I'm Out

Thanks to my wonderful buddy Matthew (and his mad skillz with a jack and a bunch of boards), I was able to drive my truck to the grocery store (and hardware store, and liquor store) today. I didn't even mind the annoying people out today, since it was the first time *I* was out since Wednesday.

I almost started to cry when Matt drove my truck off the landscape timber. I did start to jump up and down like a cheerleader.

Everyone needs a Matt. Someone who helps you, just because he knows how - and because he can't stand not helping. He is a lot of awesome.

Thanks, buddy.

How to Take a Decent Day...

...and turn it into one in which you mutter every F-, B-, MF-, C-, and S-word you can muster...

It was an icy ride home last night. Not nearly as much snow as expected, but much more freezing rain. I drove home slowly, carefully, and safely. And then I got to my driveway. While backing the truck into the driveway, I slid right over the landscape timbers surrounding the parking area (seen directly under the "G" in DODGE), leaving my rear axle on the timber, the rear driver-side wheel in limbo.

Under normal circumstances, I could work my way out of this situation. But given the fact that there was a nice, fat layer of ICE on the entire parking area, it was no go. Hopefully Wonderful Coworker/Neighbor Matthew can help me out of this predicament tomorrow.

Same sad story with the other, non-4x4 cars. I dug around each car's driver-side wheel, but all they did was spin and go nowhere. Unfortunately, since this area was dug out previously, there's nothing but ice in front of the cars.

Can you see the sheen in the picture above? My yard is nice and icy, with a good 3-6 inches of snow underneath. While walking to the shed (above, far left) to get some Ice Melt, I was wading in crusty snow up to my knees.

We didn't even get mail delivery today. No doubt due to poor Jill (mailperson who walks the route) looking at our driveway and going "Nuh-UH...No way no how."

Yeah. Joe, you owe me big. Please come home soon.

It's All Good

...so when last we left, I had frozen pipes when I got home Thursday, only to be thawed out after a brief interlude with a hair dryer. Friday morning, however, it was No Dice. The pipes laughed at me and my frozen ass sitting on the floor near the utility closet.

The plan for Friday was to pick up Joe at the train station, drop him off at home, then zoom in to work. Once I realized I would not be getting a shower before picking Joe up, I understood that the "zoom" part of my plan might not happen. So I called my boss, letting her know I'd be later than I'd planned.

I didn't get a call from Joe at 6:30am (which was when he was making his train connection), so I called his cell, and it went straight to voice mail. Not good. I checked online - yup. His plane was over an hour late. Called the boss again, let her know I'd be A LOT later than I'd planned. Then as the morning wore on, I just called in a day off (fortunately it wasn't a busy day), picked up Joe around 10am, went to the hardware store for a heat gun, came back home and finished reading a book while Joe tackled the pipes. Evidently we weren't the only ones in this predicament - the hardware store had sold out of many frozen-pipe-assistance supplies.

After we took showers, we took a nap. Then around 3pm we walked down to our new favorite spot, Garrison's Tavern, where we had a delightful meal and a few glasses of wine. We then braved the cold on the walk back and chilled out for the rest of the day. For a day that started really crappy, it ended up rather nice.

So Joe is home for the week, and the pipes are not frozen. It takes so little to make me happy.

...Then it was the Pipes...

Today was cold. Brutally cold. Right now it's 6. Tonight it's 0.

I came home this evening in the normal fashion - walk in, bring in mail, feed cats, change clothes, go potty.

Flush.

No filling-tank-noise.

Sinks: nada. Guest bath: nothing. Kitchen sink: trickle.

Yup. Frozen pipes again.

Call Joe, whine, pull out hair dryer (which, honestly, I haven't used for my hair since we bought it). Sit on floor while warming up pipes. Watch water meter. Wait. Wait. Wait...

...and there it was. Tiny little frozen pipe-ed-ness. Keeping the water closet (you think I'm just being delicate or European? We have a closet, and all that's in it is a water pipe and meter) door open, keeping the pellet stove on high - that should solve the problem. Should.

Thank sweet zombie jeebus Joe is coming home tomorrow, so he can see what's what and I can play helpless girl again.

EDITED FRIDAY 6AM: Nope. Didn't work. Frozen again, and 30 minutes with the hair dryer didn't help. Arg.

Detox

For 2009, I'm kicking it into high gear. The last few weeks of 2008 were spent being (somewhat) mindful of my eating and exercise habits, and other than the holidays I was doing pretty good. To renew my commitment in 2009, I went through a bit of a detox. For four days last week, I had nothing but brown rice, lentils, vegetables, fruit, and oatmeal. I had decaf tea or warm water with lemon juice. No caffeine, no sugar, no salt, no booze. There was also a "media" detox on the plan - limited TV, internet, email, etc. It's one of the reasons I've been so quiet lately. Another is that I'm just too lazy to blog.

I'm feeling fantastic and easing back into "normal" eating - limited salt/caffeine, more variety of grains and proteins, but still drastically altered from bad habits past. As a positive side-effect, I've gotten a helluva lot of things done around the house. And snow shoveling. Ah, the snow shoveling. Joe owes me big.

I'll try to have some more interesting posts in the days to come, but I appreciate your support as I change to this new way of thinking about/dealing with food, drink, and exercise. And hopefully the next time you see me you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Two Thousand And Nine

Wow, I'm getting old.  And I feel every bit of it today, as I'm recovering from yet another wonderful NYEve with the Connors.  This time we only stayed up until 2:30am.  And I'm not hungover - just tired.  The most productive thing I did today was turn on the computer.

Speaking of which, this was our present to each other this year.  It's so very lovely.  There's a bit of a learning curve on certain applications, and it'll take a while to figure out what we HAVE to move over and what we can get rid of, but it's all good.  It'll probably be a good way to keep my brain active - learning new things and such.

Joe also got me a little digital video camera for xmas - just something small to bring to parties (for embarrassing evidence), family trips, or just hanging out with our crazy cats.  It's a lot of fun, and only one person has threatened me with violence.  So far.

As the sun sets on our first day of 2009, I find myself grateful for friends and family near and far - for the jobs we have and not having to worry about day-to-day living - that even though I have a chilly house, it is a sturdy one filled with love.  I have plenty of yarn to knit, books to read, food to eat...life is good.  Cheers!