Saturday, January 4, 2014

Getting out of Dodge, or “the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray”.

From Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse”- Jill: I reserved a hotel room for us three weeks ago, but now the clerk says he has no record of our reservation.  So much for a fun weekend in the city.  Jane: Well, these things happen.  The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.  I had all the arrangements made for my party, and then the guest of honor got sick and I had to call the whole thing off.  The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley.  If a little rain can ruin the best-laid plans of mice and men, think of what an earthquake (or winter storm Hercules) might do!

Matt Dillon and the storm clearly said “Get out of Dodge now”, so we did.  Instead of a planned leisurely two hour drive to Maplewood, NJ on Thursday afternoon followed by watching the rehearsal of a play “starring” two of our grandchildren, a pizza, and a warm bed, Winter Storm Hercules kicked us out of town early and sent us fleeing down the east coast to the relative safety and shelter of MD.

Light snow through CT and a bit more in NJ was the worst we saw until 3:53 PM EST near Baltimore.  There, only 45 minutes away from our destination, the snow started to fall.  It fell, and fell, and fell, topping out at about 6 inches in Severna Park by Friday morning.  But by that time we had been safely snuggled in bed for many hours with nary a care in the world.

Friday brought a cold wind that blew the already-fallen snow off the roof in spirals and vortices.  It felt like we had made a wrong turn and were in Sedona.  In the spirit of turning lemons into snowcones, we accompanied Eli and Reese to the local hill where they sledded and we watched (mostly hunkered down in the warm car).

Saturday in MD meant more sledding for Eli and a snow monster for Sandy and Reese.  Homemade ice cream too!  All that snow is good for something.