Icemageddon 2013 Timeline for North Texas
The highs and lows. A story of a North Texas mom.
Disclaimer:
This is all in good fun. I realize people were impacted a great deal by this storm. Jobs, lives, power outages, marathons cancelled, injuries and more. I’m not making light of that at all. I’m poking fun at the attitudes of the typical parent who has school age children staying home for several days unable to drive to other locations. We love our kids. We love our spouses and we would do anything for them.
True Story
Icemageddon 2013 Timeline
First let me set the stage so you know the level of crazy. I live in North Texas. We have long, hot summers, decent springs, decent falls, and rarely have a tough winter. We have things like cold snaps and if it is going to get super cold the news casters will go nuts for days preparing us for the “arctic blast” coming our way. We were warned 2 weeks ago and nothing. We all rushed to the stores, stocked up on wine and pizza and nothing. Cold weather and then it went up to the 70’s and 80’s for a few days. Yes, 80’s. We were in shorts and had our sunroofs open. Then the warnings fly in again. Here it comes. Thursday the ARTIC BLAST is coming. Get ready Dallas/Fort Worth because it is coming. This time, it came. I went to the store like a good mom and wife. I bought a few things. I mean come on, this isn’t Michigan. We are not going to be snowed in with a blizzard. This isn’t New York. We are not having a Nor’easter. This is North Texas. We don’t have snow plows and snow blowers and that nonsense. We have swimming pools and sunshine. How bad can it be? I’ve lived here since 1979 and the last time it was this bad was 1983. I didn’t really remember it but the news casters reminded me of just how bad it was in 1983. Then I realized, wow, I’m old.
Thursday:
The kids are at school. All is well. Run errands and do my normal conference calls. I work from home and I have a schedule. Pick up the son from school and it is starting to rain. Not sleet but rain. It’s all good. Then around 5 the sleet begins. I cover all of the outside faucets and turn off the sprinklers. We get our cars up the steep driveway and wait. Debating going to the indoor soccer game. It gets cancelled. Okay fine. Around 8:45pm it hits. School is cancelled Friday. Okay. Great! YAY! Snow Day! Whoop whoop. Cool. We stay up and watch movies and snack on popcorn.
school is closed
Friday:
We have food and power. Awesome. I get in a morning work out and have breakfast as usual. We make pancakes. We sled down the driveway, we make snow angels. We don’t leave the house because the roads are covered in sleet. Not snow. Sleet. Frozen water. Crazy stuff. Our northern friends make fun of us Texans. “Can’t you drive in snow?” It’s not snow you fools. It is freaking ice on the roads 5 inches thick! I’m from Michigan. I know about driving and surviving in snow. This is a totally different animal.
My husband drove to work to help a couple of clients so he saw the roads were passible on the main stretch but iffy in the neighborhoods. We all climb in the car to go to the grocery store for pizza. The last freeze warning was a bust. I didn’t believe them. The store was empty this time! Not of people but of food. It wasn’t like a zombie apocalypse or anything but there were items that were gone. I think part of it was panic with everyone going at once and part was that the delivery trucks couldn’t make it through the ice. The roads were that bad. Bread, bananas, tons of meat, and milk. Just gone. If you wanted it you were not getting it. I know now. Next time those jokers tell me to prepare for the blast I’m going early. We watch Friday Night Smack down and snuggle under blankets. Friday night was cool.
Beautiful Ice
Saturday:
More sledding. The neighbors come over and play. Some streets are melting. Clients want their hair done. (my husband is a hair stylist) We also have 2 holiday parties to attend that are now rescheduled. I’m losing my mind and want to get out of the house. Thank goodness we have work out programs on DVD and a treadmill. I get in a work out for my sanity and safety of my family. The streets are good enough to leave and take our son to his grandmas for the night. We have a night out and head to dinner. To quote Dirty Dancing. “Nobody puts baby in the corner.” We run into friends out having dinner. We are all slipping and sliding all over the road. Stop at the grocery store again for wine. Hey it is Saturday night. We have a kid free night so we watch 3 episodes of Breaking Bad, drink wine and go to bed.
Sunday:
I’m over it. I do not want to see snow again. Melt that shit and melt it now. We leave the house to get our son and have a late lunch at the Cheesecake factory. So thankful to leave the house. Ready to get back to normal Monday. We totally understand that many things go into closing a school district. Safety of everyone is number 1 of course. Then you must think of supplies, power, etc. Surely school will be back on Monday right? Then it happens. 7:43pm we are notified that school is closed Monday. What the EFF????????????? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
I’m serious this is how I actually felt.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my son. I love him to pieces. He is hilarious and sweet and a joy. I love routine. I love me time. I love my “work” time. I love writing and making videos and being creative. Being outside chopping ice for hours is not my idea of awesome fun. Watching Sharnado and Anaconda are not the most awesome movies ever. If I hear “mommy” one more darn time mommy is going to lose mommy’s mind. I felt like I was Jack Nicholson in The Shining. I have deadlines and things to do. Balancing the time to get work done and still attend to my family is a fine line right now.
Monday:
Totally cuckoo. Cuckoo for cocoa puffs cuckoo. I have conference calls, blogs to write, content to post, emails to respond to and more. Nothing is happening again. I have coaches all over the country. Most of them not dealing with an ice storm and school closings. You may say, why didn’t you get it done when your kid was at the sitter? Well, I had some parties planned and that was date night. I’m not working on date night. Period! I work during work hours. I respect my schedule and my family time. Having my family in my face for several days taught me many things. We left the house to have lunch and go bowling. Had a super time bowling and playing video games. Our son won a giant ball from the “claw” machine. He is still beaming about it.
Main Event Snow Day Fun
He probably said 100 times “Isn’t it awesome that I won this ball?” on the way home from Main Event. We played ball and Legos and had sandwiches for dinner.
Our house is 3400 square feet and with all of the space we were sitting this close to each other even on Monday night putting together Legos. Even the dog has to be right next to us. It is just how we roll.
Our family is close
Of course our son was begging us to check the website for closures. Many of the neighboring school districts were closed. Some areas were hit harder than others. Some sidewalks and driveways were not safe. I get it. We checked our school. The route, the parking lot, and the drop off zones were all safe and good to go. I was going to be shocked and maybe just run away screaming if school closed on Tuesday. I was refreshing the screen over and over. Schools delayed or closing all around us. All of us moms texting each other about how we are going to go into the closet and cry in the fetal position if school closes again. The good news at 9:20pm. School is open at regular schedule. Thank you Jesus. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.
Tuesday:
Slow moving in the morning for school. As I help my son get his stuff together I ask “when was the last time you took a shower?” and his response was “a few days ago.” Yikes! Get in the shower after you have breakfast and that will help wake you up.
Drop off as usual. Then smiles and a sigh of relieve once he is out of the car and in the door of the school. Whew! I have so much work to do. I felt like Tom Cruise when he was jumping on Oprah’s couch. I looked over at my husband we and he said “Freedom.” So all of the songs with the word Freedom start running through my head. George Michael, Freedom. The Soup Dragons “I’m Free” and many others.
Here I am at home now, in silence, finishing up this post and about to work out. Big day of things planned and I get to do them all in silence.
Top things learned during the Icemageddon 2013
1) Even if you don’t believe the Arctic Blast will be as bad as “they” say make sure you stock up on supplies. Plenty of water, wine, pizza, bananas, bread, snacks and have a full tank of gas. Better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it.
2) Be thankful for the things that work. (Many people were out of power for days. We were lucky enough to stay home and not deal with that.) Charge up your stuff. Have a car charger if you can so at the very least you can charge your phone in your car from time to time to communicate.
3) Very thankful that no one in the family was hurt or needed major assistance.
4) Very thankful I wasn’t trying to fly in or get out of the airport during this mess.
5) Appreciate the first responders and others who had to drive to places. We over tipped every waiter that served us. They risked their lives to be at work and we appreciate their effort.
6) Very happy that I work from home and that my husband’s job is very flexible and his place of work is about 2 miles from our home.
7) Happy to have fun neighbors with kids to help relieve the pressure of the cabin fever.
8) Be flexible. This too shall pass. Next thing you know it will be 100 degrees again. It’s all good. The ice will melt. It’s not like the kids will be out forever. We will have them back in our hands for 2 weeks over the holiday break.
9) I appreciate the heat. I love summer. I would much rather be sitting in a pool sweating my ass off than sitting in my house under a blanket iced in and going cuckoo.
10) I really do enjoy peace and silence. I love my son and family and enjoy time with them but I truly do find peace when things are quiet. I love to read, I love to write, I love to run and be with my thoughts and with God.
11) Other moms are just like me. They love their kids but want their space.
12) Patience.
13) Appreciation.