Hi from Ohio,

This storm has been dubbed 'February Fury' by the weather channel. Varying forecasts call for anywhere from 12 to 20 inches of snow over the next 24 hours, and I'm trapped in my mom's house with 6 of my sisters, plus my mom & her boyfriend. The last time I heard a story that began that way, it ended badly (Donner party, anyone)? Fortunately we have plenty of food. The weather here is not as bad as what's going on in New York, but for the Midwest it's a pretty nasty storm.

I flew the red-eye (San Francisco to Chicago to Columbus) on Friday night to see my aunt Helen, who was hospitalized for pneumonia followed by a heart attack last week. Of all mother's sisters (8 of them), Helen and Mom are closest in age and closest as friends. Sadly Helen passed away Saturday night, but her family (and mine) took solace in the fact that she was able to speak to us all, and that her passing was relatively peaceful.

Her children (9 of them; between the Rodes and the Rosendales alone there are 17 kids -- this doesn't include any of our other 40 or so cousins) scheduled two days of viewing, with services Wednesday and burial on Thursday. Because all of my sisters but one have come to town, we're all staying here with Mom for the week. Her boyfriend Harry sure picked a bad week to let his granddaughter & her family move into his house, and for him to move in with my mom...he's getting a concentrated dose of Rosendale family dynamics, that's for sure.

Last night's viewing at the funeral home was pretty heavily attended...there were at least 200 visitors for sure, probably more. Today's hours were cut short at 5PM for the blizzard; we barely made it back across town to Mom's house (I think I frightened my sister Kathi pretty severely when I barrelled through a drift on the north side of the railroad track crossover in our Pontiac Vibe rental car). We are now all pretty much snowed in for the next day at least...pray for me.

Here's a view from Mom's backyard, looking across the canal about noon today (it's 6:30 PM now and the sun has set, but it's still snowing hard).

Here's a view from the front of the house (trailer), looking down the street. The drifts that looked a foot or so at noon are about three feet now...