Thank goodness February is over.

The arctic blast that hit Tulsa and most of the adjoining states was unusually cold and snowy for Oklahoma. I have lived here all my life and I can only remember a few years where we had such a destructive storm.

The good news is that Oklahoma has the best storm forecasters in the nation. They are not always right but they are honest and they give a lot of information. The TV weathermen work hard to give out as much information as possible.

When I first heard the storm was coming, I covered up my outdoor faucets and filled both cars up with gas.

I didn’t know the storm would be so strong.

On a normal week, we email the Tulsa Beacon to our printer, the Muskogee Phoenix, around noon on Tuesdays. They print it and deliver it back to us on Tuesday night. Then we put on mail labels and take it to the U.S. Postal Center Wednesday afternoon. Then, hopefully, the papers are delivered to the bulk of our subscribers on Thursday (some maybe Friday).

I wasn’t sure we were going to make to the Postal Center on Wednesday, February 10, in time to meet their deadlines but we did.

The big snow and single-digit temperatures hit that weekend. Fortunately, the Tulsa County Courthouse was already scheduled to be closed on Monday, February 15, so we didn’t have to worry about picking up the legal notices that we print in our paper.

We picked those up on Friday, February 12.

Also, thanks to Pastor Bruce Delay of Heartland Church, I was able to tape my radio show, Tulsa Beacon Weekend, on Tuesday afternoon rather than on Wednesday, when the forecast took a turn for the worse. We tape the show which airs on KCFO AM970 at noon on Saturdays.

During the ice storm that week, we canceled a couple of doctor visits and basically tried to stay at home (our office is conveniently in our house).

We keep a well-stocked pantry and we just made a last-minute trip to Reasors to pick up a few things for us and my in-laws. Fortunately, the Reasors parking lot was not too icy. We bought groceries and then went through the drive-through to pick them up. The store was very busy and some shelves – more than usual – were empty.

We got everything we needed.

On Sunday, our church didn’t meet but we had services on-line. Our Sunday School class met via Zoom – something we did for several weeks in 2020 due to the Chinese coronavirus. That actually worked very well.

I don’t like to walk on ice. One of our kids slipped on the ice that week and the older you get, the more dangerous that becomes.

I have always taken my lovely wife out to dinner on Valentines Day but it was bitterly cold and snow was beginning to fall. So, on Saturday, February 13, we got a meal to go from Red Lobster (which is just one mile from our house). That worked out well. I had also previously  purchased red roses, a box of candy and a Valentines card in advance because it would have been a nightmare on that Sunday.

On Monday, February 15, the forecast was for another wave of snow on Tuesday night, February 16. We called our printer and decided to send the paper via email a day early. That worked out well for them and us. If we had not done that 24 hours early, we might not have mailed the paper until Thursday and who knows when they would have arrived at the homes of our subscribers.

I truly believe the Good Lord smiled us to help us get the paper out on time those two weeks. We have been publishing for almost 20 years and we have never missed an edition – that is an act of God.

After that big ice storm we had about 10 years ago, I purchased a small generator because our electricity had gone out for a few days. Someone stole that generator from the shed in my backyard (which I now lock) and I bought a new generator which I keep locked up in my garage.

So we have plenty of food, water, batteries, a generator, two tanks of gas and a gas fireplace that we can fire up in a pinch.

The last 12 months have been tough on people with the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, economic problems and now the aftermath of this winter storm.

Through it all, God has provided for my family just as He always has.

You would hope that all this adversity would cause the hearts of our countrymen to turn to Jesus Christ and while that has been the case for some, I still see a lot of angry division and criticism of the Christian faith.

My prayer is for a better 2021 after a rocky start.