"I Survived the Blizzard of '16"

Just like being there

Here I am, safe and sound in the north where there is no (or very little) snow. Unless you live in a cave you probably heard about the massive, historic blizzard that hit the northeast last weekend. Of course, one of the hardest places hit was Washington, DC, where I had spent the week and had hoped to depart from on the weekend.

But no. My plans for leaving Saturday, then Sunday, were scrapped by the big storm, which was actually a pretty bad one and lived up to its hype. Complicating things was the fact that the DC area (and areas east, west, north, and south) were not prepared to deal with the management and removal of upwards of 2' of snow. So, with much determination (and $100 spent paying kids to shovel me out over several occasions), I "escaped" the frozen wasteland of Northern Virginia on Monday afternoon.

Other than the exciting storm, I spent a very pleasant week with Mom Shiao. After her daily treatments and any other running around we needed to do, we settled into a comfortable routine of hanging out in our fluffy leisurewear, watched some great movies, eating some great food, and she even taught me to play scrabble (I'm not very good at picturing words in my head, that became quickly obvious). We had lots of laughs and a lot of great conversation. I was able to work from there in the afternoon so I could keep up with my email, and could run reports and respond to issues and requests back at the office. On Wednesday afternoon I had a delicious lunch with my NAGAP friend, Fran from Marymount University - it was great to see her and catch up!!

Now I'm settled back at home with Mark and Jasper, hunkering down and filling up the weeks and weekends to make the time fly by until spring. Just in case you've forgotten, Groundhog's Day is next Tuesday  - we are almost there (after what has admittedly been a very mild winter [but not for DC!!])

Six more weeks...