Thursday, December 21, 2006

Red Cross Called

I received a call from a gentlemen identifying himself as being with the Red Cross. They are trying to locate the girls. Huh? I told him that the last I knew they were at a Red Cross Shelter in Casper. He was silent. I said, "Are YOU calling from the shelter?" Yes, he was. Weren't the girls THERE? No - they couldn't find them. They thought they must have decided to stay in a hotel. I told him that was highly unlikely. I told him that they told me they planned to stay there.

He said that the bus schedule had changed and that they want to try to leave at 6:30 a.m. instead of 3:30 p.m. I gave him their cell phone. I then called their cell phone and got an answering machine. I'm going to kill Bre when she gets here! ::snort:: We beg her to LEAVE THE THING ON when traveling but she doesn't like roaming charges. Anyway, I left a message that the center is trying to locate them to let them know they were leaving early. I'm sure the man did the same thing. I'm almost certain they connected with that friend of theirs and hopefully they are only out and will be back to sleep at the center. I'm thinking that I should have stressed to them to STAY WITH THE BUS!!!!! ::snort:: I also should have told them not to leave the shelter without being sure someone knew where they were. I'm not letting the rest of these children graduate until they pass "college travel 101" to my satisfaction!!!! ::snort::

It's too late to do anything else other than call their phone again and pray....but if some of you are night owls....that's the update.
GIRLS

OK - they are NOT in Gillette. They are in Casper...which makes more sense as far as the route to HERE. They are at a Red Cross shelter and will be there overnight. They are troopers. You could hear "adults!!!" complaining and grumbling "Ah man - there's nothing wrong with the roads". Bre said, "they should all just suck it up."

ANYWAY - Greyhound is feeding them tonight, they have showers and cots and will be there until at least 3:30 p.m. TOMORROW....I'm not sure why they aren't leaving earlier but there you have it. The will hopefully be in sometime on Saturday - meaning they are missing their Sat a.m./p.m. appointments. I'm thinking there is a REASON that we are not meant to get a "sisters" photo taken....this happened last year too. ::sigh:: ::snort::

Bre said she and Krista had decided how much craziness they will put up with before they call our denomination's church. They know a fellow Master's student who is from Casper and are going to give a call and see if he is home for Christmas (now lives in CA). If so, he'll most likely come get them and take them out of the shelter for a bit of time. They plan to study.

They said the roads have been beautiful all day....frozen but not blizzard conditions... which is why folks are having a hard time understanding that the highways are closed. It seems some of the more delusional among the travelers are sure that Greyhound is involved in a plot to ruin Christmas. ::snort::

ARGH - blogger isn't doing pictures again....
Prayer Request update

The girls called. Greyhound is saying there is no way they are going to Denver. They are currently heading to Wheatland and then to Gillette. THEN they are waiting there until the roads are clear to Denver. I have no IDEA why they are doing that.....not familiar with those routes. I told them to take the advice of the agents...I'm guessing they KNOW what they are doing....and since they have tickets to HERE I'm guessing that Greyhound will make sure they eventually arrive.

Keep praying. They've been told they may be sitting in Gillette "a while". I'm guessing once they get out of Denver they'll be fine.

They have a friend Rena, who was told her mom had "days, maybe 2" to live. Their friend is from Gillette. She was to fly out last night to be with her family and her flight was cancelled!!! Please pray that Rena makes it home too.
ZANDER'S GERM UPDATE

Well now...I can safely assume Zander listened to my comments last night after all. He came up to me this a.m. and said, "I'm not eating snot, I'm only getting the germs out of my nose!" ::snort::

I asked him where he was going to put them and he said "Um...not my mouth."

"Where then?"

"How 'bout....the FLOOR?"

Note to self: mop, vacuum and wash all walls before girls get home. ::snort::
FEW UPDATES

I wasn't going to even rise the possibility of the girls being delayed but our paper is saying the roads are closed from WY to NM. The children KNOW this route from the summer. I told them to pray. Zander was observing and said, "How 'bout we do 'goooo.... g.....s'?" We always do that at the end of our family circle, prayer time....the cheer like football teams do in their huddle.

Josiah checked the noaa site....tracking the girls! ::snort::

Water update: they have STOPPED the leak...now they will try to repair the line....progress.
Getting shorter....

Prayer request...there seems to be some blizzard in CO. The girls are heading this way. I-25 is closed from WY to FT Collins....pray the girls make it home and don't spend Christmas somewhere along the route. They won't hit that bit of road until late today by my guesses....Billings now....probably hit Cheyenne tonight at about 6 p.m. If it doesn't snow tonight.....
Frosted Armadillos

That old maxim about getting out there and working out and you'll warm up???? Not NECESSARILY true, after all. I don't know if my toes are going to ever thaw out....its 29* out there NOW....why did I think it was warm? Oh - I was thinking I'd best do it today or it may snow tomorrow and I'd have to ride in the snow. LOL

In case you can't see that little ticker - on one of our computers the heading is black instead of blue - I have 17.6 miles left to do!!!!

Yes - I DID see frosted roadkill this a.m. Not the most pleasant riding scenery but unique to TX. LOL
WATER SAGA (no photos to load hmmm)

Cindy wonders what caused our water problem. Time, weather, and an inactive City Council. It seems there has been a plan discussed for quite some time to fix our water lines...but the City Council didn't want to spend the bucko millions to replace and fix it all....so they authorized 3 mil to do it.....well....the city is GROWING. The pipes are not. We've had a drought. We had some leaks....when the crews went to dig up the area and fix the leaks - the main pipe burst apart....it has been split....but the dry, red clay was holding it together....this is supposed to be worse with rain and such. I find it funny that the dirt was holding it all together....When it rains after a long drought the ground shifts...so they had warned there could be some problems...but who guessed that the line was waiting beneath the surface - split?

Anyway, last word I had is that they've not begun to fix the main line yet...they are still trying to patch leaks and get pressure working....and things will be iffy here until at least Christmas (if everything goes well). I have no idea why the power is funky...but I checked and it is not just my house. ::snort::
COUNTDOWN - OK they are arriving in 35 hours but the clock either does 17 hours or 1 day and 17 hours.....so hey....it's close. LOL

Still can't get blogger to load any photos for me....

Spent some time last night working on Shop Natural co-op. I sent our group order in. I worked on the newsletter. I also spent some time on Veggie Sales, our produce co-op. I don't think I'm doing a newsletter this week for that one. I'm running out of time or steam or water...yeah ....must be the water and funky power thing that is zapping my motivation to do another newsletter. ::snort:: Our power is teasing us...our water pressure is teasing us....but all in all life is GREAT. LOL