The snow has been falling for a while now
as I write this; and the weather forecast really changed things up for us
around here as our guests opted for an early departure and a lot of locals
spent the rest of the day getting ready for the storm. I know that I was a bit disappointed over not
having a white Christmas, but I don’t remember asking Mother Nature to make
that up to me by dumping the snow on us a foot at a time! ;^)
It remains to be seen how much snow we
actually get; but I’ll guess that clearing snow from the driveway and sidewalks
is going to be in my future tomorrow morning.
For today, I’m going to keep this report
fairly short so that I’ll be ready for whatever snow play and work we’ll be
dealing with in the morning.
Tai Chi was fun, and breakfast was awesome
because I ended up having that meal with Michael and his family instead of
mine. The clean-up work was about the
same as it would have been here; though I will note that Michael, Rebecca, and
I didn’t have any help from their aunt, uncle, or cousins. Michael and I had to be at church a bit early
too, so we were a bit rushed to get there on time for the teen praise team
warm-up. We weren’t leading the entire
service; but we did lead the first section of the praise music before the adult
praise team took over for the rest of the service. The hour and a half or so that we spent at
the church was fun and busy; but nothing compared to the work at the Inn as we
got set up for the first buffet at noon.
That was especially crazy for Miranda
because she also ended up shuffling some cancellations and replaced all of
those customers with new walk-in guests that would have normally just been
turned away. While the ‘fun’ stores
would normally be busiest on a holiday weekend Sunday afternoon; the snowstorm
forecast changed that too; and it was the grocery store, Emporium, and Hardware
stores that were busiest today as everyone got ready for any issues that might
come with the storm.
While that first buffet was still sold-out,
there were more cancellations for the second buffet at three; and that sitting
was harder for Miranda to fill with walk-ins.
The good news there was that Michael and I were able to take a bit of
extra time off between the first and second buffet so that we could do a quick
round of goodbye hugs and kisses with our collective families. Rebecca drew the job of helping her family to
pack and load up their vehicles after having one last meal at the Inn at noon,
so she had more time off; but Michael and I were still there in time to help
with part of that work. We didn’t need
to do that with my family; and all of the goodbyes were fairly quick. The feel of those partings was very different
for Michael’s family and mine; but I’ll skip the commentary on why his family
doesn’t feel the same way about our home town as most of the members of my
family does.
It was back to work at the Inn once we were
done with that, and I only wish that I could have also helped Mom with all of
the work that needed to be done around the house after having a house full of
guests. I helped with dishwashing for
most of the rest of the day except for getting the third buffet food ready to
go at six o’clock; and I stayed until close – which was a bit earlier than
expected thanks to a low turnout for the last buffet. We did get some bonus store owner families
for that buffet; but only because that was faster for them than going home and
cooking a meal before getting to the pre-storm preparations and holiday weekend
clean-up.
A sofa sleepover with Michael was very
tempting, but I had a lot of work to do on my computer tonight; so I came home
after just a short bedtime visit with his parents and Rebecca – and a too-short
round of goodnight hugs and kisses out on the front porch while the snow was
softly falling around us. That was a bit
magical, but we were also both really tired by then; and I’ll appreciate the
moment more tomorrow. Mom and Dad were
still awake and working in the office when I got home, but the twins had
already turned in for the night. I had a
short chat with my parents; stopped in on the way up to my room to give Ethan
and Ehlana kisses that they didn’t wake up for; and then I spent some quality
time in my Jacuzzi while multi-tasking my work.
I used a time phase for that – and stayed in a time phase until all of
my work and usual bedtime computing was finished so that I didn’t need to stay
up half the night to do that. The work was
challenging and it felt great to get everything done; but I’ll again appreciate
the accomplishments some other time when I’m not just ready to crash and nap
for eight or ten hours.
Time phasing is going to allow me to be
asleep by midnight, so getting that much down time isn’t going to happen; but
six or seven hours is way better than the two or three I’d have been able to
have if I’d worked at normal speed. That
is all of the news I have for today, though, and going to sleep now is an
option; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
