Stupid Groundhog!

That stupid rodent did it again!

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and now we're in for 6 more weeks of winter. Why we must rely on a glorified woodchuck for weather predictions, I don't know. The scary part is that the dang critter is more accurate than most tv weather crews.

I am so so so ready for winter to be over! Don't get me wrong, I love the winter! I don't mind the cold temperatures. It's the having to drive on glare ice and a foot of snow that sets my nerves on edge. Yesterday, mother nature decided to dump at least a foot of snow on us. And to make it all the more fun, there was an unusually warm day on Tuesday that caused alot of the previous snow to melt and then re-freeze into ice before Wednesday's snow storm hit.

So, as you can imagine, this morning's trek to work was tons 'o fun! Since I knew that the storm was coming I planned on going into work early. (The less people on the roads the same time I am, the better.) I left my apartment around 4:30ish AM. to make the 2 mile drive to the hospital. (I usually start work at 6 AM.) I then proceded to get stuck in the unplowed parking lot of my apartment complex at least 4 times before I was able to even get to the road. I prayed to God that no one would come down my street as I rocked back and forth into the road trying to get unstuck from the driveway. Thankfully the roads I needed are main roads, so they were at least plowed. With my past history on bad roads, I drive VERY slowly. It took me almost an hour to go 2 miles.

Once I got to work, it was every bit as bad as I was expecting. I don't know what it is, but I swear everytime the weather gets bad, all of our patients decide to show up. People who haven't shown up to their appointments for weeks will show up the day we have a blizzard. My co-workers on the other hand aren't as hearty. 13 out of the 22 called in saying they were either stuck somewhere or not coming in due to the weather. And, there's been an outbreak of the flu in the department so those who weren't calling in due to the weather were calling in sick. By 10:00 this morning, there were a total of 4 of us actually in the hospital building. Not cool! I called in every favor I had and managed to have at least 8 staff there by noon. By 1:00 the roads were plowed and almost everyone made it in to make sure that the patients recieved quality care.

I desperatly need to go grocery shopping, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to do that. I'm going to settle in for the night, watch the Wings play the Kings, do my exercises, and raid my cupboards to see if there's any goodies stashed somewhere that I might have missed. Who know's I might even take a long soak in a bubble bath.

Talk at ya later! -Reffie.

Here's some pictures of the snow that we got.

Snow on the carport roof

Picnic anyone?

Hey Jo Jo.... You have a big nose!

Leah my 2 year old niece came up to me yesterday and announced "Jo Jo, you have a big nose!" Granted she had a magnifying glass in her hand at the time, but I've always been a bit subconscious about the size of my nose. Thanks honey, I glad that you're noticing sizes as well as shapes and colors.

I had alot of fun this weekend. It was a family weekend celebrating birthdays'. Saturday we celebrated my Grandma's 29th (86th) birthday. It was good to see all the extened family; Aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings all filled the party room at J.W. Filmores. We had a special cake from Arnie's resturant. Grandma seemed to be really happy.

Sunday we celebrated my younger brother's birthday as well as the superbowl. Jon wasn't able to spend the day with us due to prior commintments, but we still had a good time. We had all his favorites in his honor and talked to him on the phone. He's coming to this side of the state later this month, so we'll celebrate in person then. I was happy that my team won the superbowl. And what a great game it was. The commercials surprisingly weren't that good in my opinion. Not as good as last years, I think.

Today was rather a blah day. The perfect way to ease into a week. Work was same old same old, but other than a few hiccups it went reasonably well. There was even the added bonus of an update from the radio station on my co-worker's ex-husband. Apparently he and the girl that called in went out on the first date, and that turned into a second lunch the following day. I'm dying to see what my co-worker has to say about that. She's switched to on call, so we don't see her every day.

My mom won an award today. She's in the local Rotary and won the "Eagle award." It's sorta like Rotarian of the year. We're going to celebrate with her later this month. I had known for weeks that she was going to be the winner, but was sworn to keep it a secret until the rotary people could surprise her with the announcement. Congrats mom!

Well gang, I'm off to go exercise and then make it an early night. With all the partying this weekend, I didn't get much sleep. I'm a bit worried that I've rambled aimlessly through this blog. Please forgive me if I have. I'll talk at ya later skaters, Joelle (aka "Refhater" and "Reffie.")