Empty Nest--- A Trial Run

As mentioned many times before, Michael is rarely home. He's as good as gone. Abby will be leaving tomorrow afternoon for her winter ski retreat with the church youth group. Tami and I will be giving the empty nest a trial run for the weekend. We will begin by spending a whole day with our #1 granddaughter. We are really looking forward to that.

And then there were three...

I've spent some time on this blog talking about Tami and I being in the pre-stages of the empty nest. Tonight at dinner it began to hit home. Dinner used to be a noisy affair. Mom, Dad and three kids. It was a real challenge to make sure only one person was talking at a time. When Jessi moved out, dinner was a little quieter, but not much. Michael and Abby picked up the slack just fine. These days Michael is never home for dinner and will be moving out in a matter of weeks. So Abby is now the only child at dinner with Tami and me. It's a strange thing to watch the family shrinking before my very eyes. I couldn't help but picture what things will be like in a couple of years when Abby is rarely home and getting ready to move out. It's almost comical to picture Tami and me sitting alone, staring across the table at one another and wondering where everyone (and the time) went. I joke about it now, but this is going to be a stark reality more quickly than I realize. I'm not much of a conversationalist, so I think the Meyer house is in for some quiet dinners in the future.

Will we look like this?

Or maybe like this?

Better View

Here's a better view of yesterday's carnage... truly a surreal scene.

Mercury Dropping

Here we go! The mercury is dropping to its lowest level in several years. Low of 5 degrees tonight with wind chills from -5 to -15. I have been freezing all day long. Tomorrow is going to be a miserable day.

On a different note, yet related to winter... Cincinnati experienced snow squalls today. For a brief time visibility was near zero. There were two separate pile ups on local interstates. There was an 80 vehicle pile up I-275 and a 50 vehicle pile up on I-75. The scene was unbelievable. It was like something out of a doomsday movie. Amazingly there was only one fatality.

Super Brothers

The teams for the Super Bowl are set. The San Francisco 49ers will play the Baltimore Ravens. Not only do I not have a rooting interest in either team, I can't stand them. All that aside though, there is a VERY interesting side story to the big game this year. The head coaches for Baltimore and San Francisco are brothers. Jim and John Harbaugh. Just think of their parents. The game won't be played for two weeks and their son is already a Super Bowl winning coach (ah, but which one?)

Brace for impact!

Here it comes! The full brunt of winter! The weather guy is calling it an arctic blast. I call it misery. Temperatures this week are going to be in the teens with overnight lows in single digits.

BRACE FOR IMPACT!

Not exactly a day off

Twice a year teachers utilize what is called a teacher work day. Some schools call it a record keeping day. No matter what you call it, it's a day for teachers to grade tests, calculate grades, prepare report cards, clean their classrooms and wrap up any loose ends at the end of the semester. Today is that day for me. I always enjoy these days. I get a ton of work done without the multitude of interruptions I experience in a typical school day. Even though I will work non-stop for eight hours (except lunch), it hardly seems like work at all. I turn on some music, get down to business and before I know it, the five o'clock whistle blows and it's time to go home. Teachers often joke that the school would be a nice place to work if it weren't for all these kids! It's all in fun of course, but I do marvel at how much work I can get done when the kids are off for the day.

And just in case you're wondering why I'm posting on my blog instead of doing teacher stuff. You can rest easy... I typed this as a draft last night. It only took a few clicks of the mouse to post it this morning.

Snowmageddon Part II

I meant to include this story in yesterday's post, but forgot.

I remember my dad completely digging his car out from a huge pile of snow and also completely digging out the driveway. Just as he finished the job, a city snow plow came down the street and shoved a bunch of snow into the driveway he had just shoveled. Dad was not a gentle soul. He was really ticked off and he made sure everybody knew it. I'm guessing he used some words that would have made a sailor blush. He wasn't timid when it came to his language. Well, dad did the only thing he could do at that point. He dug the car and the driveway out AGAIN. Just as he was finishing the job for the second time, the same snow plow was coming down the street to make a second pass at clearing the street. Dad was NOT about to move that mountain of snow a third time. He ran out into the street shaking his shovel at the snow plow driver. He used some very colorful and creative language to tell the snow plow driver that he would not be shoving snow into the cleared driveway again. Whatever dad said must have worked. The driver lifted the blade on the plow until he passed by. If you knew my dad, you probably have no problem picturing this story. If you never met him, suffice it to say his words to the snow plow driver would not be appropriate for this family friendly blog. I sure do miss my dad.

Snowmageddon of 77-78

Thanks to Tami for suggesting this topic for a blog post. Maybe I should make her a guest contributor sometime :-)

All this talk about winter brings back memories of the winters of 1977 and 1978. I can say with certainty these were the worst winters of my lifetime. Meaning they were the snowiest and coldest :-( Tami and I were in middle school and elementary school respectively, at the time. Therefore we have a fairly accurate recollection of what those winters were like.

I lived in St. Bernard at the time and I remember snow. Lots and lots of snow. These weren't your average, every day snowstorms. Snow accumulations were being measured in feet rather than inches. Old snow didn't melt off before new snow fell on top of it and that pattern continued all winter long. I remember the snow plows having no place to push the new snow because the old piles were in the way. I remember front loaders coming around and loading snow piles into dump trucks and those trucks dumping the snow in the city park. It literally began to look like a mountain. Imagine the amount of snow we must have had if it was necessary to haul it to another location. I don't remember this, but have been told that gigantic "mountain" of snow didn't melt completely until late May or early June. That's a lot of snow! I also remember my dad shoveling the driveway... MANY times. Much like the snow plows, he was running out of places to throw the snow. I also remember really cold temperatures. The cold doesn't usually bother kids, but I remember being very aware of how cold it was. As a matter of fact, on this date in 1977 the temperature was -21. One of the coldest days ever recorded in Cincinnati. It seemed like those winters were endless. I haven't checked the facts, but I'm guessing the bad weather started early and lasted longer than most winters. It must have been tough on all the parents with kids cooped up for months on end. Keep in mind this was before computers, video games, iPods, cell phones and all the other electronic stuff that occupies the attention of kids today. Long winters? You better believe it!

Tami's situation was a little different. She lived in a more rural area than I did. Back then Lawrenceburg wasn't exactly the bustling metropolis it is today. I wouldn't say she lived in the country, but it was mighty close. Her house was up on a hill and those big snowfalls were particularly challenging for her family. Her house also had a cistern. During those winters the water in the cistern would freeze. Ice doesn't flow through pipes. Tami says she remembers her family being without water for more than a month. Her mom would go outside and gather some snow and put it in the bathtub. When the snow would melt, that would be their water source. UNBELIEVABLE! I can't begin to imagine that. Think of not having laundry capabilities. Washing dishes must have been a pain. Baths or showers? No way! Any water for drinking would had to have been boiled first. Keep in mind Tami had 3 siblings. What a nightmare!

During those unusually harsh winters, I remember the Ohio river freezing over. There are photos of dozens of people walking on the ice and even driving cars on it. I know that hasn't happened since!
Here are some photos of the Snowpocolypse!

Ever notice?

Have you ever noticed how one side of the "v" is longer than the other when geese fly in formation? Do you know why that is?

Because there are more geese on that side!

Hahahahahahahahaha!