Thursday, February 3, 2022
Matt measured seven inches of snow and it’s predicted to continue falling through the night. I’ve lost count of the snowfalls this winter. This storm had north Texas taking a snow day, as well as the east coast. The brilliant white against the winter gray was breathtaking here. It’s just gorgeous and I don’t expect it to get old any time soon. Matt and I watched Ice Age and sipped hot cocoa. Today was the first day I’ve felt “back to normal” since I was sick.
Sunday, February 6, 2022
Our cabin home sits down in a little valley and a couple of hills are between us and the highway to town. Temperatures have been in the 40s during the day and teens at night so there’s still a lot of snow on the dirt road leading up to the highway. In fact, you can’t even tell there’s a road there right now. We do not own 4-wheel drive vehicles, and I have not left the house since last Saturday. I started running a fever that night. Matt ran into town last Monday. We tried to get out this afternoon and didn’t even make it up the small first hill. Thankfully, we didn’t really need anything. But we were ready to get out of here.
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
We finally made it out to the pavement on Monday due to Matt’s persistence. It was a back and forth, engine revving, slow—probably took us twenty minutes—adventure, but we escaped. We went to Branson to see if the world still existed and for fast food, and groceries. I was so excited just to make it out into the real world alive that I forgot my shopping list. Matt was very upset about that. He gave me a long, boring lecture on technology, but I remembered everything we needed. HA!
We’ve gone out every day since then. Today we picked up Ray from the airport.
I made a “Hoosier” pie. I’m not into pies, so I’m uncertain if it’s similar to something more common to pie connoisseurs. I figured this particular pie was a northern thing, but I used a recipe from a recent issue of Country Living magazine. Matt described it as tasting like a cross between a cheesecake and tres leches cake. We all enjoyed it.
Stephanie sent me the link to the Air B&B she booked for us in Hot Springs. It’s an adorable 2B/2B condo. She is working there for a week and I’m going to spend the week with her there. I’m so excited. I’m expecting a writing retreat by day and daughter fun at night. No guys. I can’t wait.
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Ray’s been here and flew back to Texas yesterday. The weather was beautiful for most of his visit. He and Matt got some work done outside and today the Missouri crazy weather returned. We are under a flash flood warning and winter weather advisory until 9:15 tonight. We experienced rain, sleet, snow, and sunshine today. And the wind was so strong I removed the wreath from the door before something got destroyed. The ice doesn’t appear to be sticking to the road, so hopefully, we won’t be frozen in again. Many sources have assured us this has been an unusually hard winter. I hope it’s true.
I started packing today for my Hot Springs trip with Stephanie. Rain is predicted all week for there and here. But not to worry, rain makes for good writing weather and I have rain boots. It’s gonna be great.
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
I’m in Hot Springs living the writing dream spending the day in my pajamas with crazy hair cranking out the pages. I guess I should confess this is largely due to the sleet, snow, and freezing rain that’s falling and not by my choosing.
I haven’t been to the Gangster Museum yet. I’ll probably visit it Friday since sunshine and warmer temps are expected. So far I’ve just done a little shopping and sightseeing while it wasn’t raining.
Ray’s flight to Branson today was delayed a couple of hours because of weather conditions in Ft. Worth. Secretly, I am glad that Matt has to pick him up and not me this time since the roads are bad. I guess when I lived in Texas I didn’t notice how many storms impacted the entire country regularly. Maybe it’s due to climate change or Covid. Covid gets blamed for everything. By the way, I was the perfect weight, well-spoken, healthy, and mentally clear and focused before the virus.
Later:
Matt drove to the Harrison Airport in treacherous conditions to find the airline was waiting till 1 pm before announcing the flight was canceled. Ray’s flight was rescheduled several times but he finally arrived Sunday, February 27—just two hours before I got back from Hot Springs.
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine and began bombing them during the night. The US is worried about gas price hikes with inflation at an all-time high and cyber-attacks. President Biden is issuing sanctions on Russia. We are waiting to hear what those will be. This is a war crime and Putin will surely go down in history as a tyrant.
Monday, February 28, 2022
I had an amazing time in Hot Springs in spite of a couple of days of winter weather. Stephanie’s been there enough to know the lay of the land and some great restaurants making her a pretty good tour guide. Hmmm. That sounds like us in Branson.
We walked around the Arlington Hotel (sister hotel to the Baker). The nearby hot spring seemed really hot on our cold hands with the cool day. Making our way down Central Avenue, the leaves in the trees were rattling noisily overhead. I thought birds were taking flight and I was a little afraid. It was so violent. Steph thought it had started raining before realizing it was the ice on the leaves and branches thawing and sliding off on us and the ground.
We toured The Gangster Museum of America. If you’re ever in Hot Springs, don’t miss this place. The tour guide was a hoot and the local history and legends were enthralling. Mobsters were drawn to the area for the moonshine and paid local law enforcement to look the other way since it was during Prohibition. Typical mob methods, right? The interesting thing was that they used the spring water bottling companies to package their product and placed the labels upside down so they could tell their liquid from the water. Spring Water train cars allowed them to transport it all over the country. This caused me to wonder if similar operations existed in Mineral Wells, so I asked my sources, and they could neither confirm nor deny my speculation since they’d never heard anything like that.
My drive home was spectacular in the sunshine with the snow-covered hills and icicles on the limestone ridges.
Ukrainians have stopped men from 18 to 60 from leaving the country and recruiting them to fight. Women and children are fleeing to Poland. Russia is still bombing Ukraine.