The winds were to start yesterday afternoon but after getting up to minimal snow from Monday night as predicted I felt we'd dodged the bullet so to speak. It was my recess duty day at school so I had boots and everything else inside with me. The announcement came about 1:15 that we were dismissing school early since the winds had come up and it was snowing. I had to call all parents to decide what to do with their children. Once they were gone I was free to leave. I had one snow boot on and then decided that maybe I should put on my ski pants in school rather than squirm into them in a crammed car. I have a 7 1/2 mile drive home on country roads and once out in the country it was total white-out conditions. The fastest speed I could attain was 20 mph when I could see bits of the road in front of me. When not, I hit the brakes since I couldn't see where I was headed. I had no idea where I was most of the time and feared I'd miss the turn to head north. Found it and 2 miles from home I was startled to come upon a vehicle in the middle of the road and a person standing beside it!!! I hit the brakes and realized it was my neighbor and her daughter who had gotten stuck in a drift with her mini-van. I could see well enough to 'think' that I could get around them and proceeded to do so barely missing scraping the sides of the two vehicles. Once around I got out and blew back to their vehicle and talked them into getting in with me for the two mile ride to my house. The force of the winds blowing me to them and fighting back to my Honda CRV were unbelievable! We knew where drifts formed on the road ahead but couldn't tell where we were anyhow. We finally made it to my house and she called her husband to come get them. Her husband said he had to stop 3 times in the one mile distance from their house to mine. It took me 40 minutes to drive the 7 1/2 miles home.
The school buses all returned to school loaded with children and I guess the office found places for all of them to stay in town. Some homes had as many as 10 extra kids for the night. Only 3 teachers made it home last night with the rest remaining in town, too. All highways in northeast Nebraska were closed last night many blocked with accidents. Today no school again due to blocked roads. And we're to get another round of snow and wind tonight again! Looks like we'll be having year-round school with all the snow days we'll be making up.
Once home I worked on and finished a small wall hanging for a challenge group I am part of. I have always loved watching birds and their antics, but have only once before included them in any of my quilts. I chose to depict my favorite bird, the Black-capped Chickadee, in this quilt. He looks cold on a bare branch surrounded by Bittersweet.
