Blizzard!

The "Blizzard of the Century" just passed through Saskatoon yesterday and early this morning. With 90 km/h winds and just about 10 inches of snow, thousands of people were stranded either at work, school, on the road, in the airport, or elsewhere (besides home). I heard about some people that had to sleep at Wal-Mart and Costco. Christy was almost stuck at school as her car was burried in a snow drift. Her roomate came to the resuce and they were able to make it home (somehow). She said a guy in a 4x4 truck pulled her over and told her to follow him, so she followed him along a short-cut through the city and made in home within an hour or so. Meanwhile traffic was backed up so much that people were waiting 4 or 5 hours just to get home (within the city!). The visible realities of the storm were evident this morning as I passed cars and trucks in the ditch or out of gas on the side of the road.

I went to work at noon yesterday despite barely making it due to zero visibility. The drive was enjoyable though, I love driving in "horrible" weather. People were hitting the ditch, each other, and anything the slippery roads led their vehicles to impact, left, right and center. But I kept on plugging along, for the simple fact that if I slowed down I would inevitably get stuck in the snow drifts. Only being a few minutes late for my support time was an achievement in itself. I suppose it only took me 20 minutes to travel that distance. Through the course of my shift, I was informed that nobody was going to be able to make their shifts at the house until the next day. And so I ended up supporting our clients for 20 hours! All in all it was a relaxing and quiet time together and I managed to get 6 hours sleep. This morning coming home took over an hour because my truck was stalling every time I slowed down enough (I believe the CO2 sensor is shot). When I got home there was nowhere to park so I left my truck in the middle of the road and shovelled a spot (our street isn't busy--this is also why the city only plows our road a couple times each winter, apparently!). Oh, well! Praise God my family and friends are all safe!

Dad is coming into the city next week and will probably be staying all week either at my house or Christy's. He has some treatments and needs to be in the city in case he needs extra care that is not available in North Battleford. Anyway, happy shovelling across the country!