Winter Ice Storm 2009

Hughart & Beard Funeral Home Back Drive

Snap, crackle and pop all night long! We had warning that this was coming and I think everyone was pretty much prepared for this, or at least as much as they COULD be. Of course, the electricity has been out at my home for a LONG time. Judging by the warmth of the V-8 juice in the refrigerator, it must have been out most of the night.

We do have power at the funeral home today, so Frank came and picked me up on his way in this morning. Yummy, it feels great in here!

We have one funeral scheduled for tomorrow, but the family still hasn't decided when or if to postpone it. We will absolutely go right ahead if that's what they want to do. We'll just wait and see.

I checked on my neighbors before I left today as my whole neighborhood is without power. Betty is not well and Charlie says they are staying in bed to keep warm. I tried to get him to bring her to my house as I DO have gas logs in my fireplace and they could at least keep warm. My best friend Gwen lives on the other side and she says she WILL go over and get warm. Thank goodness.

Speaking of goodness, my mother lives in the Chapel House senior apartments here in Hopkinsville. When they were without power yesterday morning for a few hours, a local convenience store "The Dodge Store" took hot saugsage biscuits there for all the residents! Three cheers for the owners of The Dodge Store. I need to find out today who that is so that I can express my gratitude. Thank God there are still wonderful folks out there!

Getting paid for blogging is not in my job description so I will buzz off until later.

Keep Warm wherever you are!

pf

Shopping for the Storm

Ground Beef Case at Food Lion

Why is it that at the first forecast of poor weather, we folks in Kentucky race out to the gas station and to the grocery for fear of running out of gas or starvation, whichever comes first?

So, it was an atypical day to start with. I was on call and of course, had to get up yesterday and make a removal at 4:00 a.m. so the day was going to be LONG! No problem. I wasn't a crazy lady who races around "stocking up" on things I didn't need anyway. I went back home, had a shower and was back at work by 9:00 a.m.

It WAS a long day with two visitations starting at 4 p.m. and not ending until 8:00.

Banana Display at Food Lion

Now comes the kicker. I'm laughing out loud at all these folks for running to the store when my 79-year old MOTHER calls to give me her "must-have" grocery list.

1. Milk
2. Bread
3. Bananas
4. Small Beef Roast
5. Head of Cabbage

NOW I know why most of those folks are there! They are SENT. I love it.

Will post pictures of our little ice storm later.

Sliding off into the sunset,

pf

Christmas in January

Christmas, Christmas, will it ever go away? My best friend and next door neighbor Gwen and I found ourselves (as everyone else does) busy, busy, busy all through December and somehow we just never exchanged gifts with EACH OTHER. Tonight was the night. Wow, as much as we had put it off, it was truly great fun.

She came over for a while and ended up staying for "girl talk" and gifts until 10:30 p.m. I think she really liked all her stuff and I KNOW I did. She is just always so extravagant, even though she is a single lady with a son who just graduated from Murray State University in December and is ABOUT to start another 4 years in Dental School. I just happened to be the lucky recipient of a very cool wine bottle opener that I will someday figure out how to use, a meat platter and matching bowl that look just like the rest of my kitchen. I have a picture of the bowl on here.

Today was my day off and I did get everything accomplished that I set out to do except laundry, as usual. Mother and I both got much-needed pedicures and I also had my fingernails done. Then we set out for Wal-Mart and that excruciating couple of hours.

We tarried so long there we almost didn't get frozen foods to their respective freezers before it was time for her Dr.'s appointment. Whew! We barely made it.

Isn't it something how I always seem to work harder when I am NOT working than I do when I am there? shh, let's don't let that little secret out!

Now all the Christmas decorations are at least in the garage and all the gifts are out of the house. Well, except for the new ones I have already bought for NEXT Christmas that are stored in the "Christmas" closet. And yes, Gwen already has a gift in there.

Merry Christmas!

pf

Gran Torino Movie Night

After working only 6 hours today, I snuck off at 2:00 this afternoon and drove to Clarksville to see the movie everybody is raving about so much. By myself I did go. Believe it or not, I was the ONLY person in the whole place. LOVED IT! This was probably one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time and I may even go see it again even though I know now how it ends.

I can say very little about the movie itself so as not to give away the ending but to say Clint Eastwood is looking VERY old. There is a LOT of rough language in this movie, so if that bothers you very much, you may not like this. No sex, just lots of language that might make some folks uncomfortable.

That's just about all I can say for fear of ruining it for people so I will move on.

Had Nutrisystem diet oatmeal for breakfast, no lunch and pictured above was dinner for tonight. Doesn't look too bad on the package, but don't let the picture fool you. I am still trying not to gag 2 hours after the fact. Of course, I have lost 13 pounds so far, so I must just like to whine. I'm eating real food on Friday this week. Thinking German.

This is my weekend to work so I will be off tomorrow and have much to do. Mother wants me to take her to the mall and have her nails done. Mine wouldn't hurt, either. I need to go to the dreaded Wal-Mart. I usually go once every 2 or 3 months whether I need to or not, lol.

Then Mom has a Doctor's appointment at 2:00 p.m. and if I make it through all that, I will need to come home and work on laundry and February bills.

My best friend Gwen is coming over tomorrow night so we can finally exchange Christmas gifts. We have just been so busy with life that we save us till last. It would be nice to have all the tell-tale signs of Christmas out of the house. Of course, the garage looks like a piled-up Christmas wonderland of some sort, but hey, the car still fits.

Think I will go to bed and read more Sue Grafton. She tires me sometimes, but at least her books are quick reads and I enjoy them occasionally as a diversion from serious reading.

Sleep well!

pf

January Bunco Night

Mom and Gwen

We all had a great time at Bunco tonight! Marla won first prize, Mom second and my friend Gwen third. Gail had bought the prizes for December but since we didn't meet in December due to inclement weather, we just carried those gifts over to this month.

Brenda

For those of you not familiar with Bunco, the main reason for this little activity is surely the food with the fun and fellowship close behind. Brenda hosted this time and had Papa Murphy's pizza for us. It's a different kind of pizza place where they put it together, then you bring it home and cook it in YOUR oven. Of course, I'm still on this stupid diet so I didn't even get a bite of it. She made a Winter Warm Lemon Cake for dessert and it looked really scrumptious!

Sharon

This is Sharon getting "ready to roll". Of course she had to win the booby prize for winning the fewest games, but that's always a nice gift, too. It's all about the fun anyway!

Frank

And last but never least, Frank doing what Frank does best! Eating. Of course, we had to have ONE man in the mix. He always makes it such a good time for everybody. Can't tell he likes pizza, either.

This historic day's post would not be complete without at least mentioning the inauguration of our nation's President today. Since I'm a pretty staunch Republican, all I can say is I sure am missing a lot of balls tonight! All jokes aside, I was able to watch much of it today with streaming video on the computer at work. It was such an event and I pray for our country and ALL it's leaders.

Warming Up One Way or Another

A Must-Have for Monday

We had some snow on the ground this morning when I left home for work. It's 1:30 p.m. now and all gone, but the cold winter wind is still howling. I can feel it through these thick walls and every time the door opens it pushes its' way indoors.

BUT I have a trusty friend, my space heater. I usually keep it under my desk, but that baby is OUT today and running at full force. Its' purpose is actually two-fold; in addition to keeping me from freezing to death, it keeps all the other employees outta here (they can't stand the heat). And you all are familiar with the old adage, "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". Same thing applies here. I love it, I declare I do.

Did you ever hear of "diet" oatmeal? That's all I've had to eat today and let me tell ya, it's just as bad as it sounds. Nutri System makes diet oatmeal. What'll they think of next...

We have a visitation tonight and I think it will be a rather large one. I think I'll leave early, lol. Lots of part-time help in here and this is not a family I personally served.

Disregard all these weird colors and changes to the blog, I am trying to teach myself how to do this and I have no idea what I'm doing. You see, I thought html was some sort of weird acronym for "hotmail" and I am trying to piece this all together. I think I DID get a player on here of some sort. ta-da!

Humming along here until next time,

pf

A Day of Rest?

DINNER

Sleeping in today was such treat! I didn't wake up until 7 and had 3 whole hours until time to scoot. I took Mom to church but that is not as simple as driving down the street. Our church, where she has been a member for many years, is 30-40 minutes away from here (if I hurry).

She had made a cake for the planned potluck afterwards. Seems the custodian of the church was retiring after 16 years of scrubbing the place down twice a week and we Baptists look for ANY excuse to eat. This was as good as any.

I had a Nutri-System breakfast for my lunch and my dinner is so fabulous I took a picture of it, lol. I am really getting tired of this, but if I want to wear normal clothes, I guess I need to LOOK normal. There's still about 4 inches of air between the closure on most of my skirts. Hey, it was about 6!

I got home about 2 this afternoon and took a well-deserved NAP! Eat your hearts out, all you mommies with little ones. Your time will come. It's an ugly trade-off, though. There's nobody here for hugs and snuggles, either. Sigh.

Laundry is running and dishes are dirty so I won't tarry long here as tomorrow is another work day. Funeral homes don't take holidays so off I will go.

I've been thinking a little about "Sully" Sullenberger and that miraculous non-crash landing of his. God was certainly the co-pilot that day. It is just phenomenal that each and every one of those folks made it to safety with no serious injuries. A baby was even on that flight! The water was frigid and the heroics of so many people were involved. Quick thinking and the unselfish behavior of those rescuers makes me proud to be an American. Three cheers to the Captain and crew!

Thinking warm thoughts,

pf