Things They Don't Show You on TV

It’s -20F right now. I am waiting until tomorrow morning to take a picture of the thermometer because it is supposed to be even colder then. That’s air temp, not wind chill.

Yesterday was kind of a wild ride. It wasn’t the worst winter storm I can remember, but it had some teeth nonetheless. I think it was worse down in the valley, judging by the reports and pictures I saw on our local Facebook group. At one point, the county asked people to stay home and off the roads. The snow started coming down early in the morning, and the winds started not long after. Amazingly, we never lost power. A small tree did come down in the yard.

Someone in that local Facebook group posted a picture of the predicted cold temps across the state of Montana, with the caption, “The exodus should start about now. John Dutton didn’t warn them about this.” 😂 (That’s a reference to the TV show “Yellowstone,” for those of you who have never seen the series.)

[During the winter of 1996-97, we got a ridiculous amount of snow. We had so much snow that our dogs were up walking around on the roof of the garage. It started snowing on October 15 and the last of the snow didn’t melt until the end of May. And there was not a U-Haul to be found that spring, because so many people were fleeing northwest Montana.]

I wondered if our annual firefighter dinner, scheduled for last night, would be canceled. Our fire department trustees host a catered meal every winter as a thank-you to the firefighters. The husband checked his e-mail in the afternoon and said, “They are planning to serve dinner at 6:30, so we should be there by 6:00.”

This is Montana. We don’t pass up a prime rib dinner because of a silly little snowstorm (or because the county asks us to stay off the roads). I donned my long johns, a pair of my me-made ponte pants, one of my Burda 6315 tops, wool socks, my pashmina scarf, a pair of gloves, and my grandmother’s wool coat and hopped into the plow truck with the husband. By the time we left, the winds had died down a bit but the temperature had dropped to -10F.

[My maternal grandmother had a beautiful black wool coat with Persian lamb trim that she wore to church every Sunday. I admired it for many years and joked that she should leave it to me in her will. After she died, my mother sent it to me. It is the heaviest and warmest coat I own and I wear it when the weather is frightful.]

This was my view from the passenger’s seat as we traveled down our road:

Our plow truck is my old 1999 Dodge 2500. The husband said that he is reminded that it is 25 years old every time he drives it and then gets back into one of his new trucks. He has it equipped with chains for extra traction. Although a bit on the rustic side, it does a good job when we need it. The county plows had been out, but there were quite a few places where the roads had drifted shut to one lane.

The 50 or so of us who braved the weather enjoyed a delicious dinner and some visiting. The husband and I were back home by 8:30. Pretty much everything is shut down today because of the extreme cold, so we’ll be staying here.

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My sew-jo seems to have gone on vacation; I’ve been spending my time this week cleaning, organizing, and prepping projects. I’ve been working on the paisley quilting for an hour or two every day. I also basted the baby quilt with batting and backing, cut more scraps into 5" squares for Pat, who is making comforter tops, and pressed fabric. I’ve got another Nathalie ready to cut out. We have a class for that pattern scheduled for March 20 and the store needs a display sample.

I think we got the class registration issue straightened out. Having been a teacher at national fiber events, I have certain expectations about class etiquette. Things at the local level tend to be a bit less formal, but less formal still needs to be respectful of the teacher’s time.

I am going to finish up paperwork this morning and then get started on that Nathalie top.