Drip drip drip.  Poptarts.  I ran to the basement to restock the Poptarts.  But quickly got distracted.  Drip drip drip.

Took a closer look at where water comes into the house and it is dripping at a connection before the shutoff valve.  Now, we had some mighty heavy storms last night - matter of fact some school districts are closed or on delay - so yes, I palpated to see if the water was coming through the wall and it doesn't seem to be.

I guess this is one way for God to nudge me into dealing with the mess/chaos that is my basement, right?  I cleared out that corner (mostly Christmas decorations) to make sure a plumber could get to it.  My work was disrupted though because kiddo's school didn't cancel or delay, and if the district isn't providing transportation, I'm the transportation - so we headed to drop her off.  One road was closed due to water and crossing Chartiers creek was a little spooky as it is quite high.

Plumber thinks it's just from all of the rain, and he may be right as it does seem to have paused.  Either way, he's popping in later this afternoon.  May as well have him also take a look at the overflow valve on the hot water tank that has been dripping for months while he's here.

This is the first time I've had even a drop of water in my basement.  I'm not here for it.  After the years of water I fought with in Johnstown, I need to know we're good.

I made a run into Johnstown for part of the day earlier this week.  A legend is retiring, and I couldn't miss her gathering.  Fortunately, the weather was good - but yes, there was still some snow in the parking lot.  I'm getting to the age where people I've worked closely with for a very long time are retiring one after another.  It give me hope for me, but it makes me might sad too.

I made sure to snag some meadows and sushi before I headed west again.

I commented about the ticks in my last post.  The flurry of them must be deeper in my brain than I realized as I had a dream about it last night -- and I don't often remember dreams anymore.  In the dream I noticed I had one on my leg, then another, and another.. and it became this frenzy of pulling them off of me -- but they weren't ticks, they were more like leaches, long and when I pulled them off there was blood.  For whatever reason my one neighbor was there watching me pull these off of me and I was frantically asking him to help get them off of me.

I also mentioned that I got some yard and garden work in.  I knew it was too early but I certainly wasn't expecting the 50 degree temp drop and immediate onslaught of 4 inches of heavy snow the next day.  The good news is we're to the time of year where it melts off pretty quickly.

Kiddo's swimming classes end in a week and I'm looking forward to another night or two that I don't need to run after work.

I've spotted several single robins out hoping around this past week.  I've also spotted a ton of worms ready to tend to my soil!  Then again, we've also plucked two ticks off of the dog already - sigh.

The weather was quite nice today so I got out and tended to a few of the pots.  It's probably too early to plant, but here I go.  I put potatoes into several pots, similarly one pot of beet seeds, another of carrot seeds, another with cuke seed, one with onion sets I picked up today, another with green onion seeds, two with peas, and a few seeds for basil in that pot..  I churned up the decorative hangers and tossed some various seeds in there too, we'll see if anything starts.  I also put some of the tomatoes from last year into little seed starter cubes -- those are inside on the basement floor for now.  I topped off the hot tub's water too - maybe I need to spend some quality time in there, that sounds nice right now.

Did I clean out the basement?  No, not the way I need to - but I did try to clear some stuff from the garage.  I listed a ton of it on a FB neighborly page on Saturday and -- nothin.

I only worked for a few hours on Friday.  I caught a small nap, vacuumed, caught up on laundry and dishes, scrubbed the kitchen sink, cleaned the 1/2 bath - but I still wasn't as productive as I should have been this weekend.

Yesterday we almost missed the bus.  Those that know me well know we are 99% of the time outside for 5+ minutes before its arrival and that tracks from Kindergarten to today.

There has been new drivers come and go, but the one that had them move the time back must be coming straight from another job - which makes me wonder how tired they might be, but that's a whole other thing.  Well, I guess they didn't convey this to the other driver that is supporting the route.  He rolled up 10 minutes earlier than the other one has been.  I opened the garage door and stepped outside to catch him while the girl put her shoes on.

I didn't realize how much that routine meant to her as she told me this disruption had her crying on the bus.  The good news is the weather has been nice.  We can go stand and "wait and see" this morning.

The floors have been done for two weeks.  Is everything away?  Nope.  I've been a bit of a slacker.  My office is functional, but I still have a few boxes shoved under the table.  There are still a few things sitting out in the kitchen that shouldn't be.  The left over carpet remnants are still in the entry hall.  My closet and Barney/Church's room are still in disarray.  Don't even get me started on the basement, which has become the catchall for everything "on its way out".

What I have managed to do is... to get my taxes gathered and done, get kiddo's catechism craft complete and delivered when we went for her first communion, ordered things I need for an Easter basket, spend some time outside while the kids played and by the fire pit, dropped off the clothes to donate, did a bit of research for the Alaska cruise, and some recouperation for my lower back.  While I don't see me pulling out all of the Easter decorations, I know where the girl's Easter basket is, so that will be coming up soon.

I managed to get through some work chaos, and not that things are slow but they've tamed down enough that I can breathe for a moment.  I'm definitely looking for a second wind to get things squared away here.

They've modified kiddo's morning bus time back by 25 minutes, which throws off my morning routine a bit, but it might let me shift the alarm back by 15 minutes or so, I'll take it.

Got a bit of a gut punch last night seeing that someone I knew very well in high school passed at the end of February.  He hadn't been well for an extended time after a motorcycle accident and we hadn't talked -- for reasons -- in a long time.  I mourn for his parents, not sure of what that relationship was like but not thinking great; I mourn for his kids, they too I don't think have been close for a while.