What's the White Stuff?

 I do not want to ignore the fact that many have endured hardship through the recent winter weather. I have cousins in Texas who have been without power through the cold for several days. Ben and his housemates had no power for almost a day, however, they have a wood stove in their kitchen and so, could gather in one room to stay warm and even cook some food. Ben was in last weekend for Nate's birthday and I sent him back in my truck with a load of firewood so I think between that and what they already had on hand they are in good shape.

Last weekend was supposed to be a four day weekend for DA students due to parent/teacher conferences on Friday and the President's Day holiday on Monday. Then our administration gave holidays to the seniors Wednesday and Thursday of last week as a consolation for the traditional senior trip that they can't go on because of the pandemic. About that time the winter weather started rolling in and icy conditions shut schools down all across Middle Tennessee and beyond beginning last Thursday. And since our administration didn't say to shift to our distance learning mode we've all enjoyed seven good old-fashioned snow days.

Fortunately for us the first wave packed very little freezing rain or we might have lost power. It was mostly sleet and a dry, powdery snow. It didn't fall all at once, but sputtered to the ground for more than a day. We got out Tuesday and went sledding on what little hill there is that is walking distance from the house. I should pause and say that "we" includes Nolan as he came on Sunday for Nate's birthday dinner with the plan to get snowed in with us. Vicki went back to work on Wednesday, but a second wave of snow came through and refreshed the winter wonderland scene. This snow was wetter and better for snowballs and snowmen. We went up to Kilgore Park Thursday and went sledding on the hill there.

Classes were canceled for me and Nate, but Jenna and Nolan weren't so lucky. Jenna's classes have shifted online due to the weather and Nolan has been doing online only due to the pandemic anyway, so they are just finding a quiet space and doing class when they need to. We are also playing some games and watching some movies, but a big project right now is picture organization.

Vicki and I had said to ourselves that 2021 will be the year we make a serious dent in organizing our pictures, at least the pre-digital ones. We have thousands. Then you add all that Mom had into the mix and we have a truly daunting task in front of us. So last weekend I pulled out all the boxes that have pictures, hoping I got at least 90% of them. All of Mom's slides were put in one place and set aside to deal with later. It has been pretty easy to take our snapshots and put them in a large group to organize later. What has been immediately interesting to me has been Mom's pictures. Except for looking at them briefly a couple of years ago when we cleaned out her house, I really haven't seen pictures from my childhood since they were developed. Mom had such limited storage space that they were basically inaccessible once she found a hole to stick them in. What's worse is that a batch of pictures of me as a four year old are next to a batch of pictures from my high school days, so I'm just trying to get these in some sort of chronological order as a starting point to make sense out of what I have. Fortunately I've had this stretch of days to start this project so that I could organize things into manageable chunks to tackle on a given evening when life returns to normal.

Having alluded to Nate's birthday twice now, he turned 18 on Sunday. So hard to believe. We celebrated with dinner after church so Ben could beat the weather driving back to Cookeville. Vicki made chicken fajitas with all the trimmings. For dessert she made strawberry cake from Pauline's recipe which is one of Nate's favorites. Nate got a weighted blanket and light saber chopsticks (that actually light up) among his birthday presents; all in all a good birthday for our new adult in the house.

So now the snow is beginning to melt and the magical landscape is disappearing. Jenna and Nolan build a snowman on the north side of the big boxwood bush. Given the temperature has risen above freezing and will hit the 60s the next few days we are taking bets on the poor guy’s longevity. Life will resume its normal pace tomorrow and next thing you know it'll be spring break and then Nate's last nine week term of high school. Not meaning to wish hardship on others, but it has been very nice to have the weather force us to stop life and stay home without distance learning classes this time.

Joe