Business, Family, Food, home, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Weather

Preparedness?

42 Comments

It’s Tuesday afternoon and folks all around me are panicking. In the last hour I’ve overheard at least 5 different conversations about how much snow we’re likely to get in the next 24 hours.  Our boss has declared tomorrow a “work-at-home” day so the office will be officially closed.  YA has texted me to please stop on the way home to pick up a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese.  Even Nonny has called from St. Louis to tell me she’s glad she’s coming to visit in December this year and not this week. And I see from the Weather Channel that the coming storm now has a name – Dorothy.

I just can’t get worked up about this. There have been many times that extreme weather has been forecast and then never arrives.  Or arrives in a dribble.   I’ll take my laptop home just in case and will probably stop and get YA’s mac and cheese, but I don’t think I’ll be investing any emotional energy in a winter storm.  I live in Minnesota – we get winter storms.  Snow shovels, snow blower, salt – all at the ready for whenever they are needed at this time of year.

How will you be entertaining yourself if the big snow comes?

42 thoughts on “Preparedness?”

  1. The airport says 8.2 inches. I measured seven inches on the deck box just outside my back door.

    I’ll be gathering bowls and pans and recipes today, and will probably make the filling for the mock mince pie.

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  2. We’ve only got a few inches here, still a little coming down. Streets are pretty slushy.

    I cleared the calendar, but will call and see if t’ai chi is happening.
    Then I’ll watch my online version of CBS Sunday morning, and prepare for a talk Husband and I are giving at UU on Sunday, about caregiving.

    And yes, probably start preparing what we’re bringing to Thursday feast.

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  5. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I am with VS on this one—we live here and we have snow. I usually am not willing to take undue risks on the road, but why panic? The road in front of the house was plowed about 3am and again about 6 am, so we can get out.

    I do not work today—I worked Monday to give myself the day to cook and travel. This morning I will peel eggs for deviled eggs, then gather the equipment needed to fill the middles when I am in Iowa. I am making 2 pies, apple and cherry. My idealogically purist “Pie-self” refuses to adulterate Thanksgiving with Mince Meat Pie, or Pumpkin Pie, a pie not worth the trouble. My sister makes the Minced Meat Pie for my mother.

    Then we will pack up the car this afternoon and leave for Iowa. The plows are out already so I think it will be fine. We have the car ready with an emergency kit, snow scrapers and brushes, and we will have our boots and warm clothing at the ready. Our Honda Pilot is tested and trusty in snow, rain and ice.

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  7. *yawn* Other than shoveling and not driving if the conditions look too dicey, it’s business as usual here at Chez Norbury. . . .

    . . . except for the five relatives who arrived yesterday to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. They handily beat the storm and will be treated to a White Thanksgiving (they’re from Colorado Springs and don’t usually get snow that stays on the ground–but they certainly get snow).

    I do have to brine the turkey and prepare dinner for seven tonight. Otherwise, work on a short story, do some social media marketing/publicizing (still not too late to submit an online review of Straight River, TBers! 🙂 And, guess what? Straight River was “longlisted” for the Chanticleer CLUE Book Awards in the Suspense-Thriller category. Um . . . before you shower me with congratulations, honorariums, money, kingly status, etc., you should know that this particular step forward in the contest is a fancy way of saying, “Hey, your book doesn’t suck!” 🙂

    Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

    Chris in Owatonna

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      1. Thanks, tim. I add sugar (very common in brines), bay leaf, peppercorns, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and if I have some fresh herbs hanging around that are getting a bit old, I’ll toss those into the bucket too. A turkey tip–clean, 5-gallon paint or pickle (?) buckets make excellent brining tubs for almost any size turkey. I have a 17-pounder this year and could easily fit a 20+ pounder into the bucket.

        Chris

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        2. YES! It’s the only way to make sure it’s moist and flavorful (sort of infuses salt into every bite –but not too salty. Make sure to find a good brine recipe that doesnt overload the salt.

          Chris

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        3. yep
          my go tos are cumin smoked paprika chili powder mustard hot sauce and recently i have added turmerac and a fistfull of the desired rub i am going to hit the bird with after its oil rub before it goes in the cooker.

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  8. I had an interesting challenge to bring the snowblower home from the warehouse with the official guideline that I am not allowed to lift more than 20 pounds
    My warehouse has a loading dock and I was able to roll the snowblower down a ramp into the back of my vehicle and get it home that way and then employ my daughters to help me get it out of the vehicle but needed to run to pick up my mom for our Tuesday movie night (we saw Tom Hanks it was wonderful)
    I told my son where are the can of starting fluid was and asked him to put fresh gas in it it was some starting fluid and make sure that it was running so that we were prepared for the Wednesday morning song and dance

    He called me just before the movie began to tell me he couldn’t get it started
    So I told him I would look after it when I got home at 10 o’clock

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  10. I am in the lobby of the hotel waiting for my travel companions to arrive so we can go sightseeing. I am people watching. Why do people who travel wear odd hats that they would never wear in their non-traveling lives?

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  11. I just got in from shoveling. In past years, I’ve only gotten the snowblower out once or twice a year. It’s big and old and most snows aren’t worth the trouble. But, being that this is the first snow and it’s substantial and some of the neighbors are out of town for the holiday, I decided to get it out. At the beginning of each season there’s the question of whether it will start, since it’s been sitting sometimes for a year or more. As with previous years, it started on the first pull. That’s more than my neglect of it deserves. Whenever I get out the snowblower, I clear the public sidewalk down my whole side of the block. It’s satisfying to see that open path and, with neighbors out of town, portions would have gone unshoveled. Beneath the show was a heavy layer of slush which complicated things by clogging the chute so that I had to stop and chip it out every so often. At least if we get another snow Friday, it won’t be on top of Wednesday’s snow on the sidewalk.

    Cleaning the house and doing some prep work for tomorrow’s meal. If they call a snow emergency, which seems likely, parking tomorrow will be interesting.

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  13. when i got home at 11 my first guess fix didn’t do the job

    my challenges last year helped me realize a pressure cooker is a valuable tool for small engine carbarators
    2am i proclaimed it running and at 6 had to go show my son how to work it, it broke again
    i fixed again got sidewalk driver at menards and am off to doc for neck stuff and air bnb yo ready for new folks comin in

    my son left pheonix after work yesterday with his dog in an suv to follow the storm up from there to arrive tonight late

    o chatted with him and talked him into s crash and burn in gallup nm before he. continued on

    pjs turkey magic will be featured item tomorrow for turkey prep
    something went wrong last attempt and my smoked bbq version was ok but not as good
    this year i have 2 turkeys for 15-20 guests and all that’s left is asparagus to be picked up
    woo hoo

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  14. The only things I did yesterday to prepare were to gas up the car, get a couple books from the library, and get a few groceries (needed sandwich supplies). Am not impressed with the 4 or 5 inches of snow that fell here. The Association plows the garage apron but they never get too close to the garage doors so I did a bit of shoveling to clear three feet or so away from the door. The rest of today will be a lazy day – a few small cleaning projects, reading, watching my Netflix movie (still get actual DVDs instead of streaming), maybe put lights up on the inside of the patio door. Happy Thanksgiving to all and safe travels to those on the road.

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  16. Already had planned to work from home today as Darling Daughter has no school. Had hoped for more snow than we got, but what we got is lovely to look at (and much prettier than the grey the world had become).

    So here I sit, doing some work. Sort of. And staring out the window at the quiet neighborhood (with thanks to Husband for shoveling, and the nice person from the liquor store who cleared the public walk all the way around the block to us and beyond this morning). Dogs are happily chewing on bones. No real prep for me for tomorrow – I was asked to bring a cheese plate (because I like to find unusual cheeses… have a tub of honey/lavender Driftless sheep cheese to include this year – it’s divine!), salad (slice up some stuff and put it on top of purchased salad greens), and wine (oh the pain! I had to buy wine!). Pick up Mom tomorrow and drive to Prior Lake. And truthfully, Daughter will probably drive. 🙂

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