We finally dug out from our second blizzard in a week (work - U of PA - closed for 2 days - they haven't closed for snow since 2003!) yesterday and headed out to check on Daniel, the other horses and the Willcoxes.
Roads were fine until we got about 1/8 mile from the driveway... there was a tree partially blocking the road. Big mistake having Mom along because she damned near had a stroke when I drove under it (which is why I need a Tahoe, not this stupid Mercedes ML350) freaking out that I was going to get scratches on it. Of course, where the tree was down just happened to be where the snow plows STOPPED, so I had to pop it in off-road mode to get the rest of the way (Wish I had that 4WD Tahoe with a rear locker, that I have on order, now!!!)
When I got to the barn, all the stalls had 2 half buckets of water, extra hay and had been stripped and bedded with new straw. I got there at that time to help Jill with watering and feeding. When she came into the barn, she told me that they had no power, water or phone. They had water down at the indoor arena (the water in the geldings' field is just outside the indoor, so the horses had water. She was melting ice and snow on the wood-burning stove in the house. UGH! I helped her feed, we topped off the water buckets in the stalls, and we brought the horses in for the night.
I asked if she'd reported the outages... she said she was sure someone had, but their phone was out. I asked about her cell phone. SHe said the battery died. I suggested she charge it in the car; to which she replied that was too much work. ugh.... I asked her if I could bring wood into the house for them, but she said they already had plenty of wood. I offered to go to the store for her, but she said she had plenty of food. I asked about a generator, and she said she didn't want to keep running the generator, because she was afraid she'd run out of fuel when she really needed it (this conversation reminded me of my Grandmother - when my mother and aunt bought her a new raincoat, and she wouldn't wear it in the rain because she didn't want to get it wet.) I insisted that she take an unopened gallon of water I kept in the barn (for emergencies) to the house. I love her and Mr. Willcox, but UGH!! Stubborn and won't let you help them!
When we were leaving, instead of letting my mom have another near-stroke, I took the long way home, and there was a downed tree partially blocking the road in that direction too! Once again, the snow plows stopped at that point, so there was about a 1/2 mile section of Ivy Mills Road that wasn't plowed. This way wasn't blocked quite as bad, so my mom complained, but didn't have a near-stroke.
When I got home, I called the electric company and reported the outage. Just in case it was really localized (her son and daughter-in-law are next door, and their power, water, phone were out, too)
Margaux's supposed to go check on them this afternoon. Based on what she tells me, I'll head over there either tonight after work, of first thing in the morning...
Come on SPRING!!!! All of this snow has been, as my former co-worker Marc always used to say, ri-god-damned-diculous!!!!!!
