The Great Georgia Shutdown

Okay, the Great Georgia Shutdown is long over, so I am a little late in posting about how it affected us - but here it is anyhow.

A brief weather run down from then....snow was forecast and possible freezing rain for Sunday night.  Having lived here for over a year now, we knew enough to stock up on milk before the storm.  We go through a lot of milk, but figured we would be fine until Tuesday....maybe even Wednesday.  The storm came and we got about 4 inches of snow with a crusty layer of ice on top.  School ended up being canceled - wait for it - all week. 

Yes, my Minnesota friends....ALL WEEK. 

However, they kept all the kids and the teachers, waiting until the night before - every time....so nobody could actually make plans to go somewhere and have a little mini-vacation - because there just might be school the next day!  Now, in Georgia's defense, they do not have a lot of snow removal equipment.  Rainman was off work on Monday and Tuesday, so he missed out on the free hotel rooms that his work was providing for people who had to work, starting on Sunday night. 

This was the extent of what we got.  If you look closely, you can see the shine of the driveway, so it was slippery.

Here is a shot of the backyard and you can kind of see how the ice is weighing down the palm tree branches.

Here is a shot of ice that was on top of the leaves in our bushes...it was cool because it was shaped just like the leaves on the bush...not sure if you can tell from the picture...

Well, we started running low on milk and diapers, so by Tuesday evening, Rainman thought he would take a quick run to Target for those things and a few other "Targety" kinds of things.  Well, I, in my infinite wisdom, suggested that he call first to make sure they were open.  He laughed at me - but called anyway.  Lo and behold they were not open.  They and many other local businesses were closed.  They had listings of them on the local news websites and scrolling on the bottom of the screen like school cancellations.

We also did not have garbage pick up that week nor did we have any mail delivered until Friday of that week.

Anyway, he decided to try our local Kroger just to see if they were open.  He was also feeling a bit stir crazy having been stuck at home since Sunday.  So off he went, cell phone in hand, just in case.  He easily made it to Kroger and called me.  "You should see this!  It is like a war zone here!  There are people everywhere and absolutely nothing on the shelves.  No milk.  No fruit.  Nothing!"

Well, he went through the store and scavenged what he could.  He made it home with 2 gallons of ice cream (one rainbow sherbet and one chocolate chip), 3 two liters of pop and a cucumber.  Yup, that was it.  He said everyone had a strange assortment of this kind of stuff.  They had 2 check outs open, so the lines were backed up like it was dollar days at the store.  Crazy!  He came home and told the kids we would have to start rationing our milk consumption.  We did and were able to get a few gallons by the end of the week.  He would stop by different stores every day and get a few of whatever they had to bring home to us....boxes of cereal, milk, cheese, eggs, etc.

So, as a reminder for those reading this, our family moved to Georgia a little over a year ago (from Minnesota) due to a work transfer for Rainman.  When we moved, we gave away all our snow boots, snow pants, sleds, etc.  We kept winter coats and gloves, hats, mittens because we figured we would need them when we visited our families in the north.  Our movers made fun of us as they unpacked our coats and said that we would never need those things here in Georgia.  Well, I am here to tell you we have had 3 snowfalls that we have used our coats and mittens for and could have used all the stuff we gave away before we moved!!!

The kids just kept bringing in their gloves/mittens and putting them near the fireplace to dry and get warm. They changed clothes numerous times because we didn't have snowpants to keep them dry.  They made snowmen and had snowball fights....although the snowballs this time hurt because they were basically ice balls!

For sledding, we had to improvise and be creative....they tried cardboard but that didn't work and then they remembered something their Sunday School teacher had told them she did when she was little...

Can you tell what they are using?

It is my cookie sheets.  D-Man used them as snow boards because he couldn't quite get himself folded up small enough to get on it.  I forgot to take pictures of that.  As you look at these pictures and the road beyond - keep in mind that school in the area (well, really, almost the whole state) is still canceled!

Now, another reminder for you, we homeschool.  So, I was, in fact, the meanest mother in Georgia that week.  We had classes, as usual.  We needed to catch up a little anyway, since Georgia started school on August 2nd or 3rd this year and we didn't start until September!

This was the first snow for V-Girl where she was actually mobile enough to go outside and play...

She looks like she was smiling in this shot - but actually she was crying and angry from being confined in all her winter gear.  However, once she got outside, we had trouble dragging her back in.  She didn't do much except wander around and watch stuff.  She did eat a lot of snow and icicles though.  Every time we made her come in she would kick and scream....so I guess, even though she left when she was just 3 weeks old, she is still a Minnesota girl at heart!!!