Somebody out there will catch the reference in the title, I just know it . . .

And I do wish we were at camp, tucked in by a fire, with no particular place to go. But no, we have to drive to Youngstown today; the weather was too bad for us to leave last night. It's very cold this morning - 16 degrees F - and very windy outside. The wind is supposed to continue until 6 pm here; we're supposed to get snow squalls but not any more accumulation to add to the three inches already on the ground. The path from here to Youngstown should be fairly easy, except for Cleveland, where they're supposed to get 4-8 more inches of snow . . . I don't think we're going to have to worry about that, either, because it's lake-effect snow and the turnpike isn't all that close to the lake, but Emil thinks differently. I guess we'll just see . . .

The wild card in the mix is Charlie, who has to be back to go to work tomorrow at 3:00. He asked for the day off, or just to go in late, but of course, they said no. He'd gotten Wednesday off, per our original plans; and everyone else had asked for the weekend off so he really has no choice. So we're taking two cars down, and he'll drive back by himself either late tonight or tomorrow morning. Sanity would indicate that he leave in the morning - but of course, he's completely nocturnal now, so actually, it might be safer for him to drive tonight. And then there's the question of which car he should drive back. The Subaru is much better in the snow - but that leaves the rest of us coming back in the Hyundai . . . I'm going to push for him taking the Subaru, though, because tomorrow afternoon the weather is supposed to be better still. I keep having to remind myself that when we were his age, we made similar drives in much less reliable vehicles.

Just another little anxiety to add to the already high tension . . . Oh, well. You take the day you're given, I guess. Emil's father really wants to see us, so that'll make it worthwhile, at least for me.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story . . .