Neither rain nor hail, but actually snow and ice are a different story...

Last Sunday my "Maui Flower Power" was featured in O.V.s newsletter - perfect for the winter chill! 

Then Sunday night, we had about 5-6 inches of snow in the Atlanta Metro area. When I went to bed, it was starting to flurry a little, and when I woke up Monday morning, we were blanketed in snow. Al, of course, needed to go out in the snow, despite the fact that everything was closed. On the news, they were saying, "Don't go out unless you have to. Everything is closed. There is nothing to do. Take our word for it." The bank was closed, Publix was closed, restaurants were closed. I had stocked up on Saturday, so I was absolutely ready for the storm. I had chocolate, toilet paper, bread and soup...all the basic necessities!  My friend Carol was here from Seattle, expecting to go back Monday, but over 1900 flights were cancelled at the ATL.

Tuesday was a bit worse, because it warmed up a bit, then went down to the teens overnight, and the snow was now...ice.  Al went to Wal-Mart and came back to report that there were long lines, but basically, everything was closed and there wasn't much on the shelves. He said once you got off our street and onto the main road, it wasn't that bad. If we had known, we would have gotten a couple of bags of salt, because Wednesday he tried to get out and couldn't...the snow was a solid sheet of ice, several inches thick, and our driveway slopes down. 

Thursday morning I heard the newscasters talking about how they had broken up the ice in their driveways with shovels and hoes, so I passed that along to Al, who went out there with garden tools, and he was able to get enough traction to go out again...to Wal-Mart, which was still standing.  The bank opened at noon. We got mail! By Friday, everything was back to normal, although there was still a lot of snow on the ground. 
  

And Barbara asked me to make a quilt for her son Aaron's Godparents, who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in February.  I normally don't do commission requests (no time, takes the fun out of my hobby, and hello, do you know how many UFOs I have?), but for a soror, for Barbara, and for 50 years, I made an exception. Yesterday we went to KiwiQuilts to pick out the fabric...I'm just going to do a single Irish Chain, which will go fairly quickly, and let the contrast of the red and white do all the work. It was my first day out, and it was good to get a breath of fresh air!  Still a few patches of ice, but it was in the 50's and a lot of the ice melted. Barbara and I went to a great restaurant for lunch - Capers - it was absolutely delicious.  I had a steak salad that was perfectly cooked. Will definitely go back!

I always do a test block.  This didn't take much time I'm pleased with the results. 

"Would whoever is praying for snow please stop?" Church sign