I like snow. (It's so fluffy!)

Cold weather and I go together like polar bears and fresh fish.

Running with Katie, traipsing all over Manhappiness late at night and leaving snowy footprints in the K-State Pres' yard (that was me!), and sledding with the kids rank among my All-Time favorite things.

But there is a flip side. 

Sometimes what falls from the sky is not light fluffy snow. It is ice; layers and layers of heavy ice that coat each surface, snap trees like chopsticks, and make walking on the sidewalk an adventure race.

A few years ago, northeast Kansas got a whopper, the mother of all ice storms...the ICEpocalypse!

New to my job at Sunset Zoo with a daughter in her high school senior year and son with a freshly minted driver's license...the instafreeze was not part of my plan. 

A week into the clean up and the Zoo still didn't have power. ZooKeepers were sleeping on the cold hard floor of the office to keep watch over the residents and to keep the 10 or so generators full in the freezing mess. It was crazy.

And we pulled together. It was good.

I did learn how to fix and fill generators, help "do diets" and care for some of the coolest grrranimals on the planet (snow leopards!). I got to drive the John Deere "gators" around the Zoo with purpose, lead foot, and abandon! I also had to help keep the snakes warm by leaning over their herp boxes-God help us...

Friends who lived out in the country, the six Nelsons, needed a place to stay. These fun Vikings lived at Kimble Cliff, a beautiful old limestone home that lost power and any warmth early into the storm.

We had room and electricity and a clear road in front of the house (it pays to live on the snowplow route.) And they came.

Six Nelsons, three Lousches, an assortment of small animals and lots of ice.

It was the best.

What better to ride out the ice storm and debris, but in good company? 

It would have been nice to have had more than one bathroom in that beautiful little bungalow, but we had such occasion of joy and laughter and camping in and community. We learned to be patient and take turns...or at least to be fast towards the loo.

I thought of this as I brushed my teeth this morning.

The ice storm

the mess and long hours at the Zoo

and smelling like petrol and tiger poo

the pulling together and learning how to drive the snow plow (hot dog!)

Kenan and Madi

Sliz & Kent and the Nelsonettes

laughing

thawing

making the best out of a bungly situation.

It makes me think of something Pastor Hubert, said this Sunday, "It's so important that we travel together."

It is so important that we travel together.

Fozzie & Kermit, take it away, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w316aA8ed8.