Close call!!

Well now......will the fun never end??? After last week's snowstorm, the weather changed.....got warmer and we got a little more snow, then sleet and freezing rain...stayed warmer (30's & 40's daytime) and drizzly/misty. Everything turned icy, of course. Saturday we were going to have someone come sand, but realized that the drizzle was just freezing over the calcium we were putting down to melt ice, so it would do the same with sand.....it'd be a waste of money until the rain stopped.

Yesterday the yard was so icy that DH had trouble getting his van and empty trailer out of his parking area to go to the storage unit to load it for today's work. Hmmmm.....well.....my parking spot is on a hill (next to the house) and it was not so icy, so we decided that we'd park my truck down in the other area and back his van and loaded trailer into my spot....even if my area got icy, he'd be headed downhill to start. If I have to get out, I should be able to do it with some ice melt and 4wd...or just call for the sand guy to come.

Now....we had high high winds in the night, but didn't really think much about it....until this morning.

When I got up and looked out the window I sayLook at this picture......see that small blue speck waaay over at the bottom left of the picture? (it's actually a water bottle with a blue label). Well....when I parked that truck last night, that's about where the front passenger tire was sitting...and it was parallel to the Buick....you could have parked another vehicle between them. Darn good thing we didn't, because what you see in the picture is what we saw this morning.......the wind really was strong enough to blow that truck across the ice to where you see it in the picture!! Talk about shocked!

And, of course, from the house we couldn't tell where it was in relation to the car, so didn't know whether or not it had gotten close enough to hit it until we went out and looked. They're actually about a foot apart.....PHEW!!

Done ramblin!

Mailbox - 0, Plow truck - 1

Sigh. Been saying for years DH should be snowblowing, not plowing, the winter path across the lawn between the driveways. It's on a slope right behind the mailbox post and I always feared the plow truck would slide into it...especially if we've had icing (and we have). Nah, says he. Right. Can anyone guess what happened when he was plowing they yard this morning? Snarl. Our mailbox, post and all, is laying in the back of said truck as I type. Can we say "Ree's not real happy"??? Sigh.....I guess it's a man thing. So...he'll be picking the mail up at the P.O. until he figures out a way to have the mailbox set up for them to deliver to.....coz I'm not driving 9 miles a day just to get the mail!!!

Speaking of that snow.....we got a bunch of it! It was really cold, so it was a dry snow....and it was really windy (they said gusts to 30 mph, but I say more!!), so it blew all over, making it hard to measure....but DH's experienced guess was 14 or 15 inches. There's 4 feet in some spots (like right in front of the house and against the back door!!!) and not a bit in others (like right in front of my truck....which is just unused space, usually!!)

Here are some pictures I took around 6:00 this morning with my almost new camera (early Christmas present to myself - a really cool Canon Rebel XS that I now need to learn how to use properly!!). This first pic is looking out the front door (facing east).....that's one of the support posts for our roof overhang and the snow on it (from the snowblower) is at a height of about 3 feet......so you should be able to guess how deep the snow is out beyond it, huh?

This second picture is that same post, but I'm facing northeast - showing how the snow drifted. As high as it is by the back of the Tundra.....the path in the foreground only had about 3 inches of snow on it!
(notice the mailbox is still in place past the back end of the truck? harumph.)















And here's one of DH plowing - yes, the snow really was up to the truck's headlights in that spot! Since there's no mailbox in the back, it was obviously taken before "the incident". grrrrr.

This last one is a picture of our NEW SHED - it finally got delivered last Thursday, but we need to put some non slip deck enamel on the floor before we start using it much....so when we find time to do that, we'll have to set up the little propane heater to warm it up enough to paint. Oh....and that snow covered lump in front of it? Well.....our car - a Buick LeSabre - is under it somewhere! What looks like the peak of an ice cream cone is about where the middle of the roof is on the car.
Done ramblin!

OW!

Man, does this hurt! Last week my niece, grandniece and I decided to have our weekly Thursday lunch at Applebees. In the process of getting settled, I sat, scooting my chair forward to the table....you know the routine.......grab the chair, lift your butt a bit, pull chair forward, settle butt back down and let go of the chair all kind of in one fluid motion? However.....this chair had a loose seat and lifted as I pulled, which resulted in my index fingers sliding between the chair seat and the frame. But, because it's such an "all in one" motion, before I could react and stop myself from settling my butt back down and letting go of the chair, I'd already done it, and found myself in HORRID PAIN! Both my index fingers had been pinched between the seat and the frame, but the worst part was that the right one got caught on some jagged metal (probably where the frame and seat were supposed to be hooked), and before I could take a breath, I had part of my fingernail ripped off along with a deep puncture wound. (the left finger just slid out and got scraped a bit, no big injury). Talk about shock!!

I have to say, the staff at Applebees was great. My first reaction was to wrap it up to stem the flow of blood - the waitress and assistant manager went and got more napkins and a bag of ice and bandaids. Then I looked at it to determine extent of damage and realized that I was going to need medical care - the piece of fingernail that had been ripped off wasn't off...it was hanging by a thread and was waaaaay up the nailbed. Obviously the bandaids weren't gonna do it, so we requested bandaging materials - which they brought right out (which my niece helped me put on). When I showed them the injury and told them I'd have go for care, their immediate reaction was "no problem, just let us get an incident report filled out and then you go wherever you wish to and have the bill sent to us. I said, of course, fine....but it's stopped bleeding and isn't life threatening, so we're eating lunch first!

So....an hour or so later, the doctor said it didn't look like any nail bed damage, and the puncture looked clean (well, YA.....I pretty much bet that all that blood flushed out any germs!!!) so it should heal well. I had an appointment with my doctor on Monday for my usual PT/INR, so I had her look at it while I was there - I thought it was healing normally, but it doesn't hurt to doublecheck......and I was right. I do, of course, bump the stupid thing a few hundred times a day, so it's sore all the time, of course.......sheesh. But, I've gone from gauze padding and tape to a couple of bandaids with some paper type tape to hold them on.

Meanwhile, things are still busy here.....did I mention that typing with one finger out of commission is really SLOW????

All's well otherwise.

Done Ramblin

Surprise!

It hasn't even been a month and I'm posting again! There's not a lot of news, which is why I figured I could get this done with the few minutes I have.

We're still right out straight with work.....between work already scheduled and work to be scheduled, the first free day I see on our calendar is Dec. 16. However....the phones have definitely slowed down, so it's possible that that date will stay a free day....you never know with this business!

This means the office is nearly at a standstill, so my stress level has been up....yay.

However...the Lyrica is still working...not quite as well as in the beginning, but still enough so that I'm relieved to be at a lower pain level. I have another 2 weeks before my next office visit - we'll see.

Done Ramblin

How could I have forgotten????

My doctor is trying me on a new med to try to help my pain issue - Lyrica. I was very sceptical because it was developed for diabetic & shingles pain originally, now used for fibromialgia, which I've not been diagnosed with. However, the doc said a lot of my pain seems to be from nerve damage, and this helps that type, so I said ok, I'll try it. She gave me a starter pack card and said "report to me in a week, please." I was to take a one week written prescription to the pharmacy with that card and I'd get that week trial for free. Ok.....then I nearly fainted when I saw how much it would have cost if I had to pay for it - EEEEEP. But then, I figured, hey, it's not gonna work anyway, so no biggie. They say it sometimes takes a week or more for it to work, IF it's going to - and it doesn't work on all people. Right.

The good news is.....within 4 days I was in MUCH less pain.....WOOHOO.......and for the first time in about 8 years, I'm able, on some days, to walk up and down short flights of steps like a normal person, instead of going one foot and bringing the other up to meet it....and walking without a limp on most days...and able to bend over without nearly passing out from pain on some days, too! Whaddayaknow.....the Lyrica is working. The doctor has given me enough samples to get me through until I'm scheduled to see her again (about 5 weeks).

The bad news......this drug has no generic form, so unless I can find some sort of special deal, I am not willing to change my lifestyle as dramatically as needed in order to afford this drug - about $170 a month, which is about how much we spend per month eating out locally and eating out when I need to travel to get business stuff, and some of our personal gas money. Considering that eating out is basically my ONLY social life 3/4 of the year....and that we pick up a LOT of business when we eat out locally (I actually have to carry Ed's schedule to the diner (in a PDA), as seeing us reminds people that they need Ed to do work for them, so they schedule it then and there).....it just doesn't make sense to cut it all out just to lower my pain.

I do plan on asking my doctor if there is some other drug out there that works the same way as Lyrica, but that comes in generic form. So, wish me luck!

Again, done ramblin

Holy cow! Loooooong!

I guess it's a good thing that a lot of people don't depend on my blog to keep updated on me. Snort, choke......rephrase.....it's a good thing a lot of people don't keep updated on me...........period!!!

May 31, huh? Well, let's see...it's mid October now.....4-1/2 months between posts.....ugh! Good thing I don't have to account for all that time - my memory's so bad I have trouble remembering what I ate for supper last night - usually, anyway....though I do remember this time that it was English muffin pizzas (and I'll never use that store brand of pizza sauce again).

So.....the summer.....um....we had 6 or 8 weeks of "dead time" with the business and had a lot of stuff that had to be done around here, so we got to a lot of little jobs. Took down some spruce trees and had them milled out.

We also started a project to cut down on weedwacking time and weeding time, since Ed no longer has time to weedwack and I can no longer keep up with the weeding. By the time we're done, we'll have planted perennials all along the edge of the lawn where it meets the woods. Because we have this small viney s*it that encroaches onto the lawn if it's just grass.....strong, so tangles in the mower, Ed has always had to weedwack the whole perimeter of the yard. For some reason, that same stuff doesn't seem to encroach past most perennials, especially stuff like hosta, daylilies and groundcover (like bishop's weed, creeping phlox). With Ed's help, I broke down and put down mulch in my flower border....I HATE MULCH. I particularly hate red or cedar color mulch, so I chose black. We divided one of my cranesbill plants and had enough to plant around one of the apple trees (again, with mulch), so that tree doesn't have to be weedwacked around, either! It's a large project and an expense, but it's either that or let the weeds take over...and when you're running a business out of your home, that's just not a smart option.

Then, it's so much for the rest of the money in our savings account....most of it's having to go toward things we need done in order to keep the business running smoothly. Ahh, such is life. Here we go:

When the town decided to dig a canyon in front of our place (most of my crochet friends heard all about this ditch...I ranted!!), they took away access to where we were going to build a garage. So......we HAD to have access back because we HAVE to add some sort of storage - we've run out of room to put stock, etc for the business. Plus, one of the sheds that we now must use a lot for stock is set about 75 feet past the end of the driveway and you can't drive to it in all seasons with a vehicle (can we say "keep the plow truck at the ready to haul the van out of the mud" ??). It was either move the shed up to the driveway, making less parking space (and making the shed the view out my livingroom window!!) or make the driveway go all the way to the shed. Since we couldn't afford to build a garage after putting in culverts anyway, we decided to go the "add to the driveway and buy a big shed" route. That took the rest of the garage money....but the shed will be 12 x 32 and we can always add to it later, if we've money. We bought another Amish one - the waiting time is really long (4 months), but they're very well built and less expensive than having someone come build one on sight. Now, for the first time EVER, we're hope we don't have snow before Christmas, as the shed won't be here until December 8!!

Our livingroom window came apart on us this summer! So, we had to have it replaced...and we figured that, since the previous owner had put 3 other identical windows in when he put that one in, we probably should replace all 4 at the same time while we could afford it. So, we had 4 new windows installed and the trim put on them - boy is it nice to have trim in some areas of this house......it hasn't had much in all the years we've owned it, and what it did have we took down because it was......yucky! (old, reused painted-a-million-times clamshell molding). So.....of the 10 windows and 3 exterior doors in this house, we now have 5 windows trimmed out (one was already done - the one in the shower had to be done when we did that area a couple of years ago). The really nice thing about this trim is that it's all from our trees - we have a planer, so planed out what the carpenter needed for trim boards. They looked so nice in their natural state that we decided to just urethane them.....and Ed is doing that as he has time - a few coats of water base satin urethane, then a top coat of water base gloss, so I can just run the swiffer duster over it (hee hee).

We've been buying new window shades, too - Lowe's had a clearance on their Levelour brand cellular room darkening shades, so I took advantage....was able to get shades for all but two windows at the clearance price before they ran out of the size I needed. As we get trim up, I'll take them back and have Lowe's cut them to size for me - I've already had the ones cut for the 4 windows with trim. The kitchen window is all done, so that shade is up. The livingroom has one more coat of urethane to go, then that shade can go up. The other two windows each have 2 coats to go before the shades can go up. Can't wait!! (but have to....busy time now, Ed's not got time to do it and I can't...boo hoo!)

We are building a new office!! We're so cramped in the existing one, which was our little den (9-1/2 x 12). That room has nearly no wall space - it's all windows and doors. Once you have 3 desks, a bunch of file cabinets, chairs, shelving and dry erase work boards in that room, there's no room to move to work in it....especially with 2 people on occasion! Add to that the fact that, in order to get to the office, customers have to come in, go thru the front entry into my laundry area, down the hall (stepping over my dirty clothes if I was doing laundry that day) and then to the office...and then they have to stand in the doorway, as there is no room in the office for another person. It really stresses me out having them walk thru my laundry, I'll tell ya!

So, short version....our guest room (9-1/2 by 11) is next to our front entry area (9-1/2 b 9-1/2), so we decided to take the wall out from between them, making a combined entry/office area of 9-1/2 x 20-1/2 (remove a closet, rework a closet to make a storage closet). Once it is done and we've moved into it, the old office will be turned into a guest room (build a closet).

Mistake number 1 - didn't hire the carpenter at job rate.....he's also the burner man that works with Ed when needed so we trusted that when he concurred with our guesstimate on time needed, it would be within the ball park........when in actual fact he's so.....methodical (needs to think things over before doing them, which I didn't realize) doing carpentry......that at the end of the projected 80 hours of labor, we've used most of our money and have a new office area that is bare bones. I had a few 'set-to's' with the carpenter.....both of which ended up costing more money, of course. Now, before you blame the carpenter entirely, a lot of it is our fault. So....live and learn...if we get enough money together to hire it out to be finished, we WILL hire job rate!

I guess that's it for what we've done this summer and fall. Next spring, we'll need our kitchen/dining/livingroom area repainted......both of the colors I'd chosen several years ago were "off" compared to what we really wanted and I really hate them (I wanted sage and ended up with mint and some other light green).

I've discovered that I just can't choose paint - I'm always off on the color (too many choices combined with the inability to visualize the color on a wall compared to the itty bitty paint chip). However.....I also discovered that if I describe the color idea to my niece she can choose the correct color....in about 3 seconds flat, the brat! So, I have a new interior decorator. She's helped me choose the color scheme for the new guest room, if we ever get it.......since our futon cover is taupe-y tan and B had a piece of material in chocolate and aqua that would make a great pillow, we chose a paint color called "wading pool"....sort of aqua-y...and the curtains are chocolate brown. B's already made my valances for my livingroom and kitchen...she will be making the valance for the office window.....boy, do I ever appreciate all her efforts! I did, however, pick out the office wall paint color, which was chosen just for Ed. Every time paint color comes up, Ed says "how about yellow?" - always picking a pale shade. I've always responded "ick, I don't like pale yellow". Ed's response usually was "well, you're the one that has to look at it - I'm gone all day, so whatever you choose is fine." This time, when he said yellow, picking a shade that looked nearly off white, I grabbed a chip of quite bright yellow called "sunbeam" and said "if it's going to be yellow, it's going to be YELLOW!"...he looked at the chip and said "ya, that's ok". So...the office will be Sunbeam yellow....put your sunglasses on, folks!! The valance on the window will be medium blue....and if B gets fancy on me, it possibly will have a dark blue border of some sort.

Ok, so I've rambled so much that your eyes are bleeding. I'll try to do better about keeping up, but 'tis the busy season, so don't count on it - it's taken me two days to write this!!

Done ramblin!

In A Blue Funk

Yep, I've been in one.....that's why I've not posted, I think. I've been really "down" and haven't felt like doing much of anything. My last posting is right on target for this one too.....more bad news than good, still...yay.

Today I'm just going to update on the office furniture situation - that alone will be loooonnnnnng! UPS took 2 of the 4 damaged pieces as returns, touch up kit arrived, seller couldn't find repair person to come to northern ME, so offered us a discount on the 6 pieces with minor damages. Oh, and he authorized us to get rid of the two pieces that UPS did not pick up - they were damaged beyond repair, so we salvaged the hardware off them and hauled them to the dump. While thinking about the refund offer, the replacement order of those 4 pieces arrives.....BY UPS AGAIN???? Sheesh. I KNOW the rep I'm dealing with agreed with me that the delivery should be by freight truck, not UPS...so what the heck happened??? Driver won't allow me to inspect before signing, so I refuse to take delivery. UPS driver says he'll take them back to his facility and have their company inspector check them. I get a call that night from UPS inspector, who says she saw just one tiny (1/4") scratch on one piece, didn't see any other damage. I was surprised, so started asking questions....hmmmmmmmm......

During the conversation, it comes out that she did NOT open all 4 boxes and look the pieces over, she only opened the very top of one box (kinda figured, when she couldn't tell me what piece of furniture she had inspected). Well, of COURSE you didn't see the damage! So, I talk to seller's rep.....he doesn't know why it was sent UPS again, but recommends I accept anyway and they'll just reorder (for the third time) if these are damaged. Grrrr. So, UPS comes a week later with the packages....ALL ARE BROKEN!!! Snarl, growl. I call the seller's rep.....he's VERY accommodating....orders the 4 items a THIRD time (plus orders a replacement for one of the other 6 pieces that I'd discovered was more damaged than we realized) and assures me they'll be delivered truck freight.

The 5 pieces arrive truck freight....now....this time, all boxes are clearly marked "furniture" "this side up" "fragile" and one of the boxes is visibly damaged. AND.....two of the boxes are sitting on their ENDS, not "this side up"!!!!! WHAT???? After opening the one with the visible damage (which was broken), I insisted that the other 4 be opened before we unloaded them. The driver said he wasn't supposed to open and inspect any that did not have visible damage and I INSISTED.....it was that or he was to take the whole order back and I would personally note by my signature that I was refusing it because I felt it MUST be damaged due to the position of the boxes and the non-cooperation of the driver. So, he allowed them all to be opened, and the other one on it's end was broken too. He insisted it was not his fault, it looked like factory damage to him. I said I wasn't assigning fault, I was simply refusing to accept a broken piece of furniture.

So...back to the seller's rep. I GIVE UP!!!! Of all the furniture we ordered, we ended up without one long reception hutch, which we've decided we can just deal without having at all. I told them if they'd refund the money on that long hutch, refund the money for the short reception hutch (that is damaged) and give us the discount that they offered on all the other pieces, I would settle for this all to be done. Otherwise, they are going to have to order ALL TEN pieces all over again, because I am DONE with damaged furniture. The rep agreed to my terms, so I'm waiting to see how much of a credit gets put on my Visa.

Oh, and once again, UPS came and got just 2 of the 4 damaged pieces!! AARRGGHH! Geez.....!

Done Ramblin

Another Sunday

Unfortunately, there's more bad news than good this week. The office furniture arrived. Good news? Um, not exactly. Due to the weight and size of it, it was supposed to be shipped by freight (such as Land Air Express, etc, NOT UPS, FedEx, etc), and we'd opted for the free shipping, which was curbside delivery. Not a problem, we've a good commercial style dolly and had arranged for an extra pair of hands.....the furniture is real wood, prebuilt stuff (not the put together yourself chipboard, pressed board stuff), so the only "assembly" needing to be done is putting the legs on the desks. HOWEVER....it was shipped UPS! AND....it came a day early! My DH was able to get home to help the UPS guy (who expected to unload it into our house all by himself - UPS doesn't do curbside delivery, they do in house). It's a good thing DH was there.....I don't know how this guy would have been able to unload these boxes alone....some of them weighed 140 pounds!! He said he loaded them alone.....which may explain the next part of the story!

The furniture was in boxes clearly marked FURNITURE, FRAGILE, THIS SIDE UP on all sides. BUT....it had been crated up with luan style thin plywood.....all sides...the plywood was glued to the boxes and then they'd glued fiberboard corner pieces to that......the lettering was ALL covered...the UPS guy didn't even know it was furniture.....he sure didn't know it was fragile!! The crates looked fine - not a bit of damage to them....but when we got it all uncrated we discovered DAMAGE, DAMAGE, DAMAGE! Of the 10 pieces, not a one escaped damage, though 6 of them only have minor damage. Four pieces are broken beyond use.

We've notified the place we ordered it from....they're sending "touch up kits" to my house....when they arrive, I'm to call them and they'll send a professional furniture repair man here to fix the 6 pieces (and then I'll decide if I'm happy with the work). They've ordered replacements for the other 4 pieces - I so hope it's not going to take another 10 weeks for delivery!! They're filing a claim with UPS and are notifying the furniture manufacturer...they agree that it should NOT have been shipped UPS......and that it was crated improperly...the outside crates should have been marked and were not. I am sooooooo sad....this furniture is sooooo beautiful and we've waited sooooooooo long for it.

So, our office is all at 6's and 7's right now.....we have to work with half our office furniture for now....boy what a mess!! Of course, with the extra stuff here, just sitting still in crates awaiting a decision, space is at a premium as well!

Ed dropped his cordless work drill the other day......standing 8 feet off the ground on a ladder, it slipped out of his hand and went all the way to the cement covered ground below - SMASH!

So....having the opportunity to go "to the city" yesterday, we made it a multi purpose trip (as usual). I found the coffeemaker I wanted and had a $10 off coupon for it, too!! It's a Cuisinart On Demand.....I LOVE IT!! Ed bought a new drill (actually got a deal.....got a cordless drill, sawzall, light, 2 batteries and charger package for less than what just the drill would have cost him). We priced the other stuff we're going to need (when we get a truck...sigh). We got out to see my nephew in law and grand niece....my niece was working so didn't get to see her (missed you, B!!). Saw her mom and dad and another grand niece at her house...plus got over to my nephew's house and visited with him and his two boys (missed his DD......sorry, K).

We also went to the Sportsman's Show.....I'm not crazy about it, but Ed likes to go....we used to do it yearly, but hadn't been in about 4 years. I think there are lots less vendors there now.....more boats (canoes, kayaks) than there used to be and more turkey hunting stuff than other types of hunting.

By the time we got home around 9:30 pm, I was beat, but it was a good day.

Done Ramblin.

Seven days later......

ANOTHER storm! Oy! This time, it started out as sleet and freezing rain....got about 3 inches of that last evening into the night. This morning it turned to snow......we'll see how much more we get before it stops! It was a bit hairy driving downtown for Sunday breakfast at the local restaurant this morning....they'd not plowed our road and only one other vehicle had been down/up the road since the snow/sleet. We're partway down (or up) a hill, so getting going sometimes is a challenge. (The plow truck went by for the first time at 10:30 am!)

Oh, heck...let's do a bad news/good news thing!

Bad news......both my reading lamp (one of those "true light" lamps, which I NEED) and our coffeemaker died on the same day last week.....AAARRRGGGHHH!!

Good news....I was able to replace the lamp more inexpensively than I thought I'd be able to.

Bad news...I couldn't find a coffeemaker I liked.

Good news....we have a spare, so I've time to shop around.

Bad news.....the guys that brought our new bed (a memory foam one) set it up with the mattress cover on upside down, which resulted in them putting the mattress on the box spring upside down, so we spent several nights trying to figure out why the *&^&* the bed was so uncomfortable.

Good news.....when we discovered the problem and flipped the mattress over, we discovered that it was much better! (imagine that!). We've slept on it (correctly) for almost a week now, and I think when we get used to it (they say 3 to 4 weeks) it's going to be even better than now. We're both sleeping better just due to the fact that it doesn't move when one of us is restless (me), so the other one (DH) isn't being woken up over and over in the night by a shaking bed.....once our backs get used to it, I think it's going to be wonderful....I HOPE!!

Bad news.....my niece was sick last week when I went shopping, so I didn't get to see her and grandniece....bummer!

Good news....for the first time in a long time, I was able to get nearly everything on my shopping list that day!

Bad news....we've STILL not had a chance to get out snowmobiling.

Good news...business seems to be picking up.

Bad news...the pickup we thought we could borrow until we buy one isn't available now.....the friend is having mechanical trouble with it. So....if we need stock on a non-delivery day that won't fit in my car, we're going to have to rent a pickup. That could be interesting...there are no car rental businesses in our area...hmmm....wonder if the guy that sells used cars does rentals.....hmmm! This also means we're not going to be able to get the door we need to the hobby/stock room until we get our own pickup....and we also aren't going to be able to get the house antenna until then, either. Sigh...figures!

Good news.....our office furniture has been shipped and is due to arrive Tuesday!!! YAY!!

Done Ramblin!

The Weatherman Was Right

Ok....I've never said this before and I never thought I would, but.......ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! Not that I want to get rid of the snow yet this year, but, geeeeezzzzzzz.....we didn't need any more!! It arrived a little later than originally forecasted - the majority of it coming down late Saturday night instead of during the day, but we got between 12 & 14 inches of the white stuff.

I took some pictures this morning, after it was all over. Ok, so the house is a single story.....but....in this picture to the left, the window is more than 4 feet off the ground.....it is the view I had out my office south window this morning......standing! Sitting, all I saw was snow and sky!

The next two are the views from my kitchen window before my DH shoveled it out (also south side, also 4 ft off the ground) and the one out my livingroom window (north side, about 3 ft off the ground). The livingroom one shows snow that has come off the roof on that side......good thing we don't need to get out that patio door (on the right, toward the end of the house).


The next picture is of my DH standing in the road. Or rather, a picture of my DH's head as he stands in the road! We can't even see cars and trucks go up and down the road. And finally....the last one is a shot of the back yard. About in the middle of the picture there is a 3 1/2 foot stake sticking out of the ground.....which is buried! We've decided we need to put a much longer stick there for next year, with measurements on it, just in case these winters are here to stay!!


And now it's nearly 45 degrees out, so that should settle the snow some!

Done Ramblin!

Snow!! (sound familiar??)

We've had more snow so far this winter than we've had in the last.....what.....4 years combined?? Holy catfish! The problem is, it's coming so often that we have to spend more time cleaning it up and trying to work around it than we spend playing in it - geeeeezzz!!

We have gotten a bit of sledding in....not as much as we'd like, of course, but some is better than none! Until yesterday, we thought we'd get a lot more in right away. We'd made arrangements to have business coverage starting this morning, for the whole weekend, so that we could have riding time. Today was supposed to be "guide" day....earlier this month, a cousin had asked us to take her DD & a friend (both live in FL) out for a day of sledding....it was to be a birthday present for her DD. Then we were going to just take off on the sleds, leaving tonight and not coming home until Sunday. Well...we never got confirmation from the cousin about today......and then we heard the weather report. It's supposed to start snowing late tonight through the day tomorrow, total accumulation of 7 to 12 inches...possibly up to 15 inches in some areas. Now, as much as we love snowmobiling....it's NO fun in a snowstorm. But doesn't it just figure??? Sigh. I am SO disappointed. Fortunately, the guy we depend on to cover our business when we're gone is so good to us.....he didn't mind the cancellation at all, even telling us if things changed last minute, he'd still cover for us.

Our pickup didn't pass inspection this year.....so it's officially off the road and is now just a plow truck....which means that we now have to buy a pickup, coz we need one for both the business and for household and pleasure use. Don't know for sure exactly when we'll start shopping for one....we can squeeze by for a bit without, as we've a friend with a pickup that we can call on for now. Oh, and Ed needs a new work van this year....yay.....OUCH.....PAYMENTS!!!!

So....I got my other storage cabinet a week or so ago.....and I had also bought a third, smaller one (which replaces a chest of drawers that I had full of yarn.....THAT was hard to use!!). I spent 2 days sorting and moving yarn (and business stock!!). IhavenomoretotesofyarnIhavenomoretotesofyarnIhavenomoretotesofyarn!!!!

There are still totes stacked all over that room, though.....LOL....about 8 of them.....BUT none of them are yarn, they all contain finished items and non-crochet stuff waiting to be done. Because we've got a couple of pieces of waiting-to-go-to-a-new-home furniture taking up space in there, the totes are still in the middle of the room and there's little room to move around.......I keep pushing the totes out of my way, here and there, depending on where I need to be at the time. We also have a big rocker in there that will eventually be in our livingroom or bedroom.....but, as it needs to be recaned and we don't want anyone sitting in it, there it is.....another thing in our way. Someday!!!

The windchimes: We did get up to that little store that weekend - she did have the big ones I wanted...brought them home and hung them in an out of the way spot in the livingroom....come spring, they will get hung outside, as will all the rest. We have such high winds and snow that we can't leave them out in the winter - they'd get ruined. I always get excited when things start to thaw...I hate the spring muds, but I do love it when I can get my chimes back out and hear them until winter arrives once more - I miss the sound all winter!! (though my cowbell is sturdy and short enough to leave hanging all winter, so I do get to hear that!)

I had so much fun mailing surprises to my crochet buddies last month....38 or 39 of em!! Now, the whole purpose of this mailing was because I had SOOOO many things all crocheted and was running out of room....I hadn't had any luck with selling it and had no other outlet for them.....I'd gotten a bit of a cash windfall, so decided to gift my online crochet friends with packages. Each package contained two towels. That didn't even take care of all the extra towels I wanted to clear out, let alone all the other stuff.......would you believe that I have enough left over for another whole mailing of 1 item each??? So I'm doing another mailing soon - this time, one item per package....and I've thrown the packages in a big bag....I'm going to write all the names from the last time on pieces of paper....then I'll draw a name and pull a package out of the bag....so some might get another towel, some might get something else!

I've managed to only get a couple of baby washclothes for my neice crocheted in the past month or so....getting all my tax stuff ready to take to our tax lady has kept me right out straight.....this is all so new and there's SOOOOOO much paperwork!! That's nearly ready, though, I should be able to take it up to her the first of next week (if we don't get snowed in).

Done ramblin!

Snow!!

We got some of our snow back yesterday......we got about 10 inches over the course of the day and evening....and we're getting itty bitty flurries today......WOOHOO!!

Last week when I went shopping (egad, more money spent!), I bought 4 tall elcheapo 5-shelf bookcases at Walmart to put in the hobby room for use as stock shelving. They are 72 inches tall and about 30 inches wide.....at less than $29 each, they were actually a decent buy - 2 of the shelves are rated for 50 lbs and the other 3 are rated for 35 lbs, which is about right for what we'll need to put on them. Total assembly time was only about 3 1/2 hours.....but it took all day to do it, with the interruptions we had. While Ed was doing that, I started condensing some of the totes of yarn and finished things to make room for the cases. Ugh, I hated to because I know that when my new cabinet arrives, I'll have to do it all over again....but there wasn't enough room now, so I couldn't wait...sigh.

Ed brought stock in from the shed....only took up part of two of the units, but we'll use more space as our customer base grows. Yesterday, I claimed one of the units and started moving the few non business things out of the office so that we could get rid of a shelf in there that was in the way. WOOHOO! I no longer have a shelf 6 inches above the lateral file, so the extra printer (hmmm....and maybe the fax phone, too!) can be brought into the office from the hobby room and I'll not have to run back and forth to use it.....except I ran out of steam and didn't get that done yesterday. I'm pooped, but I am going to move that stuff today!

As you can see, I finished that pillow cover. I've decided to recover two other small pillows, since I've still got some of the other colors in this afghan.....might get those done in this century!

Done Ramblin!

January thaw.....ICK!!

Ok...to start....I've gotta "fess up". Back on Christmas day when I was having trouble getting my debit card accepted....I did end up putting the order on our credit card instead. The next day it dawned on me..........it was my fault!! I was putting in the wrong pin number - ER DUR!!! Honestly...it's the only card we have with a pin number.....ya'd think I could remember it!! Well, at least I had the right numbers, even if I didn't have them in the right order! S'ok......the furniture got ordered, and that's the important thing......even if it is going to take 6 to 8 weeks to get it.

I also ordered another "pantry cabinet" for the hobby room. I have one.....72" tall, about 3 ft wide and 16" deep that I keep LOADS of yarn in. I've been saying for several years that I'd like another so that I could get more yarn out of totes, but couldn't find one the same size.....I didn't want a smaller one, so didn't get any. While I was browsing online for office furniture, I found one......so I ordered it. It arrived by FedEx yesterday......and I wouldn't even let him in the door with it! First....he never rang the doorbell...I happened to go out toward that part of the house and saw the truck, so went to the door, just as he was leaning it up against one of the overhang posts.....I can't be positive, but I think he was just going to leave it...he was very surprised when I opened the door...and lied to me about ringing the doorbell - when I said it didn't ring, he said "oh, no...I guess I knocked on the door." Then he said "I suppose you won't accept this, huh?"....I took one look at the mangled box, totally open on one end...could see that at least one of the pieces had a corner broken right off and said "Ya think???? Send it back." He said he didn't notice it when he loaded it onto the truck that morning....must have had his eyes shut! As soon as he left, I emailed the customer service rep at the website I'd ordered it thorough. They answered my email within an hour and said they'd contact the manufacturer right away and arrange for a replacement to be sent. According to their blurb, this website is owned and managed by senior citizens - does that tell ya anything??!!

Oh.....and.....my the windchimes that my wonderful hubby bought me got sent back. Come to find out, he didn't buy bigger ones....what he got were one size smaller than my largest.....the box was a whole lot bigger, though!! However, the girl at the shop has a larger set coming on Friday.....they are definitely larger, so we'll probably take a ride up this weekend and get them. Course, I can't hang them out until spring.......but that's ok....sigh.

So.......we got one tiny little 40 mile snowmobile ride in on New Years Day.....made sure we didn't go further than an hour's ride from home and stayed where there was cell phone service, so we could check our answering machine for customer's calls. It was great, though I'm very much afraid that the cold is going to bother me this year.....SNARL GROWL GRRRRRRR. Sigh.....can't be helped.

Of course, the past two days, there's no way it could bother too much.....were in our January Thaw....boo hoo! We had about 3 feet of snow on the ground....with temps in the high 40's and low 50's yesterday....and a temp of 47 at the moment, we've lost over half our snow - WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Again.....can't be helped, so just deal with it. It's been so foggy these 2 days that we can't even see the neighbor's house about 600 feet away.

Work has slowed right down, too.....we no longer have things scheduled far ahead. There's nothing at all on the schedule after tomorrow......so, of course...I'm all tense. I'm the worrier....Ed just goes with the flow....lucky him!

I'm going to be mailing surprises out to some of my crochet group friends here soon. If I get more addresses from more of them, I'll surprise more of them!! Hee hee...can't say more....at least one of them reads my blog (right, Wippy?). I'll tell ya all about it when I'm done (if I remember!)

On a crochet note, I'm still working on that pillow cover.

Done Ramblin