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time to try and catch up
February 04, 2019, 4:41 P.M.
I can't keep up any more. The time goes by in such a blur that I honestly couldn't remember the last entry I wrote, and when I found it, I couldn't remember how many weekends ago it was, or if I had ever gotten around to actually posting it. (It was the weekend of the 18th/19th--and I hadn't.)
So anyway, I will start with weekend before last--26th/27th. Friday started at 6 below zero, and after work I came straight home and did laundry in order to get on top of it for the weekend. We had planned to go to Mason's for a burger at dinnertime, but we didn't make it past the BBQ place--it lured us back in, LOL!
Saturday was even colder, and we had to get up and out early to make an 8:00 am appointment at the Chevy dealer where I bought my car, because it was showing the damned check engine light again and Onstar kept emailing me that I had a problem with the emissions system.
Yeah, there was a problem, all right. they had to replace the valve cover this time. Still under the powertrain warranty, though. Clucking Bell, I hope that everything is fixed this time.
We sat in the dealership for 2 and a half hours, then ran next door to Menard's to replace all our snow shovels before heading back to town. All our shovels were pretty old, and the previous week's snowstorm had wiped them out. Broken handles, broken scoops, just shot to hell. We got a pair of nice new back-saver shovels. One for the front, one for the back--or in a pinch, his and hers.
Hit Woodmans on the way in grocery shopping, a couple other quick other errands, and home. We were going to take it easy in the afternoon, but Spouse kept looking at the forecast and fretting about his car, so we ran out to Batteries Plus and had a new one put in the Malibu.
I made beef stew for dinner, with enough extra to have it for Monday supper. I'd planned to make cornbread, but we decided it was a better idea to finish up the homemade bread. (And when Monday night rolled around, Spouse asked me to make rice and serve the leftovers over, because he was starving.) So I didn't do any baking.
On Sunday, we got up and had breakfast, and I worked on laundry and housework while he ran out for a haircut and an oil change. I was happy to stay home. I honestly can't remember what we did the rest of the day--or what we had for dinner. (I'm starting to get kind of worried about that not remembering thing.)
Okay, Last week: Shite. Utter Shite. Work first:
I missed work on Monday due to a raging snowstorm (told my boss on Tuesday that I made the last two out of three blizzards and that would have to be good enough), that was at its absolute worst right at drive time. Spouse called in, as well. I frantically played catchup on Tuesday, everything was just a blur and it was exhausting. At the end of the day, we got an astonishing email from the big boss--
--Wednesday the office would be closed (Something which never happens!!!!) due to the hideous polar vortex bringing temperatures of negative 27 degrees and windchills of negative 50.
On Thursday, we were open despite the weather being very nearly as cold as the day before. My remote start didn't work, of course. Too cold. I started it up, then came back in the house because it was just too cold to be in that car till it had warmed up. I couldn't lock it, but I figured if any SOB is out there stealing cars in temps of nearly 30 below, they could m-f'ing have the damn thing. No such luck. After it had warmed up for 20 minutes or so, I had to drive in and go another round of furious catching up. Since this hit the whole midwest, some of our vendors were closed as well, and the post office suspended mail service for both Wednesday and Thursday. Things were quite clusterfucky.
It snowed again Thursday night; not a lot, but enough to make a mess. And Friday, it started to warm up--it was a whopping one degree above zero when I left for work. Just warm enough for the roads to be a treacherous deathtrap. Lots of people late due to accidents screwing up the traffic. I made it on time, but just barely, and only because I have a built in extra half-hour factored into my commute.
We didn't get much fun out of our snow day. Not with 9 or 10 inches of snow to clear. We worked on it together, and between two people, two new shovels, and two snow-throwers, we got it done. Lots of hard work, though!
And as I said--I was home on Wednesday, but Spouse had to work that day.
So I worried about him all day.
It was too cold to do much around the house--we had two electric heaters and the furnace pounding, and the warmest it got in the living room was 63 degrees I was wearing sweatpants, a long-sleeved tee under a heavy pullover hoodie, wool socks, and my Mukluk slippers, and I spent the day wrapped in a doubled-up kingsized quilt.
Poor B was suffering, because he could only be out about 90 seconds (I'm not exaggerating--a minute and a half, and he was back to the door.) and I limited him on how often he could go, for his own good and for the sake of not letting the cold in any more than I had to. I did make a very hearty dinner with a salad, fettucine with meat sauce, and garlic bread. He was very appreciative of that when he came in.
And he returned the favor on Thursday--knowing what my day was like, he stopped and picked up Italian Beefs at Valeo's for our dinner. (He'd already brought me Nachos El Fuego on Tuesday night, for the same reason. What a love.)
On Friday after work, I took my poor crusty car to Rocket Wash and gave it a bath, then I picked up potato salad, cole slaw, and fried chicken at the Festival deli, so he could come straight home and relax. He had been so stressed out by the weather all week, I knew he didn't want to go out. After a couple of days sub-zero, a day in the twenties called for picnic food! I came home and cooked a frozen pizza for lunch, then tried to nap, but didn't get anywhere.
Reading: "The Bandbox" (1911), by Louis Joseph Vance.
Listening: Since I decided to continue service with Sirius XM, I've been sampling so many channels I can't even say what I've been listening to.
Inked Up: Monteverde Artista medium with Iroshizuku Yama-Budo, Sheaffer 100 “Purple Patterns” fine with Diamine Misty Blue (I wanted to try Misty Blue in a finer nib. It's a little blobby in that firehose of a VP), and (this should go without saying by now, right?) the Conklin Duragraph fine with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown.
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