Nor'easter, family tree and emergency surgery...

Sometimes hibernating in winter can lead to cabin fever, but sometimes events conspire to provide way too much excitement in breaking up the monotony...  The occasional approach of a huge snowstorm usually creates enough elation to satisfy my need for a little change in scenery.

It was fun food shopping on Sunday, getting ready for the anticipated wallop of a good old fashioned nor'easter.  The snowflakes began falling Sunday evening.  Tim left for an extra shift at work and Beverly arrived to spend the night so she could have a short commute to work in the morning.

We woke up Monday morning to about 6 inches of the white stuff - more than enough to delight me.  But it kept snowing!  We wound up with 10 inches before a lull in the storm!  Of course the schools and most other businesses remained closed so Beverly and I were faced with the challenge of shoveling our cars out and excavating a spot for Tim when he could get home.  So we bundled up and came up with a plan.  (Did I mention that I was so glad she was here!?)  We found an unoccupied visitor parking spot and started to dig.  For some strange reason I love shoveling snow - that and doing laundry are my favorite chores...  It was exhilarating and we chatted about all kinds of childhood memories, like the snow forts we used build at the end of the driveway so we could pummel our much older (21 years) and adored bachelor cousin Leo with snowballs when he arrived to visit in his Cadillac.  (He had a friend who was a dealer...)

I dug out the front of my car and then guarded the dug-out empty spot (visitor designated parking spaces are at a premium in our condo complex) while Beverly drove my Echo over to claim it.  We then worked away at what remained of snow in our parking place so that Tim could park the Tercel there whenever he got home.  (He had been at work some 17 hours by then...)  The next thing we were going to do was the spot where Beverly was parked, but we were exhausted and sore by then and she has four-wheel drive and decided it wasn't all that necessary to get hers done, even though it would turn out later that we would need her car.

When I got home and checked my email I discovered that my son had found a genealogy website where the the whole family can work privately on the family tree on-line.  Geni  Well, that completely absorbed my attention for the rest of the day...  I lost track of time, Tim got home at last and dinner was late.  And, it had started snowing again.

Tuckered out, I finally went to bed only to be awakened perhaps an hour later to learn that my daughter-in-law was being taken to the hospital by ambulance for emergency surgery on a hernia.  The roads were still in very bad shape, so Beverly drove me to the hospital in her car (after we brushed the foot of snow off of it!) and we spent the night there with Nate so he wouldn't have to wait alone while Shea was having surgery.  (Tim had to sleep after being up over 24 hours...)  It looks like Shea will be all right but she will need to stay in the hospital for several days to make sure everything is working as it should.  The hard part was enduring the uncertainty while she was in surgery.  My paternal grandmother died of a strangulated hernia, but I kept telling myself that treatment had no doubt improved since 1943.  And I kept my mouth shut, too, not mentioning this to poor Nate, who was beside himself with worry.  The surgeon finally came to speak with us at 3:15 a.m. and Nate finally got to go see her in intensive care at 4:30 a.m.  Beverly and I finally left him there and came home to sleep.

So, yesterday I slept a couple of hours and did laundry and kept a migraine at bay...  (Disturbing my sleep routine is one of my migraine triggers...)  Today I'm going to try and get up to my dad's - I'm not sure about the roads yet...  Auntie wants to get to the bank and book store!  Larisa was at Dad's for the storm and the next night, too, so hopefully John is managing with Dad all right without Beverly.  Will get there after getting Auntie settled and will swap storm stories with John I'm sure.  Will have to check in on Shea, too.  But I'm ready to go back to hibernating now!