Hi guys, figured I’d let you know what’s going on in my world. Mom is 90 now and still lives alone at home out in the country in Illinois. My brother and sister both live close by and do a fantastic job of looking after her. .Mom developed n eye infection a few weeks back and it looked like there was a possibility of her losing an eye or at least the sight in it. I talked to my brother and Sister about coming back to stay with mom full time for a while, but as she had started to respond to treatment we decided that they could handle it for now. That was until last Sunday when my sister’s husband fell backward down a set of cellar stairs. He cracked 2 ribs, broke his wrist and shattered his elbow. He originally had surgery scheduled for his arm set for nextTuesday so I decided to come back here to take care of mom for a while so Sis could concentrate on taking care of her husband.

I brought the Ram 50 because it has the better heater and hard bed cover. I wanted to leave sooner, but I had come down with the flue and wasn’t able start loading the truck till Wednesday. I got the suitcases and 300 pounds of sand (for the sandblaster If I don’t use it getting unstuck somewhere ) and got out of Arizona early Thursday morning.

I stopped for the night about 40 miles west of Oklahoma City. When I listened to the local weather and I found out about the predicted Ice storm. I had I feeling I might be stuck there for a day or three……but when I woke up about 2AM I found out storm had been moving slower than predicted. After a lot of internal debate I decided to chance making the Kansas border ahead of the main storm. I ran into some freezing drizzle and a then a little freezing rain just short of the Kansas line but made it thru without running off the road and got to moms on Friday night.

They are predicting freezing rain here on Monday, but hopefully it won’t amount to much. Both Moms’ and my Sisters’ house have backup generators just in case.

By the way this trip is a good reminder of why I live in AZ. Yesterday both where I live and where I’m staying in Illinois were under winter storm warnings. AZ was for snow above 6000 feet (I live at 4500 foot) and 52 degrees. Il warning was for sleet, freezing rain and snow and 20 degrees.

Anyway I hope all in the path of the storm are safe and warm.

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