February 1, 2011 – Write From Karen

My new ‘do.

I went to the salon yesterday and the gal touched-up my roots (which is really nice talk for “covered my gray because I’m old”) and whacked four inches off my length.

I love it. I was so ready to get rid of my long hair. When Kevin saw it he nodded in approval and said, “It looks better.”

Which of course prompted me to immediately get defensive and shoot back, “Why? Did it look bad before?”

He responded with, “Of course not. But it looks better now. Less frizzy.”

Frizzy?!?

He’s right, of course. It was getting frizzy. And it was quite out of control. This shorter ‘do will save me time and I love that I can blow it dry with a round brush and then sort of push it behind my ears. I still need to experiment with it – use some mousse and make it poofy, but I can already tell I’m going to really like this length. I think I’ll keep it this way. Of course, that means I’ll have to go to the salon more often, but those are the sacrifices.

I love this new salon I’ve been going to. It’s called “Latter Rain Salon and Spa” and their prices are very reasonable. (This root touch up and color cost me THIRTY dollars less than it has in the past with my old salon). The gals are really friendly, too. In addition, the salon is Christian-based, which I wholly support.

While I was getting my cut, I explained to my stylist that I was getting a new, more professional ‘do, to prepare for my upcoming interviews. (Of course, I didn’t tell her I’ve yet to land a job interview but … Pfft, details). That prompted a discussion about what I wanted to do, what I’m doing now and how I’ve been helping Kevin get his business up and running.

When I told her that Kevin was starting his own accounting firm, she perked right up. Apparently, she manages (owns?) the shop in Springfield (there’s another salon in Nixa), and she is looking for a reasonably-priced accountant.

*ding-ding-ding!*

So of course, I gave her Kevin’s business card and we’ll see if this leads anywhere.

I hope it does – I REALLY like this gal (she’s the sweetest person) and I hope we can help her out.

Speaking of Kevin’s business: the conference table came in. Kevin picked the boys up from school yesterday and they went to Springfield Office Supply (highly recommend them, by the way) so they could help him load it up in his truck. Kevin put it together and though it’s not exactly the same color as my desk, it’s pretty close. It looks great in that space! (Shoot. I thought I took a picture of it, but I didn’t). I feel REALLY guilty for taking the prime office space away from Kevin. I have been BEGGING him to take the front office and I’ll take the back office over. I’m not giving up, he really needs to be in that front office because it’s the space that clients see first when they walk in the door.

Speaking of walking in the door…

We had two visitors yesterday – one came in while I was getting my haircut – he wanted a tax form. And our neighbor came in to introduce himself to us. When he found out that I was a website designer, he mentioned he needed someone to update his website and I offered my maintenance services. We’ll see if anything comes from that contact.

It felt really weird, but cool, to give my business card out. That also motivates me to get off my butt and get my professional website back up and running.

Oh, I almost forgot. The maintenance guy came by and put up Kevin’s business sign on the fascia. It looks really good! I’ll take some pictures once we thaw out from this blizzard. He also had the lettering for his door, but it was too cold and the letters curled and refused to stick to the glass. So we’ll have to wait until it warms up to add that. But at least people know where to find him now!

This starting our own business thing is EXCITING! Especially after talking to prospective clients.

I feel so PROFESSIONAL!

Woot!

Have you ever experienced an earthquake, flood, or other natural disaster? Where were you? How did you react?

We survived the ice storm of 2007. It was the middle of January and they (the weather forecasters) sent out a winter warning.

We ignored it. We shrugged it off, rolled our eyes and said, "Meh. Whatever."

For you see, our weather people are rarely accurate in the Ozarks. But it's not their fault, the winds in our part of the country shift so rapidly that our weather literally changes from hour-to-hour and that's pretty hard to predict. So when they started forecasting a winter warning, we didn't take it too seriously.

We certainly didn't freak out like the rest of the city. As a result? We were ill prepared for what happened next: 4 1/2 inches of nothing but ice. Evil, crippling ice.

The ice weighed down our tree limbs, which snapped off and took down our power lines. Seventy-five percent of our city lost power. We were personally without power for 11 1/2 days.

And yes, I was counting.

School was out for a solid week – people were dying in their homes because they were so cold they brought in their gas grills to keep warm and died from the toxic fumes.

It was a nightmare. Our city quite literally came to a screeching halt during that time period. And the weather stayed cold enough that the ice wouldn't melt off for a few weeks. It was truly a nightmare.

I wrote about that time period, but on another blog. I'd like to re-publish those posts here so that you can read them (if you wish) and I will have a copy of them on my permanent blog.

This is a timely question considering we're currently under a BLIZZARD warning. I'm pretty old (mid-40's) and I don't ever remember having a blizzard warning for our area. In addition, we now pay attention to WARNINGS, though we still roll our eyes at watches. But when they predict a warning, it's pretty much a guaranteed thing. It's snowing now, I'd say we have accumulated about two inches so far. They are predicting a foot.

I'm happy to say, we were prepared for this winter warning.

Winter blows.

_____________________________

January 15, 2007

So, we're alive.

Did you wonder where I was today? Were you worried? I know I have been.

I've been in the dark, literally. We've been without power since Friday night. It started at 10:30. We were settling in for the night when *boom*, our transformer blew and the lights went out. At first, we weren't too concerned. After all, we've lost them in the past and City Utilities was very good at restoring our power. But when I tried to call, to report our outage, I got a busy signal. I knew right away, something was wrong. I didn't realize just how bad it was until the next morning. We were in the throes of a major winter storm. We received about an inch of ice Friday night, another two inches on Saturday and finally, another inch Sunday. Our poor trees (we have, oops, correction, HAD, four maple trees) are destroyed. Limbs have snapped and are everywhere. Many of them have fallen on electricity lines and transformers have blown all over the city. Ninety percent of the city is blacked out. Temperatures are frigid and we don't have heat.

The nights have been the worse. We were so unprepared for this storm. We didn't have any wood for our fireplace, didn't have any contingency heating plan. But thank God, Kevin had filled up the two propane tanks on our trailer and the propane tank on the BBQ grill. So, we brought the grill inside the house and have been cooking, and keeping warm, with that.

When my parents found out we were keeping warm with propane, they freaked out. They warned us about carbon monoxide poisoning (which we didn't even think about!) and thank God, had an extra kerosene heater. We've been using that and it's been WONDERFUL. It's keeping us warm at night (yes, we make sure there is plenty of ventilation).

I didn't have very many candles on hand so we've been very stingy about lighting them at night. As a result, we've been literally sitting in the dark. The boys and I (Kevin fell asleep in a chair) watched a teeny-tiny, battery-operated TV last night by the light of one candle. If you could have seen us, you would have felt sorry for us. lol

The nights have been the worse. Since most of the city is without power, it's pitch black here. I've felt claustrophobic. The nights have been LONG and SCARY. It's such a relief when morning gets here.

Kevin stood in single digit weather for over an hour to buy us a generator trucked in from Nebraska today. I'm posting this from my laptop running from the generator. Our gas is running out and we'll soon be back to candlelight. No one can tell us when we'll have power again. But things are so bad, I'm betting it won't be until the end of this week. I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

In the meantime, entries will be sporadic. I'll post whenever I get a chance. I plan on going to the library tomorrow (assuming their power is restored) to get some work done.

Thanks for being patient. Please send positive thoughts and prayers our way. When I say it looks like a war zone here, I'm not exaggerating. Springfield hasn't seen an ice storm like this in 20 years.

I'll never take electricity for granted again.

Continue reading “Ozarks Winters are Not Fun – Is it Spring Yet?” →