Well it took a whole week to dig us out from all the snow. And it did not go very smoothly. Since plows mostly left streets with single lanes, they had to go back and continue to clear snow. Except it got cold and we had freezing rain. So the snow started to freeze. You had to take a chisel to break up the snow banks. The road crews were slowly pushing piles of snow back with front loaders. The kids were slowly getting back to school and their normal schedule.
And just when they got back on track, they had a long weekend off for pre planned teacher/parent conference days. Scott continued to utilize his time off wisely. He finished all his homework, completely reorganized his room,(even peeled off the choo choo train wallpaper border!) and took up guitar! Since Scott had to pick his high school classes for next year, he decided to sign up for music instead of choir(darn). And the guitar was his music class of choice. I decided to get him a head start and signed him up for guitar lessons at Allison's previous music school. Meanwhile, he was getting the feel for playing by following along with lessons online. Naturally, Tom taught him a few chords of "Smoke on the Water"-a must for all budding guitar players! Scott also stayed busy with his robotics team, video club and scouts. And he was back to work last weekend.
Scott and I also took time off to volunteer to assist with a fellow Boy Scout's Eagle project. Last year we spent a night on the Liberty War Ship in the Baltimore harbor. Last Saturday morning we traveled back to the ship to help sand and repaint tables in the galley. The ship will then be heading down to Norfolk to be docked for the summer and returns in the fall. We could only help for a few hours as Scott had to get to work. And I picked up Mom B to spend an afternoon shopping before picking up Scott, cooking steak dinner for all of us(we christened the new table!) and taking Mom in to get her hair done. I also spent a few hours on Friday waiting to get Scott in for a quick physical at the CVS. Spring Track is starting soon and he needs all his paperwork to try out. He wants to do the shot put event again this year. Plus we try to let Scott get in some driving practice whenever possible. We certainly have had some interesting driving conditions with snow, ice, huge snow banks and freezing rain. Fortunately we had a bit of a warm up and an all day rain which knocked down a few feet, but there are still some tricky spots where the snow banks are blocking the road.
New Kitchen Table
Liberty Ship
Eagle Project
On Super Bowl Sunday, Tom hopped a plane to Denver for work(he said they went crazy in that town!). Meanwhile, I dropped Scott off to work and then got busy cooking Buffalo Chicken Dip for the Super Bowl Party we attended at friends that evening. Even Cookie was invited to visit with her little Cavachon buddy, Ripley. It is so funny to watch those two together. Ripley drives Cookie crazy, trying to get her attention to play and both of them running around the house, fighting over toys. Plus we enjoyed watching the game, eating lots of good food and visiting with great friends. Even though both myself and our next door neighbor Dan were spouseless as his wife, Gloria had to take a traveling nursing job in San Fran! So Gloria was even closer to the Super Bowl than any of us! Sadly I did not win the work pool betting on the Super Bowl. However, I was the big winner at my Friday night Bunco game! I came away with the most wins! And $25 bucks! Plus I really enjoy catching up with the neighborhood girls. Even Allison tried her hand at making her first Buffalo Chicken Dip. (I think hers turned out better than mine!). Unfortunately, she could not coax any of her frisbee girl's team to join her for the game. Looks like they headed over to the boys Frisbee team to watch the game. Oh well, more Chicken Dip for Allison and her roommates!
Scott kept himself busy and productive during his extra time off. The school board and school principal even sent emails home requesting kids find something to do rather than playing video games. Sadly, that was not the case for a few obnoxious high school teens. Apparently during the long snow break, a few Senior boys from Scott's High School posted a video tape of themselves making racist remarks concerning the Black Lives Matter campaign following our Baltimore and the Missouri riots. Not only did the video go viral, The Washington Post wrote up an article. Great. One of the boys was on the Lacrosse Team. I guess he can kiss his college scholarships goodbye. People don't think about the consequences when they start posting things on social media. Not even sure if these kids knew they were being recorded, but it looks like it. Scott said one of the boys was talking directly to the camera. And drinking. Lovely. When the kids did get back to the high school, there was a walk out demonstration from about 300 kids stating they were not a bunch of racists. They even managed to get the media/local news stations out covering their demonstration complete with helicopter. We recommended Scott keep his head low and concentrate on his classes. Meanwhile, the School Board is now busy setting up Diversity programs for all to attend. And if that wasn't bad enough, it got worse for our area. Two previous Howard County High School students(a guy and girl) attending Engineering school at Virginia Tech were charged in the murder of a 13 yo girl. More great publicity. And amazingly, Howard County was recently named one of the top 10 counties in the country overall for great schools, living conditions, medical care, etc. Nothing's ever perfect it seems.
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