Friday, February 14, 2025

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Spouse showed this to me last night - it's 100% true for us!
You'd think with a name like our's (Love!!) it would be a big thing, but nah. 
He does put a lot of effort into our anniversary, which I think is a lot more important, so Valentine's Day could easily be replaced with a second Halloween!  
Speaking of - this skeleton has been up in my office since Halloween!
It gets decorated according to the holiday / season.  It's still wearing mittens & a scarf, but we took the fuzzy hat & skis off to put the hearts up.

For following up with the Skywatch post about my trip to Arkansas - it was a nice weekend. 

I got to spend some quality time at the Buckstaff Bathhouse! 
I took a pic of the price list that has a little description about each service. 
I'm kind of bummed that they got rid of the needle shower, since it always felt so good to rinse off after sitting in the steam cabinet.  I asked my attendant about it and she said that there's a bacteria that occurs naturally in the hot springs and it's built up in the pipes and is now spitting out levels that are aren't acceptable, so the National Park Service made them shut it down.  Booooo!
This Cadillac cruising down Central Ave.

My mother-in-law follows the LDS / 7th Day Adventist faith so Saturday was very low key due to it being her Sabbath.  But that's OK - it was perfectly nice to just relax in the quiet. 

I came home on Sunday evening - it was much less eventful!  

Once we got away from Little Rock, the skies cleared and it was so pretty all the way home. 
Leaving Chicago with Lake Michigan off to the upper left. 

Then of course on Tuesday (1/28) after I got home, I started to cough.  
Wednesday, I called in sick to work. 
Thursday, I went in to work at 5am to get some stuff done before coworkers came in and then went home and finished the day there.   That evening, I went to the doc with 101.6* temperature and found out I had the Flu and an ear infection! 
Friday, I had a scheduled half day (and worked from home again) because I was supposed to drive to Kalamazoo for the VFW's Mid Winter Conference.  I ended up not going since I felt so lousy and cringed at the thought of driving 2 1/2+ hours.  Plus I was still coughing and fighting an off & on fever, so it was just better to stay home. 

On the plus side - the hotel I had reservations at - refunded my non-refundable stay!  I already assumed I'd lose the $ that I'd paid, but I figured I'd at least I'd let them know I wasn't going to be checking in.  But the lady I talked to was really nice and must have pulled some strings!  I like to think it was because I was nice to her, too.  
Maddie was really starting to miss her human (the Spouse) and was a pain in the ass!
She also closely supervised me working from home. 
So glad he's home so now she doesn't bother me any more!
I'm glad I was feeling better by last weekend because Lapeer County has a fancy gala celebrating the county emergency services every year.  Last year was the first time the search & rescue team was invited.   We got dressed up, had a nice dinner, dancing and a lot of door prizes and a photo booth.  
The table setting was so pretty! 

So now I'm feeling about 95% better.   Which is good since the next couple weekends are full of plans! 
But not tonight - whew! 

The grandkids were enjoying the snow that got dumped on us Wednesday / Thursday!

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Skywatch Friday 021425


I stopped on the side of the road in Almont, Michigan to get this sunset. 







 

Friday, January 24, 2025

SkyWatch Friday 012425



Got a bunch of pictures today! 
I didn’t post yesterday because I was traveling from Michigan to visit the Spouse who is currently working remotely from his Mom’s house in Arkansas.  (he’s spent each January there since Covid, since this is his busy time at work and our house is crazy with the grandkids)

Above - this was leaving my neighborhood.  I stupidly didn’t check the weather so I was surprised by just enough snow to make a mess. 2-3 inches. 

Btw - my flight was leaving at 7:30 am and the airport is normally close to an hour drive.  Even the highways were awful and I saw a lot of cars in the ditch.  One section was even closed by State Troopers and I had to exit.

Luckily I’d already checked in for my flight and didn’t need to check a bag so I made it with just minutes to spare.
However - the plane needed to be deiced!
We sat there while another plane was done first.  Then the truck ran out of fluid so they had to go refill it and finish them before they got to us.
I’ve never experienced deicing before so it was interesting.  First they sprayed this orange liquid all over. 
Then this thick green stuff.
I sent this pic to the Spouse and commented that it didn’t look like his proton pack didn’t have much power!

We ended up leaving 1 1/2 hours late, so I missed my connecting flight in Chicago.
Approaching O’Hare over a Lake Michigan margarita.

I really like the United Airlines app, they really kept me up to date with what was going on.  I could let them rebook my flight or I could choose my own.  Since I arrived in Chicago at 9am, I really didn’t want to wait until 7pm to get on a direct flight to Little Rock.  So I opted for one leaving at 10:30am with a very short layover in Houston.  
I was happy they have trains in Houston since I didn’t have very long to get between my gates.  And had another small delay because they only had one person on the plane’s cleaning crew.
The flight between Houston & Little Rock was very rough. 
But pretty!
I was amused to see a “dollop” of snow in Little Rock!  The Spouse sent me pictures back on the 10th showing 8 1/2 inches of snow on his Mom’s deck so it’s not surprising that it’s mostly gone.

So it was a very long and stressful day, even tho we got back to the MIL’s house well before dark.
Then we went and got BBQ for dinner!
The “Spud Supreme” from Stubby’s BBQ in Hot Springs.  There’s a giant potato under a pile of brisket, beans and cole slaw.
OMG - so good!