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Michiana Chronicles writers bring portraits of our life and times to the 88.1 WVPE airwaves every Friday at 7:45 am during Morning Edition and over the noon hour at 12:30 pm during Here and Now. Michiana Chronicles was first broadcast in October 2001. Contact the writers through their individual e-mails and thanks for listening!

Michiana Chronicles: Just Stuck

Heather Curlee-Novak

I got to play in the snow this week.  We got nineteen inches give or take eighty.  So I played in the snow but not in the fun way. I played in ‘the dog won’t go on her own and you don’t want her to pee on the porch” sort of way.  Our poor sedan that should be put out to pasture got stuck TWICE in one day.  I told my husband John to just leave it there with a ‘FREE PLEASE TAKE’ sign.   

Like the car, I also got stuck in a snowdrift.  I’d run out without a coat or gloves to move our car a few feet away from the shoveled sidewalk.  I tried to slip around the end of the car but with my fabulous Covid 19, NINETEEN I tumbled off kilter into the piled snow.   I was stuck… half in half out of a three-foot drift.  I was kneeling in several feet of snow but couldn’t stand up.  There was nothing to grab on to. I had to put my bare hands into the snow, the rough ice crystals jabbing against my hands and face.  The powder of it meant I just sank.  It was like swimming in your freezer. I struggled to move my toasty warm but heavy booted feet.  I kicked and flailed and finally rolled over on my back and half crawled, half rolled into the street.  I felt so ungainly it was like being nine months pregnant all over again. No, it was like being pregnant and trying to roll over in bed.  If my sheets and nightgown were both flannel.  And if my bed were in the middle of the street.  There was definitely swearing as at last I stood anything but victorious and covered in snow.  

Our kids have enjoyed actually playing in the snow.  This joy is increased as it is the only safe way our family is social these days.  The kids are remote learning and just had a winter break followed by an actual snow day followed by an eLearning day.  As if the past YEAR of familial togetherness wasn’t enough, we got …. more time.  Together at home.  Just the four of us.  More time together. I have been more irritable and so is everyone else.   I know I am not alone in loosening our pandemic restrictions…I’m not the only one trying to get strangers driving by the house to take one of the kids for the weekend.  I spent two hours locked in my bedroom last weekend just to be alone and my sweet husband got nervous.  Whether he was nervous I would leave him or leave him with the kids I do not know….but I told him he had nothing to worry about.  Those children though…

I’m kidding. I’m pretty much kidding?  I shouldn’t whine and complain because I know I’m experiencing an A+ Pandemic experience.  We have steady income, we are healthy and we like each other.  Our extended family is all on the same page with precautions and social distancing so there is no strife.  And we have money in our budget for weekly restaurant delivery…thus the Covid 19 “Nineteen” I am working on.  I’m not there quite yet…who knows?  Who cares?  We are at the stage when we are weary from 2021 and it has barely started.   Alcohol is important.  Copious snacking options are important. Good things to read from the library and all the Internet subscriptions are a priority.  We finally saved up enough to buy a new couch since it is a literal lifeboat each day.  And we are also getting a bigger chair with room for both of my girls to snuggle up with me.  For more togetherness.

My basement has been kinda purged and my house is kinda clean and the laundry is still in piles so that isn’t new.  The Holderness Family parodies and random TikTok videos make me howl with laughter and remember that we are all so alike.  We keep finding fun things to do.  We are doing a Netflix “Nailed It! at Home” baking event this weekend, and I think we might also try making snow ice cream. Hey! At least then the next time I’m trapped in a mini avalanche snowbank, I could maybe eat my way out to safety.  

Music: "Help!" by The Beatles

Heather Novak's professional history includes sales and customer service training and troubleshooting for businesses, but she loves motivational speaking best. Heather leads church events for youth, singles and women, has spoken for Chicago Apartment Association and many organizations throughout Indiana. Nowadays Heather is just another stay at home wild mama trying to loose some weight, keep some sanity and enjoy her life. She is being raised by two little girls named Portia and Libby and is indulged by a guy named John who was gracious enough to marry her. Heather blogs about F Words: Feisty Faith, Fumbling Family, Fairly Healthy Food, Failed Fashion and Fabulous Friendships. You can find her at www.liveyourloveoutloud.com.