Stuck in a Rut

 The snow and ice came in Sunday night--it was not much, but enough to keep us home bound for the rest of the evening and Monday.  The sleet started while I was at the grocery store.  By morning, Rio's lot was a mud pit where he walks his circle around the woodpile, and his hay barn was slushy by the door, but warm and dry inside.

The Sunday day shift had not shown up, so sis and I covered from 11 Saturday night until 7 Monday morning, and then discovered that the day shift for Monday was iced in, and the evening shift for Monday would not return until late Monday night.  We covered another day and night.  Still, it is always nice when it is just sis, mom, dad, and me.  I cooked dinner and made another apple skillet cake--thanks, Lana!--and managed to get my car stuck in the mud down by the barn.  (It's a long story, so suffice it to stay, the car stayed there Sunday night and until Sis' bro-in-law came to give me a tow out this morning.)

Fortunately, the day shift was able to get here this morning so Sis could go home for the first time since Saturday night at 11, and I am able to get out and run the necessary errands: pharmacy, mail, grocery store.  I take Mom to doctor at 4 to get her stitches out, and then will make a run out to Sis' house as we are working on some plans that need planning and finalizing, and we will be back at 11 for the night shift.

 I have enjoyed sitting out on the breezeway most nights, enjoying the string of lights I hung, and the little flashing lighted star I found while repairing a drawer knob one day.  The days and evenings settle into a routine when I am here, and it is a routine that somehow brings about a sense of rest and peace, even though it is busy from the time I get up at daylight until the time I turn out the light after midnight.  I will be here for the 3-shifts-in-a-row New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and then barring more tornadoes or ice storms or parental disasters, head home to Mississippi early Saturday morning after one last time to feed Rio until the next trip.

I met my new great-great niece, and Dad enjoyed holding his new great-great granddaughter Christmas night.  It has been a most wonderful time of the year.