January 29th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Sorry I haven’t been on for a few days, my back was really hurting, so sitting at my computer was just way too painful. It might have something to do with driving almost 3K miles in 11 days. I should have gone to the chiropractor yesterday, but the thought of sitting in the car sent me waddling in the other direction. I’m still not great today, but it’s a little better, so I figured I could sit for half an hour or so and get the blog out at least.

As I’m sure y’all have heard, there’s a winter storm hitting the south. The snow and ice started yesterday and continued through the night. What we would consider a dusting up here, has crippled the south. People are running out of gas while trying to get home. One woman said her five mile commute took her three and a half hours.

Okay, I know it’s cold and snowing, but if I looked outside, saw traffic at a complete standstill, heard what the reports were saying, and I only lived five miles away, I would have walked. Sure it probably would have taken an hour or so, I would have been cold and probably a bit cranky by the time I got home, but I still think it would have been a heck of a lot better than trying to drive. It’s not like she would have been trudging through a foot of snow, there were less than 2” on the ground. I realize snow in the south is an anomaly, but it should make common sense fly out the window. The weather does have all my southern friends and family in a tizzy, so for that, I am saying prayers for them all to be safe.

I was surprised to find snow here this morning when I woke up. I didn’t think the storm was supposed to reach this far north. We only have a little over an inch, so it’s no big deal. It was surprising that they did delay schools for two hours this morning with so little snow on the ground. There isn’t even enough to plow, but I guess the trucks want to spread some salt on our mountain roads so the buses can traverse safely. In two hours, most of this will be melted off and it will be safer for all the teenage drivers too, so a delay is probably a wise choice.

It doesn’t take away any more vacation days from the kids, so it’s really not a big deal. The school board hadn’t figured a bad winter into the calendar, so they only built in one snow day this year – not the brightest decision. We’ve used several already, so we have lost Easter Monday as well as the extra days around Memorial Day weekend, and I think one other day.

Why don’t they just automatically put three days into the calendar, then if we don’t use them, add days to the Memorial Day weekend? Wouldn’t that make much more sense? And WHY would they only put ONE day in to start with? That’s just insane considering we have used several days in the past few years. Last year we used days in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, the year before it was the ice storms after tropical storm Leon (I think that’s what the name was – whatever happened three after Irene), we’ve had mechanical problems which have closed the schools, oh yeah, and actual snow.

Alright, I’m not going to bang my head against the wall. It’s obvious when anyone gets into any kind of elected office, they are required to check their common sense at the door.

Dani’s giving me the sad puppy dog eyes and asking me to make breakfast, so I need to run. I hope you all have a safe and warm day & happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Convince us something mundane or plain or not well loved is the most wonderful thing in the world. (You can pick an object, a task, a food or whatever you’d like – the possibilities are endless.)

Monday is the most glorious day of the week. It’s a fresh start, a clean slate, a new beginning. It is the only day of the week you are well rested, so you can take on all the challenges the upcoming week has to bring. Many folks are slow and groggy on Mondays, so you can use your Monday to get organized and check things off of your to do list, because others will push off meetings and projects to later in the week. On Mondays, there has been no time for stress to have built up.

Okay, I said no one was allowed to criticize, but I’m going to break my own rule – that was terrible! I should have went with my first idea which was vanilla. LOL!

Your Next Challenge is:

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.