A change in plans

Old What’s Her Face* decided to drive to Nevada today to visit her brother, and to drop off gifts. She planned to leave when she got off work this morning, and she decided to take Otto with her.

Then it decided to snow last night and into the morning. Traffic was a gridlock, but it was determined the snow would end around noon. She called her brother and he told her not to come. It was still snowing in Nevada, and really piled up. The trip involves leaving Boise at around 2200 feet in elevation, crossing over at around 6000, and dropping down to a mile high in Elko. (5280 feet.) Dealing with deep snow, possible drifting, and icy roads just wasn’t a good idea.

All my plans of spending the weekend with Yak Guy went out the window. I have a real problem working on these deeper projects with distractions around. Otto is insisting on a rousing game of pumpkin ball even as I type this.

This requires a change in the master plan. I might be able to work on some short fiction tomorrow, but we’ll have date night and all the trimmings. Old What’s Her Face bought us tickets to the new Star Wars movie on Sunday too.

These things used to really frustrate me. When I took up the habit of short fiction my frustration eased somewhat. I can still be productive, it just flows in a different direction.

So my wife is safe and warm, and so is my dog. We’ll have a nice date night tomorrow, and we have tickets to a pretty promising movie on Sunday. I’ll crank out some short projects and be happy with them.

Besides, I’m off Monday and my wife has to work. I’ll still have Otto, but his bouts of mania don’t last forever. Maybe Yak Guy can saddle up then for a few hours.

What are your plans for the weekend?

*Not my wife’s actual name.

My wife is disappointed

We were supposed to drive from Boise, Idaho to St. George, Utah today. We let the weatherman scare us off.

Weather watches and warnings started yesterday afternoon. They ran all night long, and are still running. It appears that one huge winter storm decided to strike the American West last night. It's about 600 miles to St. George, and the storm is that wide. The outline on the weather maps covers our entire driving route.

Neither one of us is a weather wimp, and we've both driven through many winter storms. This doesn't mean I trust the other guy on the road. There are a lot of people in Salt Lake City, and it gets pretty congested under the best of conditions. Add in a huge winter storm, and it could be a nightmare.

Consider slowing down to accommodate the weather, and we could have been facing a twelve hour drive, with white knuckles all the way.

We will have to visit some other time. We can even have a turkey dinner if we want.

My wife made a couple of pumpkin pies, and I have dinner rolls raising right now. We invited ourselves to our son's house for Thanksgiving.

In other news, I finished reading a book I've been picking my way through. I also wrote a bit of micro-fiction, and ordered some new blog art. I put out a clever Twitter post that indicated those stuck in an airport might enjoy my Experimental Notebook. Are today's sales because of that? I have no idea, but it didn't hurt. A bunch of people clicked on it.

I was productive, but my wife is disappointed. I hope all of you are safe and warm, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not.