Busy Few Days

[liralen]

Thursday was a snow day. We spent most of it digging out and when the city snow plow crews started doing side streets everyone cheered and gave them thumbs up and much happiness everywhere. Gods, I'm sore from shoveling. But we did a good job on our sidewalks, driveway, narrowed to a single car, but letting both out, and we did quite a job on the loop in front of the house. As when the plow came by, ours was the only patch they were able to clear to bare road.

Of course, the boys then went and built a six foot tall snow man in the back yard, as if they hadn't had enough snow. *grin*



John and I tried to go to a movie but the whole mall had closed. Ah well. We then made artichoke heart casserole and enjoyed the evening together.

But I'm very, very thankful that the power never went out and we were warm and stocked and quite content to wait out the snow and the crews. I am also very thankful we hadn't had to park a car by the side of the road, as the snow plows pretty much buried everything that was by the side of the road. There were some cars that were in so deep you couldn't see any of the windows. Yeesh.

Friday was my usual day off, but the OUR center called for John saying they were extremely short-handed as some of the usual volunteer crew was still digging out. So Tonya said she'd take Jet, and I drove Isabel and George to the OUR center and we spent four hours there, prepping, serving, and then cleaning the kitchen up. The roads were mostly bare and wet by the time I tried it, but there are still places that weren't plowed that are deep rutted ice. *sigh*

Pretty much all the times I've worked there have been when it was with Xilinx or the church, and they usually split it up into two two hour shifts, one to do the cooking and prep, the other to serve and clean. I'd never done the serve and cleanup, not because I was afraid of doing the clean up, but mostly because of the whole people aspect and being afraid of just screwing things up and being mean in the wrong places or something. I'm not sure what. Maybe a little afraid of the people, too, I think, quite honestly.

But I was stuck as they needed me. And I served, and saw lots of 20-year-olds, some shy, some tough, some with babies, some who had been stomping through snow for the last few days. There were the older ones as well, some whom hadn't eaten for a couple of days in this cold. There were families, some who looked quite well off, but just needed the supplimental food to just be able to stay where they were. Everyone was thankful. It was almost scary how many "Pleases" I heard to the questions of "Do you want green beans?" or "Would you like some pizza?" Everyone was extremely polite and I was impressed.

Clean up was as hard and dirty as I expected it to be. I worked for two years in a high school cafeteria, earning a little pocket money and my lunches and having fun with the crew there, as it was just fun, and it really reminded me of that, in the end. The sprayer, the roar of the dish washer, the amazing sludge that discarded food can become enmass. Scrubbing out beef stew pans and using a mud scraper to get out the gunk, it was very amusing to me to be doing that again and finding it just as fun.

Of course my body protested the sudden usage, since, and I've been very sore. *sigh*

That night was a Solistice party with friends with kids, and we all had a light dinner together and then went out into the snow to sit by a big bonfire and roast marshmellows and drink hot chocolate. It was fun and tiring, too, to be out in the cold that long. But the hot chocolate felt like a blessing against the palms, and one of the men told a Plains Indian story that had been handed to him over a campfire in the snow as well. Stories are gifts... and he told of how Coyote and his friends brought fire to the two-legs just for the fun of giving them something. Very different than the stories I'd heard of that feat, but it was cool, too.

I was exhausted and slept deeply and felt like I might be fighting a cold this morning. So I've been downing the Airbourne and it hasn't caught me, yet.

We all piled into cars and went into Denver in huge carpools and met folks for dim sum at the Empress. We ended up with nearly 30 people, so we had two tables and LOTS of food. John and I ended up with the kids, on the most part, so we kept the food mostly tame, but John had to get the chicken feet to get all the boys staring at it and all the girls going "GROSS..." *giggles*

We ate a lot.

On the way home from Dim Sum, Jet had a great explanation for why the surface of the Moon is made of ice. It's because the center is made of cheese, and if the whole thing were made of cheese, then it would just all be BAD cheese and what would be the sense of that? The ice on the outside keeps the cheese good, so it has to be there, and if you dig in far enough, you'll get to the cheese.

When we came home, everyone was so full they couldn't even think about dinner. I helped Jet shovel half the way to the neighbor's path in the backyards. John did the rest with Jet, and they met Tanner at the gate in the middle and they cleared the gate so the kids can, finally, do their usually running between houses without having to go to the icy and treacherous streets. Tanner stayed most of the afternoon at our place and had a snack of butter and honey on bread. Jet had some toast. Everyone else fended for themselves. I ate one mole tamale and was quite content.

Everyone is now over at Tonya, Tanner, Macy, and Peter's. There's a big gingerbread house party and since I got do do one with Jet, I figured it's everyone else's turn. Plus, as John pointed out, it's good if I don't burn out too early on social stuff. *grin* I am very glad of the man I married. *grin*

So I'm home doing Christmas cards and had to come here to get a few of the details and changes folks have posted about their lives and where they're living now. Yes. I am lame. *grin*