Monday's Thought For The Day

I'll Get To Wicked...Someday

Unfortunately our adventure was short-lived and we did not make it to Cleveland. Actually, we didn't make it any farther than Huron (a small city just outside of Sandusky). We headed out in Sita and Alpa's Honda CR-V. It was handling quite well and we thought we'd head out Cleveland Rd. and pick up Rte. 2 in Huron. The conditions worsened at every second the farther west we went. We made it to Griffing Airport only to find a Ford Explorer with it's hazards on (which we almost collided with). Then we noticed a State Trooper walking toward the Explorer. After speaking to that driver he came to our car and said, "You'll have to turn around. You can't get through here. Too deep of snow and zero visibility." We turned around, made a zigzag and got on Rte. 250. Once again it wasn't too horrible. The snow was deep and you had limited visibility but it was do-able. When we got to the Rte. 2 on ramp you couldn't tell what was road or shoulder. We made it up the ramp only to find we had little to no visibility. That's when the talk of, "Should we just turn around?" started. No one wanted to make the decision. And then immediately the conditions seemed better. You could see ahead of you. The snow was blowing across the road, but it was clear. Okay, maybe this won't be so bad....then again, zero visibility. What to do? Then we started to run into seeing cars off the road. The problem was you couldn't see them until you were on top of them....not joking. We didn't know what to do. As time went on the conditions once again seemed to worsen by the moment. Semis were on the side of the road, a semi off the road into the median dip. Ugh. It was decided. We can't do this. It was already 11:30am and we had just made it to Huron. We had to turn around but didn't want to turn around and get right back on it fear of colliding with one of the semis on the side of the road. So we traveled through Huron, hopped back onto Rte. 2 after the point of where the semis had been off the road, and then reached Rte. 250. Once back in town it wasn't so bad. The conditions weren't great by any means, but much more drivable than Cleveland Road, right on the water, or the highway. Once again, it wasn't necessarily the roads that were bad. Don't get me wrong, you'd hit some bad patches of drifts, but that's something we could've dealt with. It was the white out conditions. 95% of the short trip was pure white out. Pretty scary. I took some video with the camera. As with most things, it doesn't do justice....and anytime there was something worth "catching" I'd miss it. Even so, I thought I'd share it with you....

The Show Must Go On

Sita has made contact with the Playhouse and they say, "The show is on." So what does that mean for us? Either brave the elements or lose the money. Our choice is to brave the elements, pray we don't get in an accident or stuck in the snow, and hopefully enjoy Wicked, which we have patiently waited for. I've wanted to see this ever since I saw the "One short day in the Emerald City..." during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few years back. Last year Mom and Cassie made it down to Columbus to see the production but I was financially unable to attend. So as you can see I'm quite determined to see Wicked dang it. As for our 7pm reservations at Maggiano's? We'll have to see. I have a feeling those will definitely be nixed, but that's okay. I'm sure this will be an adventure. You can bet I'm taking the camera. Lord, grant us traveling mercies.

Inspiring

If he can do it. I can do it.

Will The Wicked Weather Keep Us From Wicked?

More wicked weather is on the way. It looks like we'll be getting around 12 inches of snow in the coming 24 hours. Great. More snow. Unfortunately we have tickets for "Wicked" for the Saturday matinee in Cleveland. We're keeping our fingers crossed but in viewing the forecast it's not looking too promising. Surprisingly the forecast is calling for worse snow over here yonder when it's usually farther east in the snowbelt...Cleveland area. It has something to do with low pressure something or other that will supposedly make us get the brunt of it. We've been looking forward to this for some time and I pray that we don't miss out on this opportunity. I'll be pretty bummed. At the same time we have to be logical and don't want to kill ourselves over going to a musical. Only time will tell.

Unexpected Time Off

Boy, this weather is throwing us for a loop, especially at work. Not only has it been hard to get into work but when we are open it's been dead this week. As always, feast or famine. Obviously this week it's famine. We were dead on Monday so I volunteered to leave a couple hours early, having had such a rough weekend. When Tuesday came along the freezing rain/sleet, along with no one coming in, made us close an hour early. Then on Wednesday the ice/snow made it impossible for half of the staff to come in. It also meant having only 3 appointments during practice hours. As for today, we had a dead morning with a steady evening. I'm not scheduled to work until 12 noon tomorrow but at this point it's not worth me going in with only having two non-doctor appointments scheduled. And considering the weather is supposed to get pretty severe tomorrow more than likely those will be canceled anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'd go in just to go in, but the owner's don't really want to pay all of us just to sit there. If we can find something to do then they have no problem with it. But considering the circumstances throughout the entire week, I've cleaned almost everything possible in the clinic. I did my usual weekly cleaning tasks along with scrubbing the autoclave, taking apart the x-ray machine and cleaning it, scrubbing walls, scrubbing floors...the list goes on and on. I can only BS the cleaning for so long. And unfortunately I wouldn't be able to BS my way through 6 hours tomorrow. Bummer. So basically it comes down to us girls trying to space our hours out evenly throughout this week so no one is totally screwed. Thankfully I still have a decent amount of sick time to use if need be. More than likely I'll save it for the future or just use a couple hours for this paycheck, nothing that will wipe me out. Looking ahead at next week the schedule looks much more full. Why can't we just have a happy medium? I'm either bored out of my mind or running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

Ice Ice Baby

Man oh man. Remember those nice temperatures we in Ohio were having on Monday? High 50's...nice. Come Monday night into Tuesday we saw an incredible drop in temperature. Not only that but the atmosphere was totally confused calling for some crazy weather. On Monday evening it started raining and then come yesterday mid afternoon it started back up again. However, it was much colder and the wind was gusting like crazy. That made for some slippery surfaces. As I stated, the atmosphere was confused with the weather so it wasn't sure weather it should rain, sleet, or snow. By 5pm the freezing rain started and they started to send us home from work. I had just been in my car 2 hours prior but when I went out to my car the right side, along with my front windshield, had a nice 1/2 inch of shiny glazed ice. Nice. Chop chop chop away. Add onto that the high windows and the sleet pelting my face. It made for a good time. I made it home safely only to find David attempting to leave for school. I had called him to notify him school was cancelled but he hadn't checked his phone. I blocked him in, making sure he wouldn't leave. He obviously hadn't heard so he was slightly frustrated that he spent all that time clearing his car of the ice glaze. It was amazing how fast the ice formed on our cars. But given the elements, it was no surprise. The garage door was iced over but at that point I could still open it. The front of the house was a total sheet of ice. Everything covered in ice. I think it's the first time I've ever seen anything like it. We hunkered down in hopes that we'd keep power throughout the night....with the high winds and amount of ice, we didn't know. We did keep power however, something even weirder, throughout this whole thing we even had thunder and lightning. It was one of those things where you say to yourself, "Was that thunder??" because it wasn't expected. Weird but cool at the same time.

Thankfully I have this morning off but David wasn't so lucky. He went outside to chop at the ice and after and hour and a half he had his truck cleared along with the sidewalks and driveway. He's a maniac. It looks like all the schools are closed and according to mom we're under a Level 3 state. I guess my dad made it to work (after chopping for an hour himself) only to find the parking lot not plowed and everything in a total mess. He said, "It's not worth it," and headed home. David left over an hour ago. I'm waiting to hear from him to see how things are going. He figured if he was able to get out of the driveway he might as well go to work and get paid. I just got off the phone with my coworker who is working reception this morning. She made it in but only after chopping 2 inches of ice off her tires and having her neighbor push her out of the driveway. According to her the roads aren't all that bad as long as you take it super slow. She hasn't heard from the office manager. I'm to go in at noon. Only time will tell.

Ohio's Turn

It's Ohio turn to get out and vote! We made sure to get up extra early to make it to the polls first thing. Happy voting!

Onto The Next Week

I've made it an entire week without running. Whew. The best thing? I didn't feel all that guilty about it. Double whew. Now, I just got to make sure I keep some sort of fire under my butt to keep me moving. I can't get into a slump now. I woke up this morning to find that it's already 50 degrees outside. Sweet. I think to myself, "I'll be able to get out for a run." Then I check weather.com. "Winter Weather Watch...." What?! You've got to be kidding me. Sure as day, it's right there at the top of the screen. Looks like we'll have rain this evening and the temperatures going to drop making it freezing rain throughout the night and tomorrow, all the way until Wednesday. No!!!! Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to fit a quick run in after work tonight, if it's not raining by 7pm. I don't want a long run. Just something to get up and moving and see if the knee is any better. Cross your fingers.

My work weekend ended up being a long weekend. I worked an hour over on Saturday due to 2 sick cases. I left knowing that I could be called in with the possibility of performing an emergency surgery on one of the sick animals, depending on what the owners chose. I ran home, changed, and David and I got something quick to eat and bummed around the area. All while I had my change of clothes in the car just in case. Over an hour later I got a call from Doc saying the owner's opted for euthanasia and not surgery. Okay. No big deal. That's fine and I agree with Doc and the owners...it was the best choice as there was a 99.9% chance the pet would pass while under anesthesia and there was a very high chance of mortality even after the surgery would be performed. So in other words, I was "off the hook." We continued to get things done that we needed then around 5pm I received a phone call. It was Doc, "We have someone else that needs emergency surgery. Can you help?" Sure I can. Thankfully I still had the clothes in the car and we were already out near work. We zoomed over there and I waited for everyone to arrive. Come to find out a previous surgery from the week had been too rowdy and messing with her spay incision, that it had opened. We're not talking just a small hole, we're talking instestines falling out....the dog is open. Yikes. Thankfully they caught it fast enough and everything was salvagable. They had made it up to the emergency clinic only to find they couldn't afford the prices so they went through the phone book calling searching for Doc by his last name. They called everyone on the list and finally found him. So that's how all of this came about. We were in surgery for about an hour and when I left everything was A okay. Whew. A long day. Atleast I'm getting paid for it. But at 54 hours of work last week tires you out pretty fast.

On Sunday we decided to look for cruise clothes for me. Bad idea. Most of you know shopping for clothes isn't easy for me. Let me shop for anyone else but me and I'm happy. As soon as you enter shopping for me into the picture it's not too pretty. Well, Elder Beerman had a huge sale on dresses so it was pertinent that I look. Not only is shopping in general a pain for me but shopping for dress clothes is even worse. Remember, my wardrobe consists of scrubs, jeans, t-shirts, and running stuff. A month ago I went through all of my clothes, getting rid of all of my dressy stuff. Not only was I not using it but it didn't fit. I go through these phases where I need the dressup clothes (truly, I need them, it's not a want of mine) so I go get some. The phase ends, my body loses or gains weight, and when the next phase of needing to dress up arises I have to go buy more clothes. It's a vicious cycle. So when I was throwing out all of my dressy clothes a month ago I vowed to myself, "never again will I do this." And what am I doing now, but looking for freakin' dress clothes! So not only was I not wanting to shop for myself but I was also messing with my psyche knowing I'm back in the cycle. Son of a..... Frustration. Thankfully I kept my dress pants but they are still slightly big at this point and the length, well, that's always a problem. I can't use petites because they're too short, yet regulars are too long. In order for them to work I need extra high heels. As stated they're a little large around the waist but I'm sure they'll do as the shoes I'm wearing work with the length. So in the end I think I got it all worked out.

I'm sure most of you are thinking, "Why are you worried about this? You're not going until September?" True. True. But you know what? I want to get it out of the way. One more thing off the list. There are so many things on the to-do list for this trip that it's crazy. So if I have the chance to mark something off, I got to do it. In addition, you know I don't want to pay full price for anything, so I have to catch the sales when I can.

So it wasn't really all that relaxing of a weekend I must say. Ah well. Onto the next week, tired self and all. On a positive note, I've been able to read most of my book I told you about. I really like it and it's a real easy and fast read. Good to go. Have a great Monday everyone!

Monday's Thought For The Day