It's a Mystery Scooby...er Nancy...Somebody.

Monday nights, my husband takes the kids and goes out for a few hours and I cherish the time.  Like, seriously.  Clock out. Watch TV, Eat, and sit.  No refereeing, no wish granting; generally, no speech of any kind.  I do this in lieu of drug abuse a massage.

Yesterday, about 3:20 5:30 in the afternoon, I was getting pretty excited about feeding them and having them standing on the front porch when Daddy's car turned into our street.  One of my beautiful daughters said, "I hope this storm doesn't..." blah blah blah.  I looked out the kitchen window.  It was gray, but not gray enough to keep me from sitting on the porch with a book and a drink per schedule.

In ten minutes the wind was blowing so hard I decided to put on shoes and save my husband's team logo flag that hangs out all year 'cause he loves them.  By the time I got there, The wind was blowing such that I thought I might get knocked off my stupid porch and, ironically, still lose Mickey's @#$% flag.

I spent the next few minutes herding children and pets into interior spaces without commenting on the weather.  The girls had unplugged everything.  Mickey had called and said he would leave the office when he thought he would be able to do so safely.  I asked someone to get the TV on.  She knelt next to a window and the wind gusted up.  I told her to come out of the corner and we would use the radio.  The EBS was ending with...."persons who are outdoors should take shelter."

No kidding?

In under 20 minutes, it was all over. They all left as usual.  I did not get to sit on my soaking wet porch.  They called about 35 minutes later to say that they were almost there. And then again in about 15 to say their activity was canceled since power was out in the area and they would be returning home (with the milk I had requested.).

There was one fatality nearby where they were going.  The city is severely affected this morning by road closures and city crews removing debris and restoring downed power lines.  This morning, we didn't get the TV on until about 7:30. Al Roker said, "[Our City], [XX] was probably the hardest hit."  Then he stammered something about, "Oh, I guess we are not covering that."  The local news stations, which, let's face it, live and die for the opportunity to cover something, anything, unusual.  Were silent.

 I am joyfully anticipating the return of "Mom's Night Off", next week.

I don't know if you have seen this link to Home Depot's Retool Your School, (voting closed on Friday), but the above photo is taken on a campus that was included in the voting, but alas, did not win.  I would encourage you to follow this project and vote for your nearest school next year.