I received a call early yesterday morning from the little wild man truck driver. He missed a turn going to make his delivery, tried to turn around and got stuck.

He came all the way from Houston on Tuesday, running in the snow and ice for the last couple of hundred miles with no problem, then with his destination in view he had trouble.

In good weather, he could have done what he tried to do with no problem. With the snow and ice, it was bad news. K.O. came to town and we put his 4 X 4 on a chain and tried to pull the truck back. No movement. We took a shovel and began digging behind tires and under banjo housings. Another tug and still no movement. K.O. and I talked and decided we needed to pull out all the stops, or call a wrecker. I left the little wild man digging and I went to a lumber yard to get rope and 4 bags of sackrete.

If this truck had steel wheels we would have put chains through the holes and across the treads for added traction. But this truck is equipped with aluminum wheels. I had once seen a man who took rope and went around the tread and through the holes in the wheel and came up with an alternative for aluminum wheels.

When I returned from the lumber yard, K.O. had returned along with two guys from the truck shop. A smaller wrecker was going by and one of the truck shop guys knew the driver and he stopped and helped. Eventually we hooked the 4 X 4 of the truck shop guys on to the front of the wrecker and shoveled sackrete under the tires and the little truck came out. Four hours after we begin working to get it out.

I nearly froze my fat asthma off.

By then K.O. had issues with more trucks and he went one direction and I went the other. I went to I-20 and Fm 600 where a truck could not pull up a slight incline. We shoveled sackrete and I instructed the to back down the road and take an alternative route. I took a fall with a difficulty rating of 26 while we were shoveling. He misunderstood and instead just went to the other service road to encounter the same problem on the other side. About then K.O. arrived and gently gave this truck a bump and the truck crawled up the hill.

We went to Coca Cola warehouse parking lot and began swapping supplies back to their appropriate pickup and began planning and regrouping.

By the time I got home it was almost three o'clock.

And I am sick! Drainage, fever. And my head and my butt hurt where I had landed in my fall on the ice. I took some meds and ran a hot tub of water to soak in. Problem is, my tailbone hurts right where I like to lay when I am soaking. Ouch! I was in bed by 4.

Woke about 9 for stew and more meds and back to bed. Woke this morning and took more meds and fixed me a glass of cornbread and milk.

I am hoping to do nothing today!

Betsy got to go back to the rehab facility on Tuesday. Good news.

Keep close to the fire! Be safe, be smart!

Have a day!

FATHER, thank you for YOUR blessing of warmth and shelter. And thank YOU for YOUR love.