Mondays are generally not my thing. But today there was a ray of sunshine smiling on me...mostly.
As I pulled out of the driveway on my way to work this morning, I thought, "SCHOOL BUS!" Last week there was no school, so I didn't give a second thought to when I left for work. This morning I felt sure I would be stuck behind the school bus, but I knew that at least I was early enough not to get stuck behind it from Philmont in to Cimarron.
WRONG! Mrs. S waited for me to pass by before pulling the bus out onto Hwy 21. Phew!
Then, because I was ahead of the bus, I got to see one of my nephew's friends waiting for the bus. He gave me a very enthusiastic wave that just made me smile from ear to ear!
Work was work was work. A few things seemed to fall in to place. And ten hours later it was time to go home.
It snowed here and there during the day, but not too heavily in town. Evidently it snowed quite heavily in Philmont. Then I heard from Marie who heard from a neighbor that there was black ice on the highway headed home. This didn't make me thrilled, but I knew I just needed to go slow and careful. I stopped at the store for a few groceries before getting on my way.
First (and this is why the mostly), a cat hit me as I approached the St. James. It literally came from the side of the road and ran straight between the side tires. I saw the white and black out of the corner of my eyes as it ran at me and then, "CLUNK." There wasn't anything that could have been done differently, but I still felt terribly. An hour later it was still in the middle of the road by the hotel - Marie told me. So sad!
I drove on, and it started to snow hard. It was like twilight zone driving when it hardly looks like you're going anywhere. At Cattle HDQ the tracks turned off the road, and I got to make fresh tracks through the snow. I was careful to downshift and take the curves smoothly. I braked the first time when I hit Rayado and came across a herd of deer in the road. One with its tail to me would not move. I flashed my lights at it, but it wouldn't budge. I inched closer, and it staggered a bit before zigzagging in front of me and finally running off the road...silly deer. The rest of the way I spared two rabbits, making up for the goriness of the cat.
But best of all, when I got home, the house was warm and smelled delicious! Thomas was waiting with dinner on the table: grilled cheese and special green chile, fishy tomato soup! Yummy! My husband knows how to take care of me!