Mother Nature is, indeed, a Mother.....

So, here I sit.
Sunday evening, at the dinner table, waiting for the wife and the daughter to finish their veggie burgers.

The winding down of what was supposed to be a very full, very satisfying weekend full of family and social opportunities.  
God laughs, and mother nature is, indeed, a mother.

Spent way too much time at the grocery after work on friday, stocking up for company and Super Bowl parties and such.  My GOD, I even bought....meat.   
Woke up saturday morning to phone calls about winter storms.... I used to be on top of this sort of thing.  
Now I'm asking my sister in Chicago - So, how much snow am I supposed to get here?
Really?  That much???

Mother Nature, is indeed... a mother.

So, no company, no quality time with what are hands down some of our very favorite people. On the plus side, we might not have cleaned as much yesterday, as we would have if the weather forecast had not been so... un-encouraging.

No family get together to celebrate my dad's birthday today.  No all going to church together (it's his birthday, and all he asked for...) and to lunch afterwards.  No heading back out to a Super Bowl party, hosted by someone we befriended just last weekend.  Would have been great to have been able to follow up on that initial connection, as we continue to try to re-establish a satisfying social life here.

Nope, 24 hours of snow instead!  Whoo Hoo!

Rudi Gunn: But I was hoping to meet a girl on the Australian trip! 

Al Giordino: No, African war zone; ship of death!

Looking out the window into the snowy dusk, and lamenting fact that Wendy and I have shoveled our huge ass driveway twice today, and you can't hardly tell at all.   I try not to think of it as a metaphor with larger life relevancy.   That was an awful lot of work with not much to show for it... 

Mother nature.... well.  You know.  

So, we shovel, and eat a meal, and watch a movie, and shovel, and eat a meal and... probably watch another movie...  If Fiona finishes her veggie burger on time.   Not as advertised...

While it was not as advertised, the weekend was not a complete loss.

My dad still came over for dinner last night, because "someone's gotta help you eat all that food you bought...".   He turned 72 on friday, and is so much healthier than he was when he turned 71.  We got to sit and chat and be relaxed around each other, instead of me worrying about his immediate future.  We put a candle on a cupcake for him, and sang him happy birthday, and I had a moment of just being really glad to be able to do it.  If you had ask me a year ago.... there were concerns....

Maybe mother nature's not all bad.  

Got a lot of left over cupcakes, though.....