The Dusting of 2014

Well, it has been a very cold, very tiring week. I live in Birmingham, AL. If you've seen the news and the weather down here, you should know it's been horrible. I work for a hospital (although I am not in the medical field, it's a long story), and I got stuck here Tuseday night. Now, I am very thankful that I was able to stay at the hospital, where I had food and a cot to sleep on, and that my husband was with me (he works for a company that is contracted by the hosptial, so he was able to make it here). However, my 14-month-old son was at daycare near our home, about 45 mins away. We tried, but we could not make it to him. I know there were many, many parents in our situation, wanting to get to their children but not being able to, and that is a horrible feeling, a feeling of helplessness. I hated it, I barely got any sleep worrying about him. I must say, our son is a trooper, he really is a wonderful baby and rolls with the punches. He had a wonderful time, even got to bed on time and slept all night. I don't think he even realized what was happening. We are so blessed with him, he is such a good little boy. 

Anyways, we didn't make it home until late Wednesday after making it to daycare to pick him up. After such a tiring day, we stayed home yesterday, just playing and relaxing as a family, and it was wonderful. I did manage to cut out a few more blocks yesterday for my samplers, and I hope to sew them up tonight. I also worked on the starburst quilt, but that quickly became a horrible mess, which I will write about in a later post. I think I am changing direction on that one. 

Here is a picture when the snow was just beginning: 

And here is the next street over, about 30 minutes later: 

The roads were completely snowed over at this point, and were quickly turning into sheets of ice. It was a night mare. My husband and I tried to leave to get to our son, but after 4 1/2 hours in traffic and only making it about 3 blocks, we turned around and went back to the hosptial to stay it out. That was the hardest decision we've ever made, but we knew we couldn't stay the night in our car on the side of the road. 

This is the new baseball field about three blocks from where I worked. That truck on the right had just went sideways as he was turning through the intersection and almost hit a car coming the other way. 

All in all, we got through it, and I think the entire region learned some hard lessions. But we are southerners, and we keep going. Soon the city will thaw out, and we'll be fine.