Sooner

I got GAs card. The M&Ms were pretty. I accidentally dropped them in my kitchen sink, though.... and they burned a hole through the stainless steel!

Congratulations!

CoH will forever remain my first love... but.... I do dally a bit with my Xbox.

Right now, I'm playing Dragons Age Origin. It is very immersive and has a very rich background. The NPCs are believable characters and likeable - or dislikeable.

What are you playing?

I'M HOME!!!

I've never been so glad to see home....

Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone.

OK... I'm digging out of my bunker here at Super 8 and seeing if I can get me, my dog, my jeep, and my Xbox home.

That's awesome, Frosty. I'm glad you got your name back.

I just checked the Oklahoma Dept of Public Safety road conditions website, and its still showing slick and hazardous conditions for most of my trip... either home or to my parents.

I'll check it again closer to checkout time and if its still bad, I'm campin out here with my xbox another night. I've got dents on my jeep, possibly more severe "internal" damage, and I'm done with sliding off the road.

Glad I can provide some entertainment. Hopefully, the third act will have a happy ending.

Here's a picture of how my day started. Now.. some of you from the north may not be very impressed by this... I'll just say that here in Oklahoma, we get very excited if we get enough snow at one time to ACTUALLY cover the ground.

*hugs* Oh... I'm not where I want to be, but I have a PERFECT excuse to veg out in front of my xbox for hours and hours and hours.

I'll be fine. This will be the first christmas ever that I didn't spend with my family, though.

So, this morning I woke up, waited until about 11am to give the road crews maximum time to clear the highways, and went to dig my jeep out of the snow drift. Significant quantities of irritation, sweat, and frustration later, I was mobile again. There was another woman who was stuck, and she had borrowed a shovel from the motel office. She was giving up to take a rest and warm up, and she let me use the shovel. I noticed she didn't have gloves, and offered her a "Christmas Present" of a spare set of gloves I had in the car. After I was moving again, I helped her get loose, and decided to continue to try to travel to my parents.

I started onto I-40, and noted that traffic was moving really slow. I wanted to pull over to consider my options, but there was a highway patrol parked on the side of the road. I was concerned that I would hit it if I just tried to stop, since it was still slick, so I turned off the shoulder. And promptly got stuck.

$80 later, a tow truck winched me out. However, I still in the same problem... too far from home to try to get there, too far from my parents... but today is a bright, sunny day, I had hopes the highways would be clear.

And my hopes were 90% granted - the roads were MOSTLY clear. IMO, this just made it MORE dangerous, because you would think you could go faster, then hit a patch of ice and be in even more trouble. I went off the road twice more before I chickened out entirely. The nearest place I could hole up was about ten miles away. I drove white-knuckled and butt clenched for that ten miles and finally found myself in another Super 8. Yay. Merry Christmas.

But! I have my Xbox, I have wifi, I have my darlin Sammy and I'm warm and safe. And today is better than yesterday, since I was able to find an open store and acquire food. So, I'm at least well fed and entertained.

I hope everyone else is having a happy Christmas!

I am taking my discovery that this friggin Super 8 has free WiFi as my first official Christmas present. Well.. that and I didn't die on the roads today.

If I had today to do over again, I would have called up my work and told them "No way, nuh uh, no how!" However, I had a special patient, and really... that one cat is the reason I went out onto the frozen roads this morning. He repaid me by biting me.

Of course, BEFORE that... I lost control on I-35 and smashed into a concrete barrier. My jeep appears to be ok.. but the steering is a little goofy now. I'm really really hoping it's just knocked out of alignment because tha alternative to that is sad.

My dog Sammy was complete freaked out by the accident and still hasn't completely recovered.

After a stupidly busy day, I managed to get out of work around 2 pm. I spke to my buddy the OHP guy and he told me that once I got east of OKC, it was just rain. So... i tried to get out of OKC. My problem at THAT point was that it wasn't really safe for me to drive anywhere. I work about 30 miles from home, and that would have been over the worst of the weather in OKC. So.. with four wheel drive engaged and a hundred pounds of kitty litter in the back to give a bit of extra weight... I headed east.

Visibility was horrible no one even dared to go more than 25-30 MPH, but things went pretty well. I narrowly avoid a snarl by deliberately steering into a snow drift, managed to keep moving... and then came upon an EPIC traffic jam. I sat on I-40 for somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours. All the while, I just really wanted to be at my parents' house eating the wonderful Christmas Eve dinner mom always makes, and really looking forward to sausage cheeseballs inthe morning (tho she never cooks them brown enough for me unless I remind her...).

I spoke to my friend the OHP again, and he told me at that point that they were pretty much closing all the turnpikes in Oklahoma. Based on his advice, I decided to just find a hotel (even though I was less than 20 miles from home... I just didn't think I could safely get there). He also informed me that I was stuck behind a 50 car pile up.

About this time, an OHP shows up and starts walking around to all the cars advising us that he wants us to turn around, drive about 1/4 mile back and get off the highway. I headed for a nearby Super 8 motel that would let me check in with Sammy. Where upon I find myself smack in the middle of ANOTHER complete traffic jam. After about 1/2 hour of sitting still there, I took off across a Sam's club parking lot, and finally made my way to the hotel. Somewhere along the line, I noted that my dome lights were on and wouldn't turn off. *sigh*

I paid a stupid amount of money for a room at a Super 8, and asked the guy if there was someplace I could get something to eat (it was about 5:30 pm at that point, and I'd grabbed a burger for me and Sammy at about 2). He pointed across the parking lot to a gas station THAT WAS CLEARLY CLOSED and said that was it.

I finished up by running my Jeep aground on a snow drift (we don't DO snow drifts in Oklahoma).

As it happened, I had packed up my XBox and the new game that a wonderful friend got for me, so now I'm warm and safe (if a bit hungry) in a Super 8.

I'm grateful not to be dead.

Merry Christmas everyone. Be safe, be warm, be happy.

I am currently sitting at a standstill on I40. Attempting to drive today in this snowstorm may be the dumbest thing I've ever done.

So, while I'm sitting here.... I'll wish everyone a safe, warm holiday. And hope that soon, mine will be too.

Merry Christmas to my online family.

So, between my own natural procrastination, my computer crash, and a bit of flakiness thrown in, my cards went out really late. And... I'm afraid a couple canadian cards went out with US postage... so they may not get delivered at all. Also... in a violent coop attack, the dogs and the cats worked together to try to sabotage my cards. So.. if anyone doesn't get a card at all.. it's the cat's fault. I didn't leave anyone out on purpose. I promise.

I made it - with just one of my two account - for the beginning, but had to get back to trying to get my main puter back up.

CURSE YOU, BEST BUY! *shakes fist*

*throws tantrum*

NoooOOOO!

Stop it stop it stop it!

Major T is awesomz!

I have my puter back. I'm still getting things set up, but I have a functioning computer.

Major T is STILL teh awesomez.

I wish I could tell you how frustrated - and therefor downright cranky - I get when I have computer problems.

I <3 T

It is possible - no..... likely - the brain trust at best buy will interfer with my participation.

Hey! I showered today!

Come back, Protector! COME BACK!

We were just finishing up mission 3 of the ITF