True Story.
My friend Laura and I recently went in on a cow. We had been waiting a while for this order, so when she texted me on Friday and said the man would deliver it on Saturday, I was pumped. We went back and forth a bit and decided to meet up at her house after the boys and her girls went to bed so we could actually talk for a while.
She was feeding her littlest when I got there, so her hubby and I got to catch up a bit. It was nice and cold out, so we didn't have to worry about packing the meat in coolers. We packed up the car, he took off for the grocery store, and she and I opened a bottle of wine and sat at the kitchen table and chatted away.
Her hubby got home around 9:30pm or so, and went downstairs to study. We visited some more, and her older daughter woke up a few times complaining that her tummy hurt. Laura had some natural remedies that she tried, but she was just not feeling well.
Around 11pm or so, she started vomiting. Considering how much I hate vomit, I decided that was my signal to go ahead and take off for home. I walked outside and couldn't believe what I saw. There was about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground and covering my car.
I get that 3 inches of snow isn't really that much, but in my town, it pretty much shuts down when we have a slight dusting, so this was huge. And it was steadily pouring big ol' snowflakes right on my head.
Knowing I have an awesome driving record and an all-wheel drive vehicle, I set off into the storm with a full mind to make it the typical 20-minute drive home. I didn't get too far.
The roads were pretty bad, but my Ophelia (the outback) handled those roads perfectly. That is one awesome car. Seriously. Other cars though, were all over the place. I watched one car spin out and do a few 360s right in front of me, as well as another one try to make a right turn at about 6 miles per hours and slide right into a neighborhood sign. This wasn't looking good.
Laura lives in a neighborhood very close to our high school, so I know those roads better than I know most roads around the area. I started to talk out loud to myself
"You've got this. You've been driving these roads for nearly 20 years! You can totally make it home."
Then, I suddenly couldn't tell if the road went left or continued straight. It was bizarre. I pulled into a QT parking lot and examined my options. My car drove great, but these others were all over the place. What if someone ran into me? I have only 12% power on my cell, so if I drive into a ditch, I could be out of luck.
I suppose I could have driven back to Laura's, but vomitville 2013 didn't seem too desirable. So I called another friend who lives less than a mile from the QT and asked if I could crash at her house. Of course I could!
So off I went, sliding down the road to my other friends house, who opened their home and their couch to me. The husband (N's best man in our wedding) was even peering out the window when I pulled up. They are such good peeps.
So we drank some wine, my friend gave me some hand-me-down clothes, and my 1/4 of a grass-fed cow stayed nice and frozen until I drove home the next morning.
I sent Laura a text that night just letting her know that while I didn't make it home, I was safe, and she still didn't even know that it snowed! We managed to get about 4-5 inches of snow in about 2 hours. Crazy!
Lu had a slight fever on Saturday, and as I laid down on their couch trying to sleep, I convinced myself that he was going to spike a crazy high fever and N wouldn't know how much medicine to give him (we don't usually, but if I'm not there to monitor the fever, I probably would have told him to just give him a reducer. Control freak, much??)
So I sent N a text telling him the dose to give should he wake up overnight with a 109 degree fever. I could not sleep. My adrenaline was pumping. I hated not being home. I worried about driving home the next day. I worried about catching the little virus Laura's little girl had (we've had our own stomach crappiness in our house lately too).
So finally around 2am or so, I fell asleep. Then, as though someone hit me over the head with something, I sprung up at 5:45am ready to take on the day. What the heck? I was so tired but just couldn't settle back down. I finally got up around 7am and left for home.
The roads were absolutely TERRIBLE. Again, Ophelia got me home with no trouble, but cars were all over the place. The drivers ranged from people driving crazy fast to people driving so slowly that they actually got stuck driving up a hill. Come on people, it's snow. Geez.
So I made it home and was so happy. Lu still felt warm and was grouchy, and fought a morning nap like crazy but he did finally lay down to take one (and slept for almost 3 hours!)
But that meant that we had to miss our friend's baby's dedication that they so thoughtfully invited us to at their church on Sunday morning. Bummer!
We were able to catch some of the Superbowl, although I tried desperately to get Lu to sleep at their house in a playpen or in the carrier, and he wasn't having either one. We made it home and I crashed pretty fast. Poor N watched the end of the game all alone!
So that was how a grass-fed cow got me stranded in a snow storm.
The End.
