The rest of us were pretty cold here on the east coast. It has been so cold, the plastic soda bottles are freezing and exploding in our garage like land mines. It does not seem to help to bring them inside either. They just burst and bubble over and make a mess in my kitchen.
Scott has had a few days off school as well as delayed school days last week due to cold temperatures and a bit of snow. It makes for very slippery roads since the salt does not work on the streets in this deep freeze. Scott did have last Monday off for President's Day. He had spent the night at a friends after watching The SpongeBob Movie. So he used his day off to catch up on homework and writing a paper. He was also getting ready for his camping trip this past weekend.
The boy scouts usually have one cold winter camping trip. This certainly met all the prerequisites for cold. The boys traveled up to their boy scout camp on Friday night. Scott traveled with one of the moms who was staying over for the weekend. She was assisting with badge requirements as this weekend is usually spent working towards advancements. Apparently is was so cold, the pipes all froze at the campground, so no running water for the weekend. They did sleep indoors in the dining hall with the fireplace on Friday night as temps dipped below zero. On Saturday night the boys made it out to their tents. Fortunately they were pitched under a pavilion, so they weren't buried in snow. Last year at this time it was so warm, the boys were having snowball fights outside in their short sleeved tshirts. Not so this year. Scott was busy working on an inventing badge, his personal management badge and a new boy scout STEM program called NOVA. Scott was working on the projectile badge-making marshmallow catapults out of spoons(stuff like that). His astronomy badge was cancelled though as the counselor was not able to make the trip up to camp on Saturday because of the weather. Scott is also still trying to finish up his Personal Fitness badge with his counselor on Weds nights at his weekly meeting. Despite the crazy weather, Scott reports he really enjoyed his weekend away. He returned home on Sunday afternoon and has been busy catching up with homework ever since. And I am sure he could use some sleep!
Meanwhile, Allison traveled home this weekend for a break. Actually her roommate asked for a ride home, and then decided to stay at school. So Allison decided to come home anyway. We decided to catch a Hershey hockey game on Saturday night. Tom was able to purchase some wonderful tickets right on the glass along with a parking pass. Instead, we were hit with almost a foot of snow on Saturday making the roads impassable. We would have needed to leave around 9am Saturday morning and spend the night in Hershey PA. We did not want to take the chance of getting stuck in PA since Allison needed to get back to school on Sunday. Tom was willing to try the drive, however he changed his mind when he could not get up a small hill around our house in the snow. He ventured out for a hair cut and that was as far as he got. Allison and I went out Saturday morning to hit the post office and the bank located in our local grocery store. We barely made it home in a white out. My favorite was the guy who stopped directly in front of us on busy Route 40 and then stepped out of his car to clean off his windshield wipers while cars passed by. I told Allison that was a perfect example of how not to drive in bad weather. I would have stayed home too but I needed to get my parent's tax paperwork mailed off along with taking care of some banking business for Allison's account.
I didn't get all my errands run on Friday. I tried to go to my swim class which was cancelled due to late school openings. Instead I swam some laps since I pretty much had the pool all to myself at the Y. And then Cookie had her yearly check up at the vets. Everyone has to get some medical appointment in at some time. On Monday night I was out with mom and dad at the dentist. My dad's crown had fallen out and needed to be cemented back in. So after work I ran them both over to the dentist office and they'll be back for more. I wanted to take them out to dinner, but we had another snow storm heading in. Instead, everyone had take out chinese food and I dropped them off with their food at their apt. It took forever on the roads with the icy snow and rush hour traffic. I was pretty worn out at the start of the week.
I managed to take a break and scheduled a Girls Night Out while Tom was in San Fran and Scott was at his scout meeting on Weds. The high school hosted a fund raiser for After Prom at a local painting and wine drinking facility that opened recently in a new shopping complex. I ran home and changed and my neighbor and I headed over. No sooner had we ordered our wine and got settled in our seats that all the power went out in the complex! We spent 2.5 hrs painting in the dark under the glow of the cell phone lights! How crazy! But it was a lot of fun and a nice break int the middle of the week. And I think my painting came out pretty good! Everyone asked if it was a paint by number(no). Just paint by dark!
On Friday, Allison and Tom both made it home safely. And on Sunday, Allison headed back to school after a rather restful weekend(since we were mostly stuck in the house). It gave me time to catch up on some rest since I have another cold coming on(and so does everyone at work).
We also managed to sign SCott up for one more try at the High School track team(although there are a lot more boys signing up again). We just can't win. The coach told SCott to try out for some of the throwing events first, then the running. We'll see.
So before you know it, it will be March and that means Spring Break for both kids(just at different times). Things are really going to start getting busy for sure!
My Paint by Dark masterpiece!
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