We have had so much rain.  The grass is green, lush, and TALL.  Unfortunately, it's too much rain to actually mow.  But I had to get things in order for our neighborhood Easter egg hunt tomorrow.  It's a lot easier to ensure the poops are scooped if the grass is trimmed, so out came the weed eater.  I needed to pull out the leaf blower to get everything that accumulated below the deck cleared away anyhow.  So my quick "I'll just go scoop poop" turned into a couple of hours of work outside.  I am feeling accomplished with something that is long over due.

While out there I realized the robins have been busy - and there is already a nest built under my deck!  No eggs yet.  This reminds me that the time to put hummingbird food out is nearing, but the weather is still calling for some rather cold moments in the next week.

Update:  as I am typing this the new lawn care guys came.  I knew they had intended to start mowing in April, but hadn't heard more from them.  I'm glad I was here (to open the gate and pay them).  I'm glad I had already scooped poop.  But I guess some of my effort this morning was a bit of a waste.  It's ok, I could use the exercise.

Cats.  Why are they obsessed with hiding so I accidentally trap them in my bedroom in the morning?  One might also ask why I am so inattentive that I don't notice for a few hours.  In my defense I gotta get the kid off to school and then the calls and meetings start.

It's most noticeable when Church is trapped because he isn't waltzing between me and my keyboard around 10am.  This is what triggered me to notice his absence earlier this week. I left him out and he promptly went to get the breakfast he missed to find an empty bowl (oh Barney, you little piglet).  Today it was Barnabas that didn't come running when it was treat time.  I left him out and went to check the food bowls presuming I would need to hook him up with some kibble.  My charming Church didn't touch Barnabas' food until that very moment when he decided "wait, I gotta try and eat this up so he doesn't get it".

Last night Barnabas was kind (?) enough to point out to me that the present from the dog mentioned in my previous post still offends him.  He was jumping over the spot and trying to cover it with the rest of the carpet.  Roger that Barney, I'll pull out the rug scrubber and try again.

* GROSSNESS WARNING *

 

Barf. Oh yeah, that's why I stopped giving bones etc to my dogs a long time ago.  Silly me, I gave Zero a bone on the deck yesterday to keep him happy and quiet while we had company here.  Today we have vomit.  Noxious, make you gag strong vomit.  Soupy, hard to clean up vomit.  The first huge puddle was ejected in the living room, because of course it was.  Several more pools formed outside on the concrete while I attempted to rinse the bulk of it from my cleaning rags before putting them in the washing machine.  The house smells like a cesspool despite cleaning to the best of my ability.

This level of gross happened out of the blue once before in my dining room a few months back and I had not provided anything of the sort to him.  As I am trying to replace flooring in the near term, please don't allow this to be a routine thing.  I just can't.

We had a beautiful weekend.  My sister, S, came in with her bf.  On Friday we ate dinner and made a Sarris ice cream parlor run then on Saturday we took a walk around Peter's lake, made a three stop cruise between local breweries, and finished up with dinner.  It's been a while since I've gotten to see her, so it was a highlight.

The temps have cooled back off but I did get a few more seeds in pots (basil, beans, cukes, peppers) and I sprinkled some chive in a little area beside the wall out back with the hopes they will proliferate.

I also got a few Easter decorations up inside and switched out my kitchen curtain for the birds instead of the snowflakes.  Welcome spring and summer!  I've been gathering goodies for Easter, but I need to inventory to see what gaps I have.  In addition to helping the Easter bunny out, our neighbors are repeating last year's Easter egg hunt, so I am trying to get the right things pulled together for that squad, with something special for each kid - this isn't as easy as I thought given we have from 1 yo to 14 yo to account for.

This morning I realized I should have returned Avery's switch game to the library so I guess I need to run out today -- and pay a fine.  The last tax bill check cleared, so I'm done with all of that until September.

I took a moment to step out today and dropped one container of carrot seeds, one container of beet seeds, and one small container of lettuce seeds.  I also watered the pepper and asparagus plants that are sitting in the basement waiting to go back outside.  It looks like everything in the basement is dead, but I have persisted and I'm glad I have as today I spotted a little scrawny asparagus in the pot!  I didn't cut back the fronds last fall as I was afraid I would do "too much", but I will do so as soon as I can get that pot outside.

The drips at the hot water tank are from the drain release.  It isn't a large amount of water, so that's a relief.

Not to be out done, and perhaps a curse of me speaking it into the universe that many items in this house are probably creeping towards end of life, the keurig, the dryer, and the fridge all gave me a moment in the past week.  The pump on the keurig wasn't stopping after the water was exhausted to brew the cup of coffee.  Fortunately, after descaling and giving it a bit of time this resolved itself (for now).  The dryer threw a code when steam sanitizing an item that indicated there was an exhaust flow issue.  After last year's shenanigans with the vent cleaning tool breaking off I call bull.  It has since been running without complaint. Then I pulled a bottle off of the door where the ice maker is and found about a quarter cup of water in the tray.  I sopped it up and reseated the door that opens to tend to the ice maker and it took hasn't provided angst since.  I'm not going to remain this lucky for long, I'm not stupid.

I never got the second estimate on flooring that I was waiting for, but they did leave a message.  I need to stop back up there and clarify my want for the estimate w/ my current selection.  I had a third place come and measure just for the non-carpet flooring.  That came in at the same price as the place I expected to be pricy (where I picked an acceptable, but not love it option)... but they have a laundry list of things they don't do.  For example, I would need to go buy and stain/paint replacement quarter round and I would need to have the plumber to reconnect the toilet and the fridge's water supply.  (sigh) This whole thing is frustrating.

There was some water under the hot water tank earlier this afternoon - of course there was, right?

With the brief nice temps I tucked all of the sprouting potatoes into pots.  I also had a tomato that had seeds trying to grow.  When I sliced away that portion I also put those i to a bit of dirt to see what comes of it.  Tonight I should prb cover them all.

If you've ever watched Office Space you understand when I say TPS reports.  Well, you're aware, even if you don't fully understand... but if you understand, you understand.  My present TPS report is people copied on emails.

I got an email forwarded to me that I needed to take action on.  The guidance was explicitly to reply to everyone on that email.  Ok, no problem.  I send one message and get a call from a subcon saying this other email needs to be on all communications and sounding a bit like I slighted someone.  Ok, fine.  Subsequent emails on this discussion include said email address.  Now I got an email from someone else from the original email asking me to include another email address on all of these communications.  Why weren't either of these emails on the original request?  Why do I feel like I somehow made a mistake?  It's hard to keep track of now 11 recipients.  If someone drops one of them off of an email, do I need to readd them?

Meh.  So much time is lost to ridiculousness in business.  Why do we have to include every friggin person on a team for every meeting -- but then restrict to a subset of people that are on certain conversations which result in confusion and questions later from the people left off?

On a brighter note, today was "decade day", so we geared Avery up for the 80s at school.  She's got the oversized Atari shirt with the sleeves rolled, silver parachute-style pants, fluorescent shoes and bracelets, the side pony with a bit of blue color, and blue eyeshadow.  She is the very definition of Totally Awesome.

aaaand it's snowing again.  At least we had a nice weekend, mostly.  There were some pretty wicked wind and storms that came through,  While I didn't get an alert on my phone we did head to the basement briefly when it started to hail yesterday.

On Saturday I swung into yet another flooring place since I have yet to get an estimate from the one that has been here twice.  They had choices I hadn't seen before, but again, none of them landed in the "I love it" category, even after bringing three samples home.

What is it about me that allows some folks to take advantage of my willingness to offer a bit of grace?  Here are two cases that stand out to me - let me know if I am the ahole.  I will note that both people are super pleasant folks that I really like.  They weren't mean, but it was death by 1000 cuts.

The first ended over a year ago.  I had someone offering a routine/repeat service here at the house.  We would schedule and even confirm within the week before every month or so.  Then within a day or so of the scheduled time I would get the text "can I shift from morning to afternoon or afternoon to morning", "can I move you to this day instead" etc.  No big deal 99% of the time and the answer was always "no problem".  Peppered in here was always a "are you healthy" message or two before appointments, which I get to an extent, but it annoyed me - and I would totally message you and say "we're sick" if I needed to and I assured them of this.

Over time my eyes would roll a bit when the text came in because of course it did.  Then there was that 1% of the time when I was depending on the service occurring on that scheduled date before having guests here at the house.  On this occasion it was a "can we reschedule, I'm afraid of getting sick".  We weren't sick mind you.  Yes, it was during flu season, but that's several months of the year and this service does necessitate you entering people's homes.  This left me in a bind and in a rush to take care of things on my own leading up to the holidays and company.

When they messaged the next month they expressed feeling really bad about not coming etc.  But I simply indicated that it's still flu season and we will just bow out.  A month later they messaged again and asked if I wanted said service.  I repeated that we would wait until flu season ended.  By late spring I got used to not spending the money and sucking up and doing this activity myself, so I never bothered to start things back up.  I'd like to get someone back in for this service, but I've put it off, and damnit -- I don't want set up for the same cycle again.  Am I the ahole?

The second scenario is playing out right now.  It involves a weekly lesson for kiddo.  Scheduled late summer 2024 and agreed upon a date and time each week.  We ended up going less than 50% of the time, and it wasn't me cancelling... but ok.  Girl never developed a routine and never grew interested (probably because of the irregularity).  Each time there was a cancel there was an offer for a different day of the week.  I always replied indicating "no thanks", "we'll see you next week", and often noting when the offered time conflicted with other commitments.

Now their schedule has changed completely.  The first message was a spam to several 'students' indicating this changed schedule and noting that lessons could not start before X time, let me know available times.  Well, good news, our time was exactly X time -- we should be good.  Today I get a text offering us the X+1 hour time slot and I replied indicating "I must have misread.  If you are still able to start at 530 we'd rather keep our set time."

I admit, the reply pissed me off because it indicated the person with the X-1 hour time slot wanted our time and already picked it.  That they were "going first come first serve".  Pretty sure August-September 2024 comes before March 2025.  The next text reiterates the X+1 hour time and times on another day of the week.  At this point I feel jerked around, despite being obscenely accommodating for the past 5 months.  Am I the ahole if I'm just out at this point?  Why should I change both my and my kid's schedule around in order to accommodate another student that wanted to take our slot?

We are getting small tastes of nice weather again and I'm so here for it.  As much as I loathe changing the clocks and it makes me rather grumpy when the alarm goes off for a few days the later sunlight time is welcome.

The other little thing bringing me joy is that I bought the green onions I needed to make the corn dip I took to holiday gatherings again.  It's so good!  I will be using some of my little lunch break to mix it up.

I feel stuck.  Having home owners insurance and two tax bills arrive, I haven't seen my slush fund incrementing as I would have anticipated in the past two months.  The good news is that I did get a bit of a tax refund to offset some of it, or it wouldn't have just been stagnant growth it would have been negative.

My brain is twirling with smaller improvement ideas, but I have to keep them at bay and put my eyes on the prize.  I wish I was passionately excited about one of my flooring options.  I did have the second provider return, and he disagrees that a glue-down would be required.  While this opens more options in flooring selection it also makes even more doubts and second guessing swirl.

One perk of having been sick is that my appetite was way down.  I've decided to try and embrace this as a leaping off point, not allowing myself to return to post-ick consumption.  The scale is responding, for now - I know losing weight this way is short lived; I am hoping it serves as motivation.  I definitely saw my first robin w/o his friends earlier this week.  I am hoping nicer weather will inspire me too.  Of course, this just reminds me that I'm behind as I haven't put a single seed into dirt yet.

I purchased some snow crab legs for dinner tonight - I haven't bought those in many years but thought "what the heck" when I spotted them on sale.  It'll be fun to see what Avery thinks.  She does like a california roll, so this should be better, right?

I didn't escape the cooties.  I have spent a few days feeling very cold but without a fever along with a general lethargy and very heavy/tired eyes.  Last night I was literally crawling into bed at 7:30 and I enjoyed every minute of sleep.

The most annoying part is that there is crud draining which has my cough /sore throat firing up again.  While most of my cough went away at the start of February (after torturing me for the full month of January) I periodically had a hack.  I guess I'm to the point where I should consider a trip to the doctor for the cough, but I see the sinus drainage correlation, so maybe it isn't worth it.  It also isn't in my lungs, it's truly in my throat, but I do worry about any type of lung issues.

I've been trying to power through two shows on Netflix.  It's been a while since I found something there worth watching - go figure my favorite egg plans on canceling his subscription the second I find things to watch  The first, Resident Alien, came recommended from one of my Starbucks friends.  The second is Six Feet Under which I found my happenstance.  They aren't earth shattering, but I'm enjoying them.

Girl seemed to be doing well mid-day yesterday but then her eyes started to tear again and looked red.  Looking online for guidance I pulled out the lubricating eye drops I had in our emergency medical supplies and gave her a warm compress.  I called her pediatrician late in the afternoon to see if I should take her in somewhere (concerned about pink eye) and learned that this is basically what has been going around and that it is likely to come and go in waves.  I also learned that I took the right action on the eyes, so that's reassuring.  They also advocated for ibuprofen rather than acetaminophen (tylenol), which was fortunately available via the nearest Walgreens.  I guess since the fever was low enough I needed to let it ride.  I also snagged some ear drops as I noticed this gap in my emergency supplies after a neighbor highlighted this symptom as an issue she was having in her household.

I post all of this to spread the word in some capacity.  Either way, she was 110% herself at bed time last night and seemed a-ok this morning, so off to school she went.  I'm hoping we don't ride the roller coaster the pediatrician's office warned me of, but I guess we'll see.

As for me, I have a dentist appointment today.  Wish me luck.

This is a first - kiddo stayed home from school today.  She just wasn't herself all day yesterday.  Then she became very tired late in the afternoon and was reading a fever.  She went to bed super early (at her request).  This also means she was up super early today.  I came down (about 15 minutes before her alarm was set for) to find her fully dressed for school and watching TV.  Given the fever late in the day yesterday, I had her stay home.  Hopefully this is just a quick thing and I don't get this gift.  I've heard so many people going back and forth with the sick that's been going around - I admit, I'm a bit nervous.  I guess that's my reminder to go give her more vitamins and emergen-c.

Flooring update - I'm exasperated.  I had a second location measure.  They indicated that I would need to do glue-down (due to spotting a bowing in the floor in my hallway).  This, of course, reduces the options I have significantly.  It wiped out all but one flooring option I had liked the look of at that location.  The one that remains?  Yep, it's one of their most expensive flooring options.  While I didn't have an idea of a $ amount, I am in complete sticker shock.  It would wipe out my entire slush fund and a bit more.  They offer 0% financing, but I was really hoping to not need to go in such directions.

The first place that measured didn't notice any issue with the floor.  Because I haven't picked something they haven't given me any pricing, which is a bit frustrating.  I've been back and forth from there bringing home samples to look at.  I am just not finding something I like that looks ok (in my opinion) with both my cabinets and counter tops.  Too gray, too beige, too busy, too plain.  I am officially the flooring Goldilocks.

I've been in this house for 8 years (and four days).  Time really flies.  I had this epiphany last night right before bed -- because I realized I hadn't gotten a bill for my home owners insurance (which should have needed to be re-issued on Feb 8).  Now, I did pay off the house, so you're probably thinking "well, you didn't contact them" to which I'll note that I got the pre-bill mailing that says "THIS IS NOT A BILL.  A SEPARATE BILL WILL FOLLOW." -- but it didn't.

Needless to say this stressed me out a bit, but I did manage to leave a message so my insurance office would call me this morning and allowed it to roll off my back enough that I slept ok.  Today they called and noted that a bill wasn't sent out yet and it isn't due until early March (which is odd since my mortgage paid it in February last year, but ok).  They made sure records indicated the bill needed to come to me.  Crisis averted.  Premiums are up yet another $100 this year.  I can't believe I'm going to phrase this in a positive light, but I've heard of people having premiums double, so I'll take it.

I found adapter plugs that eliminate my previous frustration.  Let's be honest, for $4, even w/ a working arm I might have taken this lazy route.  Those should arrive on Thursday, but the replacement detector won't be here until the 20th or so.  I bought a two-pack thinking that I should also swap out the basic smoke detector in the basement (near the furnace) for smoke/carbon monoxide.  In theory it should all work, and if it doesn't or causes too many false positives I can always swap it back out.

Friday I got my registration for the car.  They've raised that price too.  2023 $39.00, 2024 $39.50, 2025 $45.00 - seriously you email me something I have to print myself.  How does that cost another $5.00?  Based on the stories swirling about perhaps it will slush a legal fund for our Governor.

I also had the first individual here to measure as I prepare to replace flooring.  Of course I didn't get any numbers and I need to go back up to their store when I can spend more time looking through the options.  The kick in the nards there is that they don't move certain things -- like adjustable beds (which I have) -- and they have to be fully vacated.  Um... I can barely move that thing to clean behind it.  That might be a deal breaker.

The last of the body tenderness is finally leaving.  I have 10 days until my next massage.  Hopefully we can deal with any lingering tightness then.  There is major flu floating around (several variants).  I'm really hoping my house can escape that mess - I put in my time throughout January.  Reminder to take your vitamins.

I thought I had won my own personal lottery.  The smoke/carbon monoxide detector started beeping a week and a half ago -- but not at 2am.  It was a relatively reasonable hour with the exception that it was the only day I get to lay in bed longer.  By the time I had the dog out and came back upstairs to figure out which one it was it had stopped.  A couple of days later it started again -- this time at 9am on a work day, even better.  I changed out the batteries, counted my blessings that it wasn't beeping in the middle of the night and went about my day.

Here we are on Friday after this started and it's beeping again.  The batteries are good, I know it.  So I look it up.  Every 30 seconds beep means that it is nearing end of life (rather than 1 beep every 60 seconds).  Lesson learned.  But in the mean time, it won't stop beeping - and while I keep plenty of batteries here to avoid this annoyance I do not keep extra smoke detectors.

I certainly hope that the same brand still uses the same connectors and should be an easy swap, but until I see it I'm not going to expect it.  My first thought was, should one just replace all of them at once?  I mean they're all 10 years old.  Then I saw the price of one.  Ouch.  It's discontinued hence the high price.  The replacement they point you to?  It has a different connection, so I'd need to swap out the connector to the hardwires.  Keep in mind I still have one arm that doesn't go up, hence I haven't change the light fixture over the sink in the basement yet.  Good times.

95%.  Still just a wee bit.  My whole chest cavity remains sore, the feeling like after you had an extreme workout when out of shape.  I'm pulling out the massager today to try and loosen things up.

Since my last post I have stopped in to several more flooring places including another that seems on the 'higher' end, the place that did my upstairs bathrooms/laundry room a year ago, and home depot to review what they carry.  I'm still not blown away by anything.  There really is very little variety out there in carpet colors, just gradients or beige or gray, or beige and gray.

I feel like I'm doomed to pick something that "will do" rather than finding something that I immediately fall in love with if I want to do this relatively near term.  Heck, the quotes may come in so outrageous that doing this near term isn't even an option -- and that's based in part on my guestimates.  Here's my guess based on some of the numbers I've seen - carpet w/ the upgraded padding 8-9k; lvp 6-7k or ceramic around 10k.  If that's where things start to land that definitely doesn't leave me wanting to do everything all at once and it nixes some of the other upgrades that I'd want to do at the same time.  Dear lottery (or wealthy benefactors on their deathbed that I am not aware of), a girl could use a hand.  Thanks.

I'm at 90% - periodic coughs, particularly when I over extend myself.  I'll take it.  I truly lost the whole month of January.  Yesterday I finally took the really large bin of Christmas stuff back to the basement and only suffered a minor coughing fit.

Saturday was brisk but the sun was out, so Avery and I spent most of the day outside with her neighbor friends.  I needed the fresh air and companionship.  I came in a bit windburned and frozen to the core which had me taking a super hot shower and sitting on the couch in layers of clothes and blankets.  Maybe that's what dislodged the last bit of ick?  I'm left with just a little bit of rib cage soreness.

Friday I popped into one flooring store that I expect to be a bit overpriced.  They didn't quite have what I'm looking for instore, and didn't have some of the options I saw on the website.  While the lady that helped me mentally took me back to my youth, and not for a good reason, I still have her coming to measure and give me general estimates.  I figure it will give me the higher number so I can start to figure out my path forward.

I say take me back to my youth because... when I started looking at one section of carpet she tried to nudge me away from it to the other side of the store and basically told me that carpet was the very expensive/high end stuff.  Granted, I went in there dressed a bit like a bum... but even I learned when I was 16 waiting tables to not take a look at someone and make a financial assessment.  I remember this happening to me distinctly once when I was younger and it was a running joke w/ the ex and I.  I went to ?Market Basket in Johnstown, we had friends coming (one of which I know reads this blog).  I wanted to buy filet mignon and asked to have 4 cut to whatever thickness (I don't remember).  The butcher said "you know this is X $ a lb, right?"  The ex had bought me jewelry periodically.  He was good like that.  Looking as he (we) did, he would go into a store and he (we) would get ignored.  The place could have been empty and they would ignore the young 20-somethings in the dark clothes.  Eventually he found the gal that was our go to for jewelry shopping because she treated him like anyone else.  I'm sure her coworkers were pretty pissed about the commissions they lost.

In past visits to the doctor for a cough I've been told both that it was sinus related and that it was reflux related.  I want to note that I have only ever had a brief issue with heartburn when I was very pregnant, so I've always been skeptical of that diagnosis.  Here recently with this cough I've found myself (gross warning) tasting what I last ate a bit more often (still no burning), so I figured I should give this a little more consideration - especially given how overweight I am at the moment, which could cause or exacerbate this issue too.  I've taken a few antacids in the past few days and I even slept on the couch the past two nights, hoping the more upright posture would prevent reflux-related issues.  Last night I also pulled out the neti-pot, even though my head/sinuses have been remarkably clear ever since the allergy fit on New Years day.  May as well tackle both suspect concerns.

Sitting still I feel ok and start to think maybe I'm doing better - but when I have to move around too much, do the stairs, or head out into the brisk air the cough takes over.  Nothing like loosing all of January to this.

In a desperate attempt to do some of the things I am behind on (read:  cleaning) last night I dusted the cat room (prb not great for a cough) and scrubbed down my bathroom sink (chemicals also prb not great).  So at least I ran the netipot after doing those things.

I look around at my mess and can't fathom how on earth I can have someone come here to replace floors, there is too much crap - where do you put it and how do you move it from room to room fast enough as they complete each space?

I'm seriously considering a very dark colored carpet upstairs.  I had a near black carpet in the bedroom at my old place - it wasn't as awful w/ fur as you might expect.  The bigger worry right now might be reducing the visibility of two black cats at night.  I also love the look of slate for downstairs - but hate the thought of that maintenance.  There are vinyl options, but I wish they would come up with a better name as vinyl instantly makes me think cheap.  Tile maybe?  I really need to get out and look at things, but I have to admit there are some really nice looking items on Home Depot's website.  I do need to do more research to make sure I am checking my boxes (scratch resistant and water proof, low maintenance).  At least I have a nice long window to do the research while I gather funds.

I've gotten my first tax bills post mortgage - ouch and ouch - and I'm waiting for the home owners insurance bill to come too.  It would be really nice to think I had a tax refund coming to cover those things, but knowing it's dumb to give the govt an interest free loan I have tried to cut those numbers tighter in recent years.  I guess the lottery is the only other option.  Last week I did get a fortune cookie last Thursday that told me "A financial breakthrough awaits you this Wednesday"... so lemme see it universe.

Monday will be (a combined) 25 years with my employer.  How does that even happen?  Obviously, my body reminds me daily that this time has definitely passed even if my mind isn't there.

While I don't want to give up my today, I miss the early days.  I miss the people around me then.  I miss Thursday wing nights.

One thing about a massage is, sometimes, it can leave you more sore the next day... but then you tend to feel way better the second day after.  That's where I'm at today.  I ached rolling out of bed this morning and I had a tinge of a headache.  Feels great to cough like that, let me tell you.

Girl got up and so it began.  Each day she fights back a bit more doing the school work that needs to be completed.  Today she literally took all day and only completed the packet from school - after countless visits with me to check things and to help her with the things she wasn't sure how to do.  Somehow from 6:30a-4:45p I managed to get 7 hours worth of work in and lunch reheated.  We headed to Jujitsu because even more on her days off she needs that exercise.

Then it's make dinner, with that started run her through her high frequency words, spelling words, bible verse, and the like - then, prepare a packed lunch and snack for tomorrow, empty the dishwasher, wash the dishes from earlier in the day, and eat.  Then wash more dishes and her milk/water bottle.

I'm emotionally done today.  My entire rib cage aches.  I cried.  I haven't done that in a while.  I need to vacuum - I just don't have it in me.  The heavy bin of Christmas crap is still in my kitchen waiting to go downstairs - I just don't have it in me.  My cold water on my bathroom sink still doesn't work - I just don't have it in me.  To be honest, right now I am not sure I have it in me to get up off of this couch so I can walk up stairs and shower.  The alarm goes off in 7.5 hours.  I hope I can get a good night's sleep.  Go away cough, go away.

So help me if I have a voice mail saying school is out again when I wake up I might lose my mind.

I love my child.  I want her around.  But I also need my child to go back to school.  As noted previously, they had a 2 hour delay last Wednesday, they were off on Thursday.  Monday was a school holiday (I still had to work), today they're remote, and... tomorrow they're remote.  Because it's _cold_.  *sigh*  Where is my 3 days of teacher salary on top of trying to get our one product testing finished and released at the same time.  I'm tired, the cough persists, and I'm getting cranky.  Thank goodness for my massage today - and even more gratitude for my massage therapist that doesn't mind Avery sitting in the room playing on her Switch.

I stuffed up w/ an allergic fit on New Years day something fierce.  That rolled down my throat (as it does) and caught in my upper airways.  I've since been coughing - and I'm to the big annoying ones that sometimes make me wretch.  I'm kind of making a note here because I looked back to my old posts to see when I last had this - and it was December 2023.  I definitely seem to get this once a year. At least this go round isn't a sore throat.  I also haven't thrown out a rib as I did last time, but I am a bit sore from the coughs.

This state slows me down a bit as I am trying to avoid coughing fits.  There is still the one big/heavy container of Christmas stuff upstairs that I haven't carried to the basement.  Let's be honest, as behind as I am in cleaning, I can't afford to be slowed further.  I also miss being able to participate in the wine at communion.

Yesterday I took to a task that involved me sitting at the table - I managed to ready Avery's Valentine box.  This year they had "homework" to make whatever box they wanted.  Well, the girl is all about the Minecraft game that she spent her Christmas money on, so we made a creeper head w/a red heart on the top.  It turned out decent.  It might also pass as something she made.  Hey, I never said I was crafty.  I also managed a pretty decent nap.  That's the one blessing about being "sick",  I feel way less guilty about this type of lazy.

Yesterday was a 2 hour delay, today is a day off.  I'm so jealous of my kid it isn't ok.  I did change my alarm and got an extra hour this morning since they cancelled before I went to bed last night.  Admittedly on Tuesday it was pretty gross in the afternoon.  There wasn't a lot of snow, but they didn't seem to have touched it.  We had made our attempt to go to Muay Thai but when I saw how backed up the highway was in both directions we turned around and came back to the house.

Today being cancelled means that voice lessons are cancelled.... again.  I at least waited to place my Giant Eagle order and was able to place it as a delivery instead.  How on the first day of their weekly sale (at 10am) do they not have the main thing I was ordering from them to obtain?  Shenanigans.  At least they had packs of ground beef at a good price.  I'll be bagging that up and putting it into the freezer given the spotty availability and ever increasing prices.  I wanted to get more boneless chicken thighs than I did but the price wasn't right.

To those having their babies today - take advantage of store pickup and delivery.  What a game changer.

Aside:  I have not seen the crows since my last post.  But we have tons of beautiful birds coming to the feeders on the back porch and the cats, especially Barnabas, are loving it.

Back in Johnstown I suddenly had crows bringing bones to the bird bath on my deck.  I'm all for a token of affection, but can you not bring something my dogs will eat and get sick from?  Focus on shiny things, thanks.  I don't recall doing anything to gain their affections, but I know that's a thing - they have a great memory.

I have often watched the two big crows that live nearby here.  They keep to the front of the house, leaving the bird bath and feeders on my deck alone (at least so far).  Today I made a grocery run after getting Avery on the bus as the snow was starting to fly again - yes, I bought milk and bread.  No eggs.  No one can afford those these days.  Regardless... when I returned I saw the two crows making a mess of the trash across the street.

I figured this was my opportunity to try and make friends.  At the cost of 2 hot dog buns I got to watch them trying to figure out how to pick up more than one piece of bread at the same time and monitored as they flew the bread up to the roof of the neighbor across the street.  As I watched I was waiting to see them drop the bread and it roll off the snow covered roof.  Clearly, I underestimated them.  They put the bread into the gutter and plucked pieces off from there.  While they eventually flew off with a few wads of bread and I was successful distracting them from making a mess of a neighbor's trash, they also left some behind.  I hope they return so I'm not left with the guilt of being the root cause of my neighbor's gutters being crammed with bread.

Two very separate things to comment on today...

1. Sex and the City
2. Plows and Driveways

I fully understand how seeing the word plow might make you think they're related.

Topic 1:  I've started to rewatch this show on Netflix.  Yes, there is that little on that interests me.  I know it's not quality, but I need something on that makes me want to fall asleep and it works well.

I didn't recall how insane Carrie is.  She just plain tortures Big with her insanity.  No wonder he doesn't want to marry her.  Was I really that blind to this when I was younger and watching the show?  I've also noticed the subtle sadness that is behind Samantha's mask of promiscuity.  It really is a sad -- and probably even more accurate today -- portrayal of dating pressures.  While exaggerated, I can see the truth in the situations (e.g., Miranda wondering what is wrong with a guy that is so eager to get together after meeting her, Charlotte failing to follow her own rules to establish boundaries).  Don't watch it, it's awful, really.  Worse still is when they comment about being 30-something and you feel incredibly old rather than thinking they were so much older than you.

Topic 2:  We finally have a decent amount of snow.  Scrolling facebook, likely due to the different things I follow that demonstrate I'm officially old, I see PennDot's post about how to shovel your driveway so you don't get snow dumped in it.  Um, yeah, right.  I'm still traumatized from the house in Johnstown and I've been gone for 8 years.  They looooved to come around that corner scooping up slop and fill my driveway with it.  Note that I say slop - that freezes right up like concrete.  There were times I couldn't get out w/ my 4WD even after digging and digging.  Then you come home at the end of the day and they've filled the driveway again.

All that to say (once again) I love it here.  Not only do we not get as much snow as I did in Johnstown, but by like magic the plows here clear the roads without plowing me in.

Snow day number 2 for the kid - last week there was a 2 hour delay.  We didn't get as much snow as I was expecting, but the pressure change is ensuring I am miserable w/ the weather.

We did a bit of running around yesterday, so I didn't get all of the Christmas down and away but I did go back out last night before the snow started to pull down as much as I could outside.  The wreaths also came off of the windows and were stored, so that's something.  I enjoy having the lights from the tree, so I don't mind it being up for a few more days.

One of the stops we made yesterday was for me to cash in on winnings from the local fire company's 2024 calendar.  Nov 17 I won where I scored $250.  On Dec 30 I won a prize from Sportsman's Warehouse.  I had a pack of 10 calendars that I won when they were doing tip boards to get them gone late last year in addition to an individually purchased one - but go figure both winnings were from the same calendar/number.  I'm not exactly the muzzle loader type of gal, so I took the gift card.  Needless to say, Sportsman's Warehouse isn't exactly the easiest place for me to spend $400 - but it was still fun to walk around on a buying binge even if I left w/ half of it still on a gift card.

The last day of "the holidays" and here I am up way too early again and under the thumb of demands put on my time by others.  Is there a way for me to learn how to say "no thanks" and not be the a-hole?  4 "free" days off from work between Tgiving and New Years and all friggin 4 were booked with "obligations".  I'm so over it.

Dear non-working and retired people,

Those of us that do work want to keep our days off for ourselves.

Thanks,

Me