It Could Have Been a Lot Worse!

Unless you live in a media vacuum, you know by now that Eastern Oklahoma was blasted pretty hard by the ice storm this week. The statistic that boggles my mind is this: two-thirds of the Tulsa metro area was without power Monday night. Fortunately for us, Sapulpa was blessed to be in the lucky third that never lost power.

Not that we haven't felt the effects, of course. The above pictures are from around our apartment complex. Nick has not had school yet this week; I am assuming it's because not enough staff can make it in. We're still waiting to hear about tomorrow, as many of the districts around us have already announced that they will be closed again. The funny thing is, we had to move south for Nick to have his first "snow days"; Pete and I can't remember school ever being closed for 3 days in a row when we were kids, either. Probably would have happened in '79 if that blizzard hadn't hit during Christmas break!

The down side for the kids is that there's no fun snow to go out and play in. Some of the older kids around us did try "sledding" down one of the hills, with the ice crunching and crackling like crazy under them. But it rained all day on Tuesday, so most of the ice was washed away by the end of the day. Driving anywhere has been a huge headache, thanks to thousands of downed trees and nonfunctioning traffic lights.

To make things even more interesting, Pete has been suffering from gallstones and was schedule to have his gallbladder removed on the 20th. His pre-op testing was cancelled on Tuesday because the hospital was running on a generator. Early this morning, he developed another severe pain attack that sent us to the emergency room at about 10:30 am. Long story short, he actually ended up having the surgery tonight, instead of next week. All I can say is, thank God it didn't happen on Monday! The hospital was a zoo and traffic was nasty, but at least everything was up and running, and we got there in time. He is recovering well and should be home tomorrow.

I am very tired. It has been a long week.

A Parade, and some Perspective

I was going to just write about Sapulpa's Christmas Parade tonight, but first I have to admit, it finally happened to me. I was shopping in downtown Sapulpa tonight because they were offering special extended hours and some other little perks. I exchanged maybe 3 or 4 sentences with the clerk in one of the stores. As she rang up my purchase, she said to me, "You're not from around here, are you?"

Yes, it was inevitable. I KNOW I have a Midwest "accent" -- this was just the first time that someone actually commented on it. Just one of those little reminders that we are still "outsiders" here. At least she'll remember me if I come back, which I probably will; I like the store a lot.

Anyway, what I meant to write about was the parade. It was last Saturday at 6pm, and I think Amelia had the most fun of anyone -- she is just at that parade-loving age right now. Nick was being the big boy and acting kind of bored, but he was happier when we went to Sonic for milkshakes afterward.

Here are some random observations on the first Christmas parade I have ever been to:
1) Christmas parades are, apparently, a big thing in the South. Every town has one. Hey, it was 50 degrees outside, after dark! And we had ice cream!

2) There were more churches in it than politicians. That would NEVER happen in Chicago, regardless of the occasion.

3) No business, apparently, was too small to participate. We saw the Arby's mascot (a giant oven mitt) and the Quizno's mascot (a giant shake). We estimated that only about half of the town was watching the parade, because the other half was in it.

4) There was the usual assortment of beauty pageant queens, Miss Teen, Miss Junior Teen, etc.; most of them riding in convertibles and the like. But Miss Creek County was DRIVING a John Deere tractor! In her formal gown and crown, doing the parade wave and everything. That would never happen in Chicago either.

5) Santa was at the end, of course. However, since he was riding in the lift bucket of a fire truck that actually had two lifts, there were two Santas, so one could face each way. Try and explain that to your kids (luckily, ours didn't ask)!