White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Ick, what a miserable day. The winter rain has been coming down all day and it seems to be getting heavier as I near my departure time. I am not entirely fond of winter rain. Snow can be a pain, but rain ... It's just not right! The up side is that the temperature is going to stay pretty high so all the runoff will not freeze into a smooth landscape of ice this time. Of course, that means mud instead. Lots of it too. I'll be spending a lot of time cleaning the dogs up over the next few days. Mmmm, muddy paw prints. For the most part, they know the drill these days. Come to the door, shake one paw (it gets cleaned), shake the other paw (ditto), walk between daddy's legs and let him clean off the back paws. It takes time but the alternative is not very desirable. Some of that mud in the back 50 is NOT from dirt. Yetch! After I finish up with the dogs, I start a fire and get down to preparing the kids dinner. I am deliberately avoiding taking out the used diapers and trash. The rain is coming down in buckets now and my short haircut offers little protection from the near freezing torpedoes of water pelting me from above. Eventually, I run out of 'inside' tasks and have to get down to the dirty, nasty job of the trash and the recycling. It was everything I expected it to be ... and more. Yep, even got that trickle of semi-chilled water going down my neck. I have to remember to wear a hat next time.

We had sleeping issues again. Not myself, mind you. I'm still tired from the previous nights escapades. This time, Alexis did not want to go to sleep and screamed for 'DAAADDYYYYY!' till I came in an soothed her. She insisted that I stay in the room till she nodded off. I tried to leave a couple of times, but she heard the door creak as it opened. That started a whole new round of howls of discontent every time. I think it all started with Jacob getting out of bed and slamming the door behind him as he left the room. We caught him halfway down the stairs and escorted him back to his bed. I was in the room the second time I caught him going over the wall. I reprimanded him and left a book in his crib so he had a distraction. He tossed and turned a few time but quickly drifted off. As I lay on the floor next to Alexis's crib, I could hear her breathing slowly descend into the rhythmic song of slumber. I very nearly dropped off myself listening to the tiny gusts of respiration. Hard to believe that such a tiny little thing can make noises that bring grown men of calloused nature to their knees ... sobbing. Sounds like she is on track to be quite a heart-breaker.

This morning was interesting. Not in a good way. We got up about 15 minutes late. Well, the Mrs got up 10 minutes late, I got up 20. Average? Anyways, the kids did ok and for some reason, the Wonderful Wife took care of the hounds. It must be all the leftover love from me telling her about the present I got for her birthday/v day. I wish some of that love had spilled out onto the roads this morning. The local arteries were a compete disaster. Early this morning there was an accident on 95 near the airport. Apparently, one of the airport firetrucks was out on the road and was struck by a semi truck. They promptly burst into flames and effectively cut off the airport from 95. It happened early enough that people made alternate plans for getting into the city. The stickler that this causes is that these people are not familiar with the different roads and new accidents occur because of it. And indeed, there were. A vehicle on Rt 1 overturned and was causing mass hysteria and then an accident on the sure-kill expressway caused a backup to the blue route (476) that then overflowed onto the west bound turnpike. Just where I was. So there I was, sitting in a wonderland parkinglot called 276-PA Turnpike. Nothing I can't cope with and accept, but the real kicker was the accident I saw before I even got there. The road that I usually do not take to get to the Turnpike is called Mill road. I only take it when I am going to pull into the gas station across the street. This means that I do not get into the turn lane and thus avoid the 100 miles of backup that seems to accumulate there after 0700. Today, I start up Mill road thinking that I will get gas. As I round the corner just before the hill that the road winds up, I see cars backed up, side by side. This is unusual. It is not backed up this far and not in both lanes. Well, 'both lanes' is a misdirection because there is only 1 lane. By common concession, we have established that if you are turning, you stay as far left as possible and if not, you stay to the right. Trucks are not welcome on the road. A trucker had driven his semi-truck up the right side of the road trying to pass the backed up turn traffic and had found out the hard way why trucks are not appreciated. A very old oak tree has its branches looming out over the road like a roof over a covered bridge. The truck was just a few inches too high and caught one of the branches. It was about 5 inches across and the resulting mess was a disaster. The cab was separated from the load and there were log sized branches everywhere. The right hand lane had to merge into the left hand lane. Oddly enough, we all cooperated and did a onsey-twosy thing with no jostling for position or creep-aheads. Very civilized. Made me proud. As I drove past the truck, I could see the driver wearily looking down at the branches as he aimlessly walked about the mess. He had some cables in his hands that looked like they were the power conduits between the cab and the trailer. Poor guy, never had a chance.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 9:47 AM