A Flyover Blog

24

 

 

"Every morning you are handed 24 golden hours. They are one of the few things in this world that you get free of charge. If you had all the money in the world, you couldn't buy an extra hour."

—Author Unknown

I'm Guest Posting Today

 Note: If you're looking for my regular Red Friday post, it follows this one.

Cindy from

10 Links a Day recently invited me to pen a guest post for them on the subject of Patient Safety. It's running today, so check it out. It's called Going to the Hospital? Beware.  If you're new to 10 Links a Day, the concept is simple and (in my humble opinion) brilliant. The team writes a daily post with a collection of 10 web links on the day's subject. Topics are all over the road and I discover something new every time I visit. I am very happy to contribute to this terrific site. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Red Friday - January 30

 

It's Red Friday again! U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Adams and his working dog, Mattias are pictured here in Baghdad while on duty last month.

U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Edwin M. Bridges.

Out My Front Door

 

Mitch went outside this morning and snapped a couple of pictures. Beautiful, isn't it? There's about 3 inches of snow on top of 4 inches of sleet and ice on that driveway. No, I'm not shoveling it. It's stuck to the concrete like mortar. Schools are still closed tomorrow but traffic was beginning to move around town today - on the main roads anyway.

   

This is the tiny park on the other side of Lone Pine. It's one big ice rink over there. We fared much better than our neighbors to the south. They got devastating ice. I heard from my friend, Mary a few miles west of town. They were without power for 2 days but now have lights and heat. Let's hope this is the last blast of winter this year. Fingers crossed...

White Out

 

Here's the update: We've had sleet and ice here in our little corner of Springfield since yesterday afternoon. We are extremely grateful that it wasn't all freezing rain. Branson and points south are still being hammered with freezing rain tonight. There are thousands of people without power there, but so far, our little house in Tiny Tourist Town still has juice. 

The cottage here in Springfield is cozy warm and we have a fireplace, which I very much appreciate on a cold snowy night. Yes, it's snowing now. Hard; started about 20 minutes ago. It's supposed to snow all night. Schools are closed, of course, and traffic on Lone Pine is practically non-existent. Mitch and I both have offices upstairs, so our work continues no matter the weather.

Temps won't climb above freezing until Saturday, so it looks like a messy week ahead. Hope you are toasty warm and ice free at your house!

Weather Radar: KY3.com.

This Is Not The Way To Start A Week

 

Three years in a row?  Gee, I hope the weather dudes are wrong about this one. Mitch and I picked up grocercies for his mom today, checked our supply of bird seed and ice melt, and ran a few errands. At this moment, the worst of the storm is expected to skirt south of town. Tiny tourist town - and our little house - are smack in the middle of an Ice Storm Warning, with significant power outages expected.

Greene County Emergency Management met today to get their storm plan in place. This is the first time I've actually lived in town during a winter storm; we've spent the last 19 years in the country. Oh, we had neighbors, but we were most definitely on our own. Living on a busy city street during a weather event will be a new experience. This whole mess is supposed to be over sometime Wednesday. I'll keep you posted... and I hope this storm isn't paying you a visit.

Weather map courtesy of KY3.com.

Uncertainty

 

 

"We can try to control the uncontrollable by looking for security and predictability, always hoping to be comfortable and safe. But the truth is that we can never avoid uncertainty."

—Pema Chodron

Red Friday - January 23

 

A big thank you to all our service men and women for all the work you do! You are our good will ambassadors, our defenders and our heroes.

 

Yesterday

 

The Presidential Inauguration wasn't the only big thing in town. Yes, it was my birthday. No, I'm not telling you how old I am. I had a terrific day, and got a big surprise from our family. I am a huge Charles Wysocki fan; love his work. Sadly, Mr. Wysocki passed away in 2002, so there won't be any more new paintings. 

Ten years ago Mitch bought me this signed and numbered limited edition print called Noah and Friends for our anniversary. I have #83 of 950. I have kept this print safely packed away all these years until we lived in "the" house - not the little modern one we had at the time. Now, we live in "the" house.

On a whim, I ventured into Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago to see what it would cost to have this print framed. Ouch. So, I decided to start a cookie jar fund and wait another year. Sneaky Mitch told our family about this print and, low and behold, I got a pile of Hobby Lobby gift cards for my birthday! Yes, I'm going this week to have it double matted, framed (with museum glass) and custom framed. Can't wait to see it on my old barn beam mantle. I'll post a picture.

Thank you, Everyone!

Danger, Will Robinson!

  

I'm taking a break in today's wall-to-wall Inauguration coverage to bring you a totally unrelated story. I loved Lost in Space when I was a kid (and Time Tunnel, too) and I saw that Bob May passed away yesterday. He was 69. Bob played one of my favorite characters, The Robot, who  kept the Robinson family safe.

 

Looking back, I am reminded that the 60's were no rose garden. In many ways they were more complicated and dangerous than the world is today. What they were was less cluttered; there were fewer media outlets vying for our attention and it was easier to turn off "the signal."  As we begin a new year and a new presidency, remember to shut off the signal for a little while every day and take some time to find your center.

Photo Credit: TV Guide.