Draco Is Upon Us

Although they're calling it Brianna on the local Fox News, the weather service has been calling it Draco since it formed way out West so I'm calling it Draco.  Draco is a much cooler snowstorm name than Brianna, don't you think?  I do too.  And I'll be stopping on my (slow) way to work for a box of Zycam because of course now that it's nearly Christmas my throat is scratchy and I feel like I'm getting a cold.  I don't have time to have a cold right now.  If it'd only wait until after January 3 when DD & DIL2 have gone home that'd be good, 'k?  Pleeeeze.  This blizzard may be another example of how I don't know my own strength.  See, I've been wishing pretty hard for snow so that it looks Christmas-y and there's snow cover out at the botanical garden for the Festival of Lights.  I was thinking more in the neighborhood of four inches or so, just enough to cover the ground and pile up artfully on the evergreens, not 11-14" with 50 mph winds blowing whiteouts.  God, I can't wait til it's time to drive home from work this afternoon.  Should be an adventure.  A slow-motion one.  Thank god I was smart enough to send the snowblower in for a tune-up last month because the snow's the wet and heavy kind that'd kill me to shovel.  All the schools are closed, even the government offices are shut, I should get a snow day too, don't you think?  I won't because commerce must go on and the dive shop can't afford to not be open if there's a chance a person might want to come in and buy something.  Besides I left my knitting there.  Silly me.  I had 5 customers yesterday!  5!  And not all at once, one at a time.  4 of them even bought things, the last one dropped off a dive computer for service so he'll be "buying" something on the other end of the visit, so to speak.  I watched the Old Faithful Cam most of yesterday afternoon and saw people out walking along the boardwalks and even a bison amble by.  It was pretty darned cool.  I can sit and watch that steam drift on the wind for hours.

December 20--Sarah Furman Warner Williams, Coverlet.  Susannah lay on the bed in Gram and Gramp's upstairs bedroom.  Not the front room that looked out at the gravel road.  Uncle Walt was away in the Army and all his stuff was still in the front room.  Susannah slept in the back bedroom, the one with the brick chimney up through the middle of it.  The window looked out into the big catalpa tree that shaded the yard when Gram sat to shell peas and hull butterbeans.  Gram always made sure to put Susannah's favorite quilt on the bed when she came to sty.  There was a giant pot of flowers in the middle with big colorful birds among the flowers.  Below the pot were little people in old-fashioned clothes, even a little shepherd tending his flock of tiny sheep.

I don't know where that was going but I liked the idea of a little girl snug under the eaves in a cozy bed tracing her finger over the busy quilt designs.  Are you ready for Christmas?  It's next Tuesday, you know.  I'm happy to say that we're not having Christmas, the gift exchanging part, until the 30th so the elves get a little extension.  Whew.  The elves hate wrapping gifts in the wee hours.  Hate.  It.  Happy Snow Day!
--Barbara Sue