What do Tuscaloosans do when it snows enough to build snowmen and have snowball fights? Build snow elephants on the UA Quad!
Amazing piece of work by some very gifted UA students.
The weather forecasters botched yesterday’s forecast. Around 9 or 10 in the morning, the roads and bridges were covered with ice — just after the schools and offices filled with people expecting only a “light dusting” of snow.
Soon, reports of wrecks and road closures filled social media, and people began to head home, creating more wrecks and road closures. Dozens of elementary students were trapped at school because their parents could not travel the roads to pick them up and bring them home. These children spent last night at school.
In Birmingham, many motorists were trapped outdoors and spent the night in their cars, hoping their gas would not run out before they could be rescued.
In short, it’s been just awful — and all because of 2 inches of snow, a little ice, and the failure of the local officials to be prepared to de-ice bridges and roads.
Meanwhile, Denise and I have electricity and Internet (and lots of food leftover from the dinners brought to me while sick), and so we’re fine. I continue to recover from back surgery and mostly deadness (sepsis). I still have a bad cough from the pneumonia (I can’t talk too long at a time, and no one is complaining), and I’m having muscle spasms as my back relearns how to hold me up after the double-fusion surgery and weeks of enforced motionlessness (to let the fusion heal). This is all pretty bearable, especially compared to where I’ve been.
When the weather allows, I’m back at work, part time — about 5 or 6 hours a day. My stamina is shot but coming back.
And, Lord willing, I should finally be back at church this coming Sunday. Sundays are hard, because they require a good bit of walking and standing — not just during the service but in between, too. Oh, and people do expect me to talk, you know, and very much talking sets off a coughing fit. But I really, really want to get back. I still can’t stand or walk for very long at all. But I’m getting better.
The back is straighter, the lungs are clear, the infection is gone, my pre-surgical pain has been relieved, I got the accursed stent removed from my kidney, and time will quickly take care of the rest.
And this has been a great experience with being lifted up by the prayers of others. I can tell that I’m being prayed for, and I cannot express how appreciative I am for it. In fact, but for those prayers, I would very likely be dead. I will not forget that.
Glad you are slowly but steadily healing. I hope this “fixes” you my brother.
God Bless you Jay and all your family. Y’all are very much still in our prayers my Brother. Ted
Jim wrote,
“I hope this “fixes” you my brother.”
There are those who’d argue that it’ll take much more than a repaired back and restored stamina to fix me. And there is no lack of theories. I mean, nearly everyone who talks about me concludes with something like: “Now, that’ll fix him.”
Yep: there are just all kinds of theories for what’ll fix me.
Glad you’re on the mend. Although I wish U of A students had made the elephant sculpture as reported by Tuscaloosa media, alas, it’s from an amazing snow sculpture exhibition in Quebec last year. http://www.socialphy.com/posts/images-pics/19241/Ice-festival-in-Quebec_-Canada.html It’s worth scrolling through though (the elephants are about 3/4 of the way down the page).
We once had the dog fixed; I hope your treatment is more agreeable. Just remember Rule Number One: keep breathing. Inhale, exhale, repeat.
OTOH, some of us are beyond “fixing”. Nothing short of a “wreck it to the studs” restoration would do any good at all. I have the estimates…
I ALMOST drove to the quad to check this out, but just didn’t feel up to it. Rats.
Jay, so sorry about the sepsis, pneumonia, and ongoing pain. I can empathize a little anyway, as I continue to rehabilitate from three back surgeries on July 2012, January 2013, and September 2013. — all in the same location. Pneumonia and I are old acquaintances also — I once spent the final five days of a seven-day cruise in the ship’s sick bay, then spent five more days in a New York hospital. God bless you — and know it is okay for you to go to bed when your body calls for it and leave the running of the universe to God.
OOPS! Obviously those dates were all in the 2000s and not the 2100s.
Edward,
Thanks for the note – and so sorry for your struggles. It’s actually been kind of nice learning that I’m expendable.
Jay,
Good to see you are continuing to progress and are on the mend. You continue to be in my prayers.
Greg Guin
Greg,
Always good to hear from the rare fellow Guin! And I greatly appreciate your prayers.
I actually made it to church this morning — missed class but made worship. Wore me out — but I’m vertical and getting stronger and better daily.
Jay, I stumbled onto your blog this evening and realized your identity! I worked at your firm many years back, in high school then college and a short shot at paralegal work. I actually was your paralegal, working on low-income housing tax credit applications! I look forward to reading your blog – I can see you still have the same genius and quick wit that I remember! Blessings and prayers for your recovery. Yvonne Dean Pierce
Yvonne! Wow, it’s been a long ol’ time! Delighted to hear from you. And delighted to have you as a reader. (Sorry for being slow to respond. Kind of crazy times lately.)