I'm behind on this blog, and the strange thing is that I don't remember February. Pretty sure I was here, but it flew by in a haze. The world itself seemed to be 'major eventing' everywhere, from political news to weather to gas concerns. Since February seems long-gone already, I'll just try to catch up to March.
It's been a heck of start so far, hmm? Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, riots and Wisconsin. I had a feeling of unease coming into this month, thought I was just being irrational. But before the 1st, I received notice from the census bureau to try to run cases hard by March 5th in case the budget wasn't extended in D.C. ... So I hit the roads hard & long in a massive rush. Then we were told the "two week extension" would give us some buffer.
Luckily... my 2nd Acura didn't spew its timing belt while out on the back roads, and chose instead to collapse Monday evening in Towne. Terry was with me on a way to drop off posters with the peace coalition, ended up riding in the tow truck home. Talking to the driver, he said their shop has had 4 times as many calls in a month than usual (January) and it wasn't letting up - he was pushing a 14-hour day and couldn't wait to dump us off and head for home.
Val ended February by getting her leg brace off just in time to fall on the steps and jar it again, missing a few days of school, before surrendering to the flu. Some of her friends started to think she'd moved because of her absence. She did share The Bug with Sera, who was on-call for dog-sitting at Christine's in the cities. Me, I planned on not being sick until after the 5th due to census, and then figured out I still didn't have time for it. Sometimes I think my physical defenses are due to nettle tea (home-dried, good for you) and possibly a caffeine/tobacco habit creating an unfriendly Bug environment.
Sunday, to make sure it wasn't getting too complacent around here, Val leaned a little too hard on the kitchen cabinet doors. It'd been pulling loose some, but this added to it. Luckily, it didn't fall down completely. I put a brace under it for the duration and we unloaded the food into baskets.
Terry came over as planned on Monday; I'd volunteered to make dinner with some ham he provided. Par for the course, I got it in the oven late so it wasn't finished by the time we left for Towne. Before we had dinner, the car had died.
Tuesday Terry fixed the cabinets while I went over the website for Lynne with Pete before we got on with trouble-shooting the car. Wednesday we went hunting for an affordable car - the Acura may be repairable, but it's not the season to crawling about in the snow and mud trying to do a major fix. 'Affordable' in my world was a cheap runner that wasn't bad on gas and wouldn't eat my entire tax refund that was slated for bill- and loan- catch-up.
Sigh, there seriously aren't any of these cars? The only thing we found in a day of searching (thanks to borrowing Sera's car while she was at work) was 1993 Dodge Shadow for $1500, 100,000 miles on it. Not a terrible price, but it put me back in debt to friend Bill, and the emotional roller coaster of financial punch put me in tears. I wasn't too stable anyway, not feeling great possibly to the last week's bug, and this put me over the edge.
On a sadder note, Jake-dog had a seizure Monday evening. Usually he snapped back from these, but he grew worse all week. The vet could see him Friday afternoon, and I planned on driving him there myself. But... I couldn't get him in the car. He was too heavy, and his stomach seemed bloated so I didn't want to try lifting him around his belly; I couldn't get him back on his feet even. Sera came home and drove him up with me. There wasn't anything much the vet could do but put him down gently.
This was an absolutely horrible ordeal. He was down on the cold pavement in a puddle and all I could do was cover him with a blanket and wait for help. He's been my furry companion for almost 4 years, the one that slept in my room and shared meals with me - you know how this is.
In hindsight, I wonder if Jake didn't get into raisins when the cupboard was unloaded. The food was stacked on a table, and he'd eat about anything given half a chance. The cats could have knocked a baggie out or he could have snuck one while we weren't home. They are toxic to dogs and it doesn't take a huge amount to poison them. I don't know what else could have taken a lively dog on Monday to a critically ill one on Friday, though it could have been an intestinal or heart thing that finally gave out.
He just seriously was the gentlest dog I've ever had, big old teddy-bear scared of shadows, mice in the walls, loud noises, and even the refractions off prisms. I'm glad he found us?
So that week winds down around here. The world in general is in massive crisis mode, and it's hard to find a region that isn't under severe stress. Yet I'd add a little quiet wisdom about the value of good friends. Human or furry, this is what will get us through no matter what happens, and this may be the key to surviving 2011.
I have a feeling it's not gonna get better real soon and we're all in a state of change. For everyone absorbing their own shifts in Life, I wish you the best - you know who you are.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Frost-Face Trumps Hat-Hair
Life Awareness, Winter 101: Provides hands-on experience with the varying levels of misery one may be exposed to in winter conditions.
This is not a course I'd sign up for, in that I've lived it with refresher classes once a year for half a decade; anyone that is eager to sign up - you may have a future as an on-the-scene weatherman / woman.
Hat-hair is annoying, especially when long hair tangles under your collar, the edges freeze, and it styles into a look similar to a tornado hit before packing down. It is a better alternative to Blue Ears, but it is still annoying. Usually by the time you take the hat off, you're sore and weary and trying to peel off layers of clinging clothes; the hat-hair just frosts the cake on the experience.
It's nice to know you can circumvent the distraction of hat-hair by experiencing a frost-face situation. This is when it's so darned cold that your face freezes within 5 minutes of exposure, thereby effectively making hat-hair less of a nuisance. This starts out as a stinging pins-n-needles sensation that reddens one's nose while killing air-borne germs by quick-freezing them. This does lead to the runny nose / frozen hair state, where body fluids begin to leak. This may be the body's attempt to keep your nose thawed so it doesn't fall off, but I'm not sure.
So now instead of hat-hair bugging a person, they have a dripping red nose, stung cheeks, and frosted hair that will turn wet once they get back inside. This does lead to my conclusion that Frost-face trumps Hat-hair, though they both can occur at the same time. In other words, misery has notched it up a level.
What is of greater concern is that so many people are learning these lessons right now. We're a month into 2011 and the weather channel lists 7 major storms in Dec / Jan already. I'm not sure if they included the west-coast flooding, which would equate "one a week" of seriously-severe weather, and that's just our country. Australia and many other parts of the planet are in dire straits, too - we're not alone. Not sure what this bodes for the summer, but it isn't looking good.
Watching the current weather pattern, the cold front that's freezing us is also keeping the whole mess south, which I can appreciate. Does mean David in Colorado feels like he's back in Minnesota, Chicago relatives have been weather-whalloped and ice storms are raging - all the fun we'd be having if the cold front wasn't holding it south of us. It seems weird to be grateful for the cold, but ice-storms are worse (still chipping here) and losing power during one is a higher misery level on the chart.
Now then, hat-hair seems to be quite the minor nuisance! Aren't you glad I put that in perspective for you? For those who refuse to wear hats, all I can say is Blue Ears are not attractive and even if they were, it'd be easier to use food coloring. (There's something for folks with cabin fever to do, hmm? I wonder what the schools would do if a kid showed up with a completely dyed face - doesn't wash off well, don't ask how I know.)
If anyone has thoughts on back-up power systems, please do share! I'm betting the summer has a 50-50 chance of being wild. These aren't great odds; if a pilot thought a plane had a 50-50 chance of a safe flight, I wouldn't get onboard if I didn't have to. And... just being able to turn on a light and coffee maker is huge when the power's out. Anyone making suggestions, remember you're talking to me - i.e. the odds of having several gallons of gas on hand for a generator is probably not high. Solar, wind, electro-magnetic, hamsters on wheels charging up batteries... those are more in my league. And I'm financially restricted on options.
Did you know hamsters can run 5 - 8 miles a night on their wheels?
Has anyone considered that every time we drive anywhere, we're creating a huge batch of wind that could be charging batteries in the trunk? This is easily proved by opening a car window on the highway. Add a DC / AC converter, and it's not so ridiculous. Just I don't know how to do this. I'm not looking at an electric car, but home power outage options; if a person knows how to add the car, it'd be a bonus! (I know, gas prices going up - we should all be recharging batteries as we drive.)
What if... trains on the track were charging capacitors as they flew by? Why not? And I'm not sure if that's the right technical term, but you get the drift. A lot of unused potential, my thinking! And while we're freezing or shoveling or suffering with cabin fever, we may as well 'have our thinking caps on' (gag if you remember the image of the old school marm tying on an invisible cap).
Hope Phil the Groundhog was right today - Spring is on the way. Of course, this can hit hard and fast, too, which will create swampy conditions - Jim, watch the rising waters, please! A gentle spring would be nice.
This is not a course I'd sign up for, in that I've lived it with refresher classes once a year for half a decade; anyone that is eager to sign up - you may have a future as an on-the-scene weatherman / woman.
Hat-hair is annoying, especially when long hair tangles under your collar, the edges freeze, and it styles into a look similar to a tornado hit before packing down. It is a better alternative to Blue Ears, but it is still annoying. Usually by the time you take the hat off, you're sore and weary and trying to peel off layers of clinging clothes; the hat-hair just frosts the cake on the experience.
It's nice to know you can circumvent the distraction of hat-hair by experiencing a frost-face situation. This is when it's so darned cold that your face freezes within 5 minutes of exposure, thereby effectively making hat-hair less of a nuisance. This starts out as a stinging pins-n-needles sensation that reddens one's nose while killing air-borne germs by quick-freezing them. This does lead to the runny nose / frozen hair state, where body fluids begin to leak. This may be the body's attempt to keep your nose thawed so it doesn't fall off, but I'm not sure.
So now instead of hat-hair bugging a person, they have a dripping red nose, stung cheeks, and frosted hair that will turn wet once they get back inside. This does lead to my conclusion that Frost-face trumps Hat-hair, though they both can occur at the same time. In other words, misery has notched it up a level.
What is of greater concern is that so many people are learning these lessons right now. We're a month into 2011 and the weather channel lists 7 major storms in Dec / Jan already. I'm not sure if they included the west-coast flooding, which would equate "one a week" of seriously-severe weather, and that's just our country. Australia and many other parts of the planet are in dire straits, too - we're not alone. Not sure what this bodes for the summer, but it isn't looking good.
Watching the current weather pattern, the cold front that's freezing us is also keeping the whole mess south, which I can appreciate. Does mean David in Colorado feels like he's back in Minnesota, Chicago relatives have been weather-whalloped and ice storms are raging - all the fun we'd be having if the cold front wasn't holding it south of us. It seems weird to be grateful for the cold, but ice-storms are worse (still chipping here) and losing power during one is a higher misery level on the chart.
Now then, hat-hair seems to be quite the minor nuisance! Aren't you glad I put that in perspective for you? For those who refuse to wear hats, all I can say is Blue Ears are not attractive and even if they were, it'd be easier to use food coloring. (There's something for folks with cabin fever to do, hmm? I wonder what the schools would do if a kid showed up with a completely dyed face - doesn't wash off well, don't ask how I know.)
If anyone has thoughts on back-up power systems, please do share! I'm betting the summer has a 50-50 chance of being wild. These aren't great odds; if a pilot thought a plane had a 50-50 chance of a safe flight, I wouldn't get onboard if I didn't have to. And... just being able to turn on a light and coffee maker is huge when the power's out. Anyone making suggestions, remember you're talking to me - i.e. the odds of having several gallons of gas on hand for a generator is probably not high. Solar, wind, electro-magnetic, hamsters on wheels charging up batteries... those are more in my league. And I'm financially restricted on options.
Did you know hamsters can run 5 - 8 miles a night on their wheels?
Has anyone considered that every time we drive anywhere, we're creating a huge batch of wind that could be charging batteries in the trunk? This is easily proved by opening a car window on the highway. Add a DC / AC converter, and it's not so ridiculous. Just I don't know how to do this. I'm not looking at an electric car, but home power outage options; if a person knows how to add the car, it'd be a bonus! (I know, gas prices going up - we should all be recharging batteries as we drive.)
What if... trains on the track were charging capacitors as they flew by? Why not? And I'm not sure if that's the right technical term, but you get the drift. A lot of unused potential, my thinking! And while we're freezing or shoveling or suffering with cabin fever, we may as well 'have our thinking caps on' (gag if you remember the image of the old school marm tying on an invisible cap).
Hope Phil the Groundhog was right today - Spring is on the way. Of course, this can hit hard and fast, too, which will create swampy conditions - Jim, watch the rising waters, please! A gentle spring would be nice.
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