JR has been sledding on a sled loaned her by kind neighbors--they bought 5 plastic sleds right before the storm, saw her about to try to sled with a plastic tray and have let her use them as much as she likes. Which means she is out there several times a day.
She got SC to come out with her on Sunday and they were out again this afternoon. The hills near our house aren't very steep, but they go down shrieking as if they were on a roller coaster at King's Dominion!

We got around 20 inches, but the drifts and movement made it hard to measure.

Dug out the Man's car yesterday--took about 1 1/2 hours--and this morning we drove it to the supermarket. Bless Giant Food, which handles snow well. We've got plenty of dry goods and stuff in the freezer, but we needed perishables They had milk--I started Friday with about 1 1/2 gallons but I've got 2 girls . No strawberries, but grapes, not a lot of salad stuff but plenty of the baby carrots the girls both eat. Extra eggs because I'm on a baking binge--this week I've made challah, Nanay's sticky buns, corn bread and banana bread. Plus tomorrow is SC's b-day so I have to make her a cake!

She will probably be celebrating that birthday with another day at home--which is NOT her birthday wish! But our short trip this morning showed us that though the highway was clear, the secondary roads are still treacherous and the side streets a mess. The plows have created walls of snow, making it hard to exit from a parking space. And what HAS been shoveled will freeze. There's ice on the streets too--I slipped and fell on my tuches on a patch I didn't see. Luckily, all that was injured was my dignity--I mean, I know how to walk on ice!

All of it will freeze again tonight. Plus there are predictions of more snow tomorrow evening and night, so I don't see school reopening until at least Thursday (!)

I'm just hoping the city will continue to consider the library a "non-essential" service and keep us closed as well. Otherwise, my annual leave totals will take a hit.

The Man's office IS essential--public works! He stayed home today, but I think he may go in tomorrow and if he does, I don't know if he'll be home until the next day--or later.

The girls have been out sledding and are going again this afternoon. We are going to have to try to clear my car, which is even more deeply buried than the Man's was. Pictures later.......

The NWS has us under a winter storm warning and is as of now is predicting 20-28 inches, as much or more than we got back in December. More than we have ever gotten in the 22 years I've been here!

When I was a kid in NYC, I thought of Virginia as a "Southern" place, but Northern Virginia is firmly part of the Mid Atlantic. We have had plenty of winter weather as cold and nasty as any I experienced up north. But we've had very little snow for the last 7 or 8 years, to the point where buying the girls snow gear has often been an exercise in futility.

In fact, the last time we had this bad a winter was in February 2003, when we had a 3 day storm. I remember it vividly-- I was stranded at home w/ an 8 yr old, 3 1/2 year old, 2 cats and a healing broken foot!

The Man was at work during that storm--he works for public works in the next county over. Back then, he was low enough on the totem pole to draw "snow duty"--mostly working in the office, occasionally riding shotgun with the plow drivers. Nowadays he is office staff and seldom called in, but just as is the case at my library,budget cuts have left them shorthanded and he is "on reserve" for Sunday night.

Hopefully he will get home before the snow gets bad tonight and if his car gets buried--and it probably will--he won't have to go back in.

I was reckless enough to go to the stores this morning at 7 to buy a few extra things. We're always well provisioned here, but I had an item or two I really needed.

One store was absolute chaos--the  meat department was stripped bare. Other departments  were missing stuff too. The lines were 15 deep, though they opened up an extra self check and I was able to dodge the worst of the crowds. Don't these folks shop for food on a regular basis?

The other store was well stocked--though one or two produce items we really could have used were gone. They had milk and eggs and toilet paper and all those things folks buy in a panic. The lines were minimal--I got through self check in minutes.

No school for the girls today--in fact SC is still asleep. I didn't go to ballet because I've got some sort of cold that had BETTER start going away--I don't like the coughing. And since I wasn't due at work until 11 anyway, I didn't go in at all. I just hope they close early. I love my job, but the library is NOT a vital service on a snow day!

We've got plenty of stuff in the house. Leftover ham and a ham bone for the navy bean soup the girls love. Beef, mushrooms, onions and yogurt/sour cream for stroganoff and the noodles to serve it on.  A turkey breast to roast and its leftover carcass to cook into broth for turkey corn chowder--I'll have to post the recipe for that. Obviously, my crockpot will be busy.

The pantry and the fridge are stocked with what we need. We buy our cat food by the case on line. And we buy our toilet paper by the case at Costco

Most importantly, there is plenty of garlic on hand for the Man when he gets home.
But I am not going to relax and enjoy this snow until he does........

I had already started this post when I was helping with the reserve books this morning and discovered that a colleague and friend with a young baby had reserved Jenny McCarthy's new piece of tripe on how she "cured" her son's autism.

I occasionally comment on the NY Times blog Motherlode and did so on a piece this week called "The False Prophets of Autism".

I copied the piece and attached it to McCarthy's little rag. I hope my friend reads the article and thinks about it before she bothers to read McCarthy.

You can find it here. Here is my comment--it's #19 on the post-- and I'm tickled to say it's the 7 or 8th most recommended.

SRM, the 6th commenter I refer to had said that she is "postponing" vaccines in order to protect her child:

SRM (#6)while you are delaying that vaccine I hope that you are keeping your child in a nice bubble, isolated from the elderly, pregnant women and kids with compromised immune syndromes.

Your healthy child may be able to handle childhood diseases with no risk of death or complications (I knew kids in my childhood who went deaf from German measles). Others may not.

The fact that we are diagnosing 1 in every 110 with autism may very well point to the fact that we now have such a diagnosis. There was a recent British study that showed that by such a diagnosis, 1 percent--1 in every 100 ADULTS would be diagnosed as autistic: http://tinyurl.com/lx8auq

Think about kids you went to school with who had problems, adults you have known with who are considered "strange" or "quirky", start thinking about their symptoms and you may very well realized, as I did recently about a colleague, that their behavior is that of the autistic.

I don't believe there's an epidemic. I believe we've become better at diagnosing the condition. And as the mother of two healthy girls (who had all their shots), I sincerely hope that we find a way to treat it so that all these children and their families can have happy, productive lives.

 

By request, I AM repeating the Heinlein quote--it's from "Time Enough For Love".

Several people have commented that we should have civil unions for all--and I'm all for that--we were married in a civil ceremony by a justice of the peace. I wrote about civil unions in July as "Want to "Defend" Marriage? Let Gays Marry"

And I've always liked Garrison Keilor's comment "We should let gays marry. Why shouldn't they be miserable like the rest of us?"

Companionship, partnership, mutual reassurance, someone to laugh and grieve with, loyalty that accepts foibles, someone to touch, someone to hold your hand, that is "marriage" and "sex" is but the icing on the cake. Oh, that icing can be wonderfully tasty--but it is NOT the cake. A marriage can lose that "icing"--say through accident--and still go on and on and on, giving happiness to those who share it........... 

Don't worry. Today, on my 16th anniversary, I won't quote Heinlein again, though I still feel he described marriage as well as anyone could.

Right now there is a court case going on to try and declare Prop 8 in California unconstitutional. And the opposing side keep going on about how marriage is for the purpose of procreation of children, therefore there cannot be gay marriage.

Huh?

What about "childless by choice" couples--they shouldn't be allowed to get married? Should couples who want to have children but sadly cannot not be married? What about after your reproductive years are over--if you meet someone and fall in love, shouldn't you be allowed to get married?

My parents, bless them, will hopefully be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this June. It's been 25 years since my brother and I left home. Only one half of their lives was about child rearing.

Marriage is about being with someone you care about and sharing their life. Dealing with blocked toilets and taxes. Health scares and financial worries. Cooking meals and planning vacations. Home improvements and home disasters. Arguing about tiny things that drive you mad and sharing jokes that only the two of you understand. Going through the triumphs and the tragedies that make up our lives.

Building a life together and knowing that though there are millions of other people out there, no one else in the world could have given you the things your partner has given you in just that way.

That's got nothing, NOTHING to do with sex. And while it can include children--the children of your body or the children that become yours by virtue of your love--it doesn't start or end with your children.

Letting everyone marry the person of their choice wouldn't weaken the institution of marriage. Far from it.
It would say that marriage is a vital institution--so vital that we want everyone to have the chance to experience it.

And shame on anyone who will say otherwise.

We had a guy in here this AM who started cussing at his Internet station. When the lady next to him asked him to stop, he headed into the bathroom and came out cussing loudly.

The ref manager told him to stop. He cussed him out. The manager told him to leave for the day. He kept cussing--and threatening everyone. Then it was for a week. Then a month.

The branch manager came out and told him to leave and not come back for 6 months. He cussed him out all the way down the stairs, threatened him, stood face to face and poked him.

I called the cops, but by then he was gone. Meanwhile a woman who says she's his wife had come down and she stood outside with the cops, telling them it was all lies. That the manager had touched her kids (he was across the room at the time). That the lady had gotten them in trouble because he was just "talking to himself". Who cared if it was audible and obscene?

He's banned for 6 months--if he comes back, we call the cops and he'll be arrested. She's still allowed to come in, though I hope she does not.

She had a toddler in a stroller and a little boy with her and she was yelling at the boy. It broke my heart.

Just another day at that haven of tranquility, the public library in 2010...................

The word is "Audacity":
Au⋅dac⋅i⋅ty
/ɔˈdæsɪti/  [aw-das-i-tee]
–noun, plural -ties:boldness or daring, esp. with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.

Synonyms: nerve, spunk, grit, temerity, foolhardiness.

Barack Obama wrote a book called "The Audacity of Hope".
We showed audacity. We voted him in with hope in our hearts.

One year later, we have watched him attempt bi-partisanship with a group of individuals whose only goal was to oppose him completely.

We have watched him bring in men who are undoubtedly experts in their fields, but are still clearly part of those fields. Men whose decisions are not based on what is good for everyday people, but for their colleagues.  Men who have no idea what it's like not to have health care, to live paycheck to paycheck. To fear that you will lose your house. To lose your job without a new job in sight.

Their work has secured the banks and the insurance companies. The executives have gotten their bonuses. But their prosperity has not brought back the jobs of the everyday people these companies let go, or created new jobs.

The jobs aren't coming back. The executives put the money in their pockets, not into their businesses. Did we really expect any less? Ever since the days of that momzer Ronald Reagan, the "trickle down" theory has proved to be a crock!

We've watched our president dash our hopes on true universal health care. Instead of taking a stand on this, instead of telling Joe Lieberman and all the other self satisfied, well insured tools of the insurance companies and big corporate medicine to go to hell, he's led his party in making concessions. In the process they have created an overstuffed mishmosh of a bill, stuffed with treats for the special interest groups.  They've crafted a bill that no one likes--and it's not just the "socialized medicine" nuts. It's those of us who feel that it doesn't go far enough--and will penalize a lot of people who are in trouble monetarily already.

Above all, we've watched him let the Republicans and those who fund them use Fox non-News and the rest of the media to feed lies to people all too willing to believe them, and gullible enough to be used as shills, allowing the rest of us to be victimized by their ignorance and prejudice.

It's time to put an end to this. And the Supreme Court's political activism of the past week makes it all the more urgent.

It's time for the Democrats to get audacious.
It's time for Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the rest to circle the wagons and take a stand.

It's time for them to write a new, simple health care bill with universal health care, and regulation of the health care and insurance industries--and that includes the drug companies.

It's time for them to reinstitute the Glass-Steagall act and to create more anti-trust legislation that gives small companies a level playing field. Want more jobs? Create more companies that can make a go of it!

It's time to rewrite the tax code and make sure any big corporations that are left pay their fair share, and that any executive getting a big bonus returns the bulk of it back to those of us who make it possible--in their taxes!

And above all, it's time to create some sort of jobs corp that will get America back to work.

Yes, there's a deficit. Yes, it could get bigger. But how are we going to decrease it if no one is working and paying their taxes, and if we allow giant companies to shirk in paying their fair share!

Yes, if it doesn't work, a lot of Democrats could get voted out of office. But what do they have to fear?
It's not like if they lose their jobs, they'll lose their money making abilities. Nothing's been done on their watches about lobbyists or "consultants". They'll be able to go out and get well paying jobs elsewhere--heck, they'll make more money in private life than they ever will in public. They won't be worrying about losing THEIR homes or their health insurance!

What do they have to gain?
The glory of taking a principled stand. The glory of showing integrity and moral courage--of truly being "public servants".

The American people are mad as hell and they are only going to get madder. Because they WANT something to be done!

Do it, Mr President. Do it, Congressmen and Senators. 

Do it with "confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions."

Be audacious. Do it now while you still can.

Do it, and your names will be remembered forever as American heroes.

Don't do it and you surely will lose your jobs.
And we, the American people, will lose far,far more.....