This is Reina today, all dolled up, literally. She has spent the morning in her princess high heels, shuffling around the downstairs with baby boy in a stroller, carrying a purse. Yes, that is a tea cup in her hand. She has also been periodically calling Daddy on her pink fuzzy phone. Shortly after this photo was taken, she took baby out of the stroller and tackled him several times. Can't say she is modelling this ultra girliness from me, but I can tell you she learned her tackle technique from Bill.
Yesterday, was a different story. As evidenced by the title of this post, we've had yet another dumping of several inches of snow in our humble Midwest city. I should add, twice in two weeks, the city has been debilitated by weather that more northern areas would scoff at. People running off the road, traffic backed up for 6-7 hours, not able to let the snowplows through due to the congestion. Granted, we got somewhere around 6 inches or more in less than that many hours, adding to the layers of snow/ice/snow/slush/ice we had from last week.
Usually, I would smugly stay inside on a day like yesterday, thankful we didn't have to go anywhere. However, that was not the case yesterday. In the morning, when it was sunny and not snowing, grant you, Reina and I had dropped off the car for some scheduled maintenance and oil change. We were kindly driven home by the dealership shuttle so Reina could have lunch and nap at home instead of waiting the 3 hours it would take at the service place. Over the next few hours, it began to snow. The nice, quiet, Charlie Brown, falling straight down kind of snow that accumulates in the yard but doesn't stick to the pavement.
The dealer called, work was done, could they pick us back up? Sure, that would be great! While we waited for the shuttle driver to arrive, we bundled up and went outside, only to be shocked to find not only was the snow still coming down, it was starting to stick. Ugh. Not too bad, just a dusting still. And no chance Bill would be able to leave work to take us to get the other car before they closed.
Well, the shuttle driver arrived and we got in the van and headed back to the dealership, which was 6.8 miles from our home. Reina was very excited by the snow, and kept asking for me to "shubble" it and to "make a no-man". We drove on.
About 2 miles from home we hit stop and go traffic. We figured it was due to the freeway being backed up and we'd be passed it soon. Not so. Reina wanted a granola bar. Had one in my purse.
About 45 minutes later, the poor shuttle driver was still trying to stay cool and we had moved about 50 feet. Reina wanted a fruit bar...had on in my purse, then she didn't want it.
About 3 hours later, we were less than 2 miles from the dealership and we had to pick up another customer. By now it was 7:30 pm. I was out of snacks but had a back-up lollipop. Reina was getting whiny.
The second customer was a middle aged man with a patience problem. He sat in the car for all of 30 minutes before he declared he would "get out and walk for a bit" until our slow moving vehicle passed him again (which happened almost immediately). Reina was handling this hostage crisis better than this dude.
We arrived at the dealership no less than 5 hours after we had set out from home. It was after 9 pm and long after both dinner and even bedtime for Reina. Traffic was still a mess, stop and go in some places, just stop in others.
Luckily, a 24 hour Steak and Shake was located next door. Reina had fries and chocolate milkshake for dinner. I wished they had wine...probably so wrong of me on so many levels! I made do with chocolate milkshake, too. We waited there for about an hour until traffic looked decent enough going south that we could do that, then back track north to get home. Bill had already made it home after an hour on the road. It was time to go.
Although snowy, our newly oil-changed, tire-rotated, fluid-topped-off vehicle kicked butt on the highway. No spinning out or even sliding in the several inches of accumulation. Reina got to bed around 11 pm, the second time this week thanks to a Superbowl party Sunday. And now, despite all rationale, she is paradoxically not napping.
Why even bother to get the car yesterday at all, you ask? I don't know, we left under moderate conditions only to reach the point of no return when all we could do was carry on to the end. Stubbornness most likely. Ironically, I had cancelled our service appointment last week due to the weather. Go figure.
Reina was as good as she could possibly be, and better. Bribery helped, but she really is just a good traveller. I was having flashbacks to our time stuck in the car at Christmas with Andrew, Lauren and a screaming Milo (sorry guys) and was praying the Reina would keep her cool and she did. The shuttle driver was awesome, too. He even gave us his own personal stash of gummy fruit snacks and goldfish crackers from his desk to take in the car ride home with us. I've already written a note to his boss!
Now we are home and it is too cold to play outside. Bummer. This snow might actually generate a little bit better snow man than the last storm did. I think now, I'd like to be done with the snow...especially as Speck's arrival approaches. I really don't relish the idea of delivering in the car because there is too much traffic. Cross your fingers and pray for Spring, no matter what the groundhog said on Monday.
Looks can be deceptive. So can smiles. This was taken yesterday, circa 8 pm.
Oh binky, I've loved you from the start, 1/07.
Blurry, much like a Sasquatch photo. Last known image of binky in use, circa 12/26/08.
