haste makes waste.  I was upset and really felt frustrated, alone and abandoned.  These are normal feelings from widows after a nice, long marriage.  But the mood happens and I even had dreams that I attribute to the snow and killing the mailbox.

This morning the snow had finally stopped, the sun was out and the skies were blue.  Still a good amount of snow to plow.  So I finally went out and began the big plow for the day.  The snow had blown from the field across the street. I figured after killing the mailbox from the day before, I would have no issues, but I was wrong.  The snow was relatively light, so on one run, I buried the plow blade into a pile, trapping it and creating a snow bank behind the plow.  The truck was NOT moving.  So down to the house for the shovel and I had to shovel the plow out until the truck could pull it out of the bank.

Into the house for lunch.  I called one of my go-to church people to see if I could get help getting the van free.  What I found was that there were many people who were still snowed in because of equipment failures.  

Winter Storm Jonas

I have no idea when they started naming winter storms.  It has not Ben all that long.  But here I am, snuggled up in bed and not hearing a sound outside.  Snow is falling from Winter Storm Jonas but so far, it is a salient storm.  I am sure by morning, it will be louder as the wind is supposed to get up to blizzard rates, causing what snow has fallen or is falling, to drift and blow.

I am as ready as I can be with this storm.  I have known something was in the works for close to a week.  The Eastern PA Weather Authority keeps me updated with timely text messages.  The last one, just 49 minutes ago, revised the snow totals expected by the end of the storm to trail off to 18" to 24". Thank goodness for my plow.  The majority of the snow will be falling tomorrow, so if I go out in the truck and plow several times during the day, I would imagine I will be Abe to plow off whatever Jonas will throw at me.  If not, I will call some of my friends to come and plow or shovel and I will be fine.

I took some time this week to put some of that shrinks film stuff on five of my windows.  The three windows in the Living Room/Dining Room and the two windows in my bedroom.  Usually winds come at.the front of the house and with this house being close to 100 years old, even with replacement windows that Rudy put in sometime in the late 80's or early 90's, with strong, cold winds, the breeze comes right into the rooms.  I thought the plastic might help.  However, I noticed when I stuck the dogs out for their final evening potty break, that the breeze was starting to come at the back of the house.  Figures, I would do the rooms in the front.

I have the generator ready and food for me and the dogs.  I have sewing projects ready to go.  All of my jobs are finished so I can spend lots of time in the basement sewing and creating.

So I am hunkere down and ready for Jonas.  Not happy about it.  I really do not like snow.  But moving to Florida is not in the cards.  Besides, a tornado just roared through Cape Coral, which is where I had thought I might go.  I guess there are not so nice things in al areas.

To friends and family who are battling Jonas with me, stay warm and safe.  In no time, it will be spring and I will be on my way to Fancy Gap!