What You Do When It’s -20 Out -- STAY IN!

Late last week I noticed that the weather forecast was predicting a massive drop in temps.  In all the years that I’ve lived in southwest Michigan, days spent below zero is rare.  We were heading into double digits.  I didn’t make any preparations for this as I figured that this would end up like our last winter storm where everyone freaked out and in the end it wasn’t a big deal.  Well… that was a mistake.

Sunday night it was clear that things were going to be ugly when St. Joe/South Bend declared an emergency and placed travel restrictions  A little later on in the night, my coworkers on facebook were spreading the news that our employer was going to be shut down.  Yay!  Snow Day!  Yeah, so that was pretty cool but when you factor in the food issue, it wasn’t so great.

This is what my fridge looked like.  I had some frozen chicken fingers  and some non-perishables but it was going to be rough meals.  By then, I was pretty much snowed in and even if I could make it to a supermarket, I’m sure it would have been picked clean.  News reports of the milk, eggs, and bread run confirmed this.  (What is it about disasters that cause people to want to make French toast?)

Kraig offered to pick me up yesterday afternoon to do a run to Meijer.  He wanted to get food too.  Technically we were in an ordinance violation by going there but Kraig justified feeding his family as an emergency.  You really can’t argue that on face value.  Really, though, the road were passable and as long as you could get out to a main road, you were fine.  Actually as you can see... it was a nice sunny day.  Bone chilling cold but sunny.

The travel restriction were due to expire on Tuesday noon, so I think that may have been a good reason why us employees were allowed another day off.  There is a warning though that we may be working extended shifts and maybe even Saturday.  Despite that, I am definitely glad to have an extended weekend off.  With the exception of the run to the store, I have been able to do nothing but sit around all day, watch some netflix, and clean just an itty bit.  What I am not looking forward to is digging out my car tomorrow morning and the possibility of it not starting. Cross your fingers.