When "They" Are Wrong

The proverbial "they" got the weather forecast all wrong for the area where we live in Maryland, USA. On Friday, "they" were predicting that we might get 1" (2.5cm) of snow. The big storm was supposed to stay south of us.

"They" were wrong. It began to snow at 9am, and snowed all day. "They" kept changing the forecast, upping the amount of snow expected for our area each hour. "They" finally issued a winter storm warning after noon. Heck, we already knew that.

Here I am with a broken leg, and a disabled partner. My beloved partner is doing the best he can to take care of me, do our grocery shopping, AND shovel the snow from our drive and walks. He cannot operate our snow blower. It is too big, heavy, and hard for him to handle.

There I was... inside, with a tear running down my cheek, holding myself up on crutches watching him work. Man, I feel so guilty. I wish I could help him. He is working so hard. My partner said that we had 7" (17.5cm) of snow when he got out there in the late afternoon... and snow was still falling when he came in.

Bless him... nary a complaint nor whimper. His first question when he came in the door was, "how are YOU?" The least I could do was heat hot water for some cinnamon herbal tea to warm him up.

This too shall pass, but I'm feeling rotten.

Thank goodness that neither he nor I have to cook dinner. We still have about a dozen casseroles that my senior pals brought over during the week. That was so sweet of them. And they've been calling all day, as well. They knew that I would have a lot of trouble sitting still, so they have been calling me to make sure that I didn't do anything stupid, like try to put weight on the broken leg or worse -- go outside. I swear they have bugged our house, because they "overheard" my thinking. (No worries, I obeyed doctor's orders to remain indoors, leg up, and on ice.)

Life is short: show those you love that you love them, because when they love you, they'll do anything for you, even if it hurts.

Update: Someone sent me an email to ask, "why don't you just hire a teenager to do the shoveling?" Man, I wish that were possible. Unfortunately, one of the few downfalls of living where we live is that the teenage kids who live in our area have no work ethic. They don't lift a finger to do any work around their own houses, much less work-for-hire to do manual labor like shovel snow or mow lawns for other people. That's quite different from how it was when I grew up, but is a sad fact about the poor work ethic that parents have accepted in their children today (in this area).