Pitiful...Just Pitiful!

Today's high temperature was: 31

Cloudy

======================================

I think it is just pitiful that people in this State are excited because our temperature might get up to freezing!  Thirty-two degrees, which normally would have us complaining that we had to wear our winter gear--now, has us searching the back of our closets to find out spring clothes!  LOL.  

It really doesn't snow all that much, when the temperatures are near or below zero.  We are expecting higher temperatures, this next week, and some moisture coming up from the south along with the higher temps.  Plus, we are expecting one snow storm after the other--along with the higher temps and moisture equals---more inches of snow will come.  So--this appeared on my Face Book page this morning.

The pattern is shaping up to be very active one starting this weekend and lasting the next two weeks. I have said many times that the storms that are coming will produce huge amounts of snow because of the heat and humidity that will be available to the storms. The storm this weekend will produce up to a foot of snow across parts of Michigan and the Midwest, and the storm coming midweek will potentially produce more than a foot. The storm following that for next weekend can produce over a foot of snow as well. While the extreme cold has backed off, it will be cold enough for snowstorms through the month of February.

We set a record for snow fall in ANY month.  39.1 inches--more than we normally get in an entire winter.

I just want to bang my head against the wall!  

It took me a month to get an appointment with the cardiologist--to make sure this low pulse rate isn't something to worry about.  I had an appointment for January 8th--had to cancel because of the 6 inches of snow we got. 

So I rescheduled for February 5th--this next Wednesday--and we are suppose to get over a foot of snow, starting on Tuesday night.   The cardiologist's office is only 1 mile away, in the small medical center.  I can drive in a snowstorm, but if I can't get out of my driveway/park, I can't make it to the main road to make the one mile trip.  

Perhaps I should just cancel again and wait until March.  If I didn't have the appointment, I wouldn't care if we got three feet of snow!!!

I walked down to Dar's to loan her a video she wanted.  That poor woman has been having an awful time.  She now has Afib, which is being treated and has to be on Coumadin, which has to be checked every week.  She had to go in and have her heart shocked back into normal sinus rhythm.  She had a spot on her leg that was pre-cancerous and has had it treated twice and may have to have surgery.  Last week she had to have a laser treatment on her left eye and woke up Tuesday with Cellulitis all around her eye, which they are treating.  If she isn't better by Monday, she has to go to hospital to have intravenous antibiotics because Cellulitis can get into the blood stream and turn into Sepsis--which is a blood infection and people die from that (she doesn't know that, however).  Plus, she has gained almost 40 pounds since September and looks very bloated. 

Then, I walked over to Pearl's to see how she was doing.  We don't see each other very much with all the snow and ice that she is afraid to walk on.  I don't go up to her place as much because Merle is home all the time now.  Today, he was out for a walk and so she and I got to talk.  Merle is angry at her a lot lately--I can see why.  Pearl got involved in a jewelry club and they send her jewelry every month and take money out of the checking account.  She swears she didn't sign up for it, but.........

She's angry because they got their Federal Income Tax refund back and Merle wouldn't give her half.  He wanted it all to go into the savings account as they are saving for a car.  Theirs is 18 years old and in terrible shape.

She went to the Salvation Army yesterday and got a whole bunch of junk--she goes once every week.  She justifies it by saying that she gets the stuff dirt cheap.  Merle questions that because she gets stuff she/they don't need just to buy something.  I think his verdict is correct.

Plus, she had a spot on her forehead that her dermatologist (the same one Dar has) treated twice and now wants her to go to Ann Arbor, U of M hospital to have it cut out and biopsied.  She canceled her appointment last Tuesday.  When I asked why, she said, "Oh because of the weather."  Yet, she went shopping at a mall half-way to Ann Arbor on Wednesday, which was a worse day then Tuesday.  She has rescheduled the appointment for February 11th.

She can barely walk and complains about her neck, back, legs and has neuropathy in her feet and yet, she won't go to the chiropractor because she is afraid of the deep tissue massage.  Merle goes to the same one I do and we both have tried to convince her that the doc could help, but............

So, I walked on home, got my mail, checked my feeding station, looked at all the different tracks around it, came inside and just thanked God that I am not having any problems right now.

Then, my neighbor/friend from when I lived in Saginaw called.  She had breast cancer 15 years ago.  She went in for a mammogram, first part of January and there was a "cluster" of something in the other breast.  She had another mammogram with a lot of other angles to it, then she had an ultra sound and then a biopsy yesterday.  They have told her that if it is cancer, they will do a lumpectomy and she won't have to have radiation or chemo.  She was pretty happy about that, but I wonder.  Did they just tell her that because they decided that more aggressive treatment would be wasted on a 78 year old woman?  Or is it really not all that bad.

I'm not real trusting of medical people--guess you could tell, and with this new health care program going on, I have been told, "they" are less apt to aggressively treat older people with life threatening diseases...because, it simply isn't worth it.

========================

I just heard the weather update on the eleven o'clock news and we are predicted now, to get 9.6 inches of snow tomorrow.  Where Susan, Pammie and Mark live--just 20 miles north of here--predicted to get 11.5.   AND--they say, the storm coming in Wednesday "may" total up to 19 inches of snow.  Not the easily shoveled, cold, crisp, dry, light-weight snow, but this will be wet and heavy.  Great for making snow men, but not so much for getting off the driveway.

Alas--right now it seems our lives are all about the weather.  When is the next storm coming?  How much snow is predicted? Do we have enough supplies on hand?  Will we get shoveled out in time to get to work or make our appointments? Is school closed?  People ask on Face Book, "Does anyone know how US 23 is?  Has anyone heard how I-96 is, I gotta go to a meeting in Lansing.  Does anyone know if basketball game in Hartland is canceled?"  That's all we talk about anymore.  

Everyone is getting cranky and depressed.  We have been cooped up for too long.  It has been too cold to even get outside and walk to visit each other.  We are all worried about our gas bills.  We are just so very tired of it all!!!

I'm not going anywhere or even sticking my nose outside until Monday afternoon, when I have to go back to the chiropractor, so---have a great weekend.  I hope the team you want to win, wins the Super Bowl--I really don't care and will no doubt watch a Walton's or Little House On The Prairie marathon all day Sunday and of course, Downton Abbey Sunday night.

I just had a thought, can you even imagine what would happen in Atlanta with a 9.6 inch snowfall?  At least, they would have the traction from the snow so they could drive better then slipping and sliding on ice--of course, they'd all get stuck, but........................

See ya Monday.  Jude