Kini's Place

So, Alex had her last set of basketball games yesterday which is approximately 30 minutes from our house.

Afterwards, was the team party at one of the coach’s home. Now we were approximately 15 minutes from our house.

Everything was great…except the cold, you know. Something around 1 degree (F) with a wind chill of NEGATIVE 30 (F). Did I mention it was COLD?

Coming home SUCKED though… first we went up the paved road…

The County Sheriff and fire dept had it closed at a critical point (for us) due to a GIANT fire (six fire trucks, paramedics, sheriff…not to mention the four or five fire trucks barreling past us… I think to get more water?) So they have the traffic detour onto some dinky little road. The problem was that we couldn’t get through because of the dinky cars stuck in the drifts.

SO, we turn around and go back to the road I usually take and headed west. We headed north on the first road., but the 3-4 foot drifts and cars stuck in it in the middle of the road had us turning around (again).

We turn around…

The next road (which I usually take coming home this way)… same thing.

We turn around…

The next road (which is just west of our house now)… same thing (an idiot in a small mercedes tried to get through the 3 foot drift… you know, the top of the snow was about where the woman’s head was while in the car!!! fricking moron)…

We turn around…

At this time, I’m hearing a lot of I have to go to the bathroom complaints…

I head all the way west to the main(ish) paved road. This was worse, cars everywhere, as it is an open road with empty farm fields along much of it. The drifting snow is always a problem which was why I avoided it all day.

Turn back around…

I head back east to the one road I skipped. Guess what?

It was perfectly clear…no drifts! Normally, I take this road if I am driving Alex to school in the morning.

We finally arrive home… it took over an hour to get home going a distance that normally takes us about 15 minutes.

And, from the wind, and that we have an OLD OLD OLD house… it’s freezing in here… 49 in the kitchen… 59 in the middle room … the furnace is running (set to 59), stove almost out of corn…another five minutes and it would have been. Not a clue what it is upstairs…. our normally 95 degree heat room (with the stove) was only 64! Stupid windy, cold weather.

Hope everyone stayed warm and didn’t go out and get stuck somewhere last night! Ray said there were cars abandoned in the drifts in the middle of roads when he came home from work. Great.

Later on today, I drove past the place where the fire was. There were a few upright sticks left and a foundation. Two burned out vehicles in what I assume was a garage. The foundation remains of a barn. A few days before Christmas, in the freezing cold, a family is now homeless. It makes us very sad.