Tuesday, February 22, 2022

2/22/22

This is the easiest post title!

So I barely survived the 4 days my coworker was out last week. It was rough, but I was not charged with homicide or any other sort of violence.  I came close, tho.  And damned if she won't be gone again 2 days this week!  She & her husband are getting ready to retire and are house hunting in Florida.  They had an offer get accepted while they were down there last week and have to fly down for the inspection.  They haven't even seen this house in real life yet!  We'll see how I make it thru this time.  
I don't know what's worse - getting a bunch of worked dumped on you all at once, or getting one bit, finishing it, getting the next bit - finishing, getting the next bit, etc, etc, etc. Either way - it was insane and I really wanted to throat punch anyone who asked if I saw a certain email.  NO!  I'm doing something else and haven't looked at my email in an hour.  Then they'd verbally tell me some info and because I was doing 12 other things, who knows how many things I forgot to do!  We have instant messaging just for this reason - IM it to me!   

February 5 was the Journey cover band concert. 
I learned exactly how many Journey songs I know - and it's not many.  So I spent most of my evening people watching.  It was entertaining!
Last Wednesday was the second time this has happened!
Unusually warm weather, then we got slammed with a storm.  
It's hard to judge how much snow we got, since it started out rain/snow and then turned all the way to snow.  It was a mess to drive in. 
We wanted to get to the park before the storm hit, so I put Chuck into the stroller so LittleMan could walk.  But he felt the need to have Chuck stomp in puddles, too!
Ice drifts on the Spouse's car
Happy Belated Valentine's Day from the Spawn & GrandSpawn!

We never go out on Valentine's Day.  You'd think with a last name like our's we'd go all out.  Nope.  I got flowers Sunday when we were at the grocery store and the Spouse tossed them into the basket.  He's so romantical!  We waited until this past Friday to go out to dinner, just the 2 of us.  It was nice.   

OH!  In my last real post, I mentioned the call out my search & rescue team was getting...of course I can't share details but I can tell about other stuff!   I hurried home from work that day and changed clothes and made sure I had all my gear, then took off.  The local police department had contacted another SAR team, but they only had one guy available, so the lady in charge of them suggested they call us.  We've done some urban training but mostly we concentrate on rural areas, so this was a novel experience.  Especially since this isn't the nicest town and each team that went out had several police officers with them.   8 of our people plus the other one were already out in the field when I and our newest guy arrived.  I was hurrying to get my ski pants on when Jeff walked up.  He asked if I was all geared up and ready to go.  I grabbed my hat & gloves, closed the door of my car and said yup!  And he said good!  Take it off.  They found him.  GRRRRRR!   So we went and climbed into the fire department utility truck that was being used as staging and we got filled in on all the deets.  Then everyone else showed up and climbed in with us so Jeff and I at least got to hear the debriefing.  Then the driver popped in and asked if we were all ready to go?  So at least I got to see the scene.  The outcome was not one we like to have, if you catch my drift.  So we're all standing out in the road, next to this house that was all taped off.  7 police cars, a state trooper were there and a fire department ladder truck rolled up. And we're wondering *why* they brought us back there!  Come to find out - they needed the utility truck, not us!  So we had to walk a short distance thru ankle deep snow back to the parking lot.  It was worth a laugh anyway. 

My sister who is also on the team wasn't able to make it, since she wasn't available until later and they had told us they weren't going to search after dark.  So I was keeping her filled in and she told me when I was done, to come over her house and we'd go have dinner with our *other* sister who was dropping her dogs off at a nearby kennel so she could go on vacation. 

So even tho I'm not having this go live until 0222, it's now 22:22 (10:22pm) and it's time for bed!
I did read back thru this and I realize it doesn't "flow" well, but I'm tired and just want to hit that publish button!

Later!
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BabyGirl is a meanie!  Here she's got him by the hair with both fists and was trying to bite his head.
Am I bad for laughing?

Friday, February 11, 2022

Feline & Fill In Friday #3

I'm late to the party today - it's been a rough week. But that deserves its own post.

This one is for the kitties!
Thanks again, Sandee, Ellen & Lorianne for today's Friday Fun!
Adorbz!

Daisy looks mildly annoyed that I was taking pics during naptime.

Friendly Fill-ins

Here are this weeks questions:
1. A week without ___________ would be nice.
2. A week without _________ would be impossible.
3. I didn’t plan to _________, but I’m glad I did.
4. I once _________ and lived to regret it.

Oh wow.  Hmmm

1. A week without drama would be nice. 
2. A week without my phone would be impossible.
3. I didn't plan to have kids, but I'm glad I did (sometimes!)
4. I once had too much whiskey & Funyuns and lived to regret it!


Friday, February 4, 2022

Feline Friday #2

Happy Friday, Ya'll!

Maddie isn't usually affectionate with the other 2 cats, but occasionally she'll go stick her head into Rusty's chest so he'll groom her.

Caught!

Friendly Fill-ins

Each Thursday Ellen of 15andmeowing and Lorianne of Four-Legged Furballs, provide Friendly Fill-in questions.

Here are this weeks questions:
1. I feel _____when I _______.
2. I wish I could erase _______ from my memory to free up some space.
3. Others probably find it annoying that I ________.
4. _____ really needs to be invented.

Great questions today, Ellen & Lorianne! #2 & #3 really required some thought!

1. I feel all sorts of excited when I (we) get a call out for a search. In fact - we got a message just a little while ago asking who was available to to respond to one. So once I get off work, I'll be grabbing my gear and heading out.

2. I wish I could erase middle & high school from my memory to free up some space.

3. Others (the Spouse) probably find it annoying that I hate to fold laundry and therefore clean clothes are in a pile and wrinkled.

4. A self cleaning house needs to be invented! Or a real Rosie the Robot Maid!

Thanks everyone!



Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Happy February!

So 2022 is really beginning now, right?  Our trial month is over?

Tomorrow is TWOSDAY!
Tuesday, 2/2/22

How fun!

Actually - January wasn't that bad.  It sure ended on a good note - the Spouse was working from home at his Mom's house in Arkansas since right right after Christmas and he's finally home!!  He got home Saturday night.  Fun fact - he can drive from Hot Springs to north of Detroit in less than 14 hours. 

We had a few minor "oh shit" moments but they passed quickly.  This was one of them....
Somehow the Spawn managed to shatter the glass on the front of my oven!  She called me at work, hysterical because glass was everywhere, her bare feet were cut and bleeding and the Spouse was going to kill her!

It ended up not being a big deal, other than learning just how often I use the oven!  It was a struggle figuring out stove top dinners for a couple weeks.  This stove was in the house when we bought it 19 years ago anyway.  I looked online to see if I could get replacement glass, but ...
so I was resigned to getting a new range (oh shucks!!) and mentioned it in passing to a coworker.  Who happened to have a friend who just remodeled their kitchen was getting rid of a range!  

So for a case of Bud Light and $50 in parts & tools - we got a new range!
yes - we made cookies at 11pm last night.  Since we turned it on to make sure it worked, we may as well take advantage of it!  Still have to get that front right burner going - that's the most used one! 
Sunrise over the building next to my work. 

Oooh, lets talk about Winter Storm "Landon"!
It was literally 47* today. 
It's insane - you'd think people around here never saw snow before!  I usually go to Kroger Monday after work - the shelves had a lot of empty space on them!  WTF people?  The plows will be out non-stop and the roads will be perfectly driveable within hours of the snow stopping. It's not like you're going to be snowed in for 6 days! 

I am curious to see how much of the 8-15 inches they're calling for.  Driving into work tomorrow probably won't be bad - but the way home is gonna be pretty lousy. 

I heard the Mother-in-Law in Arkansas is supposed to get at least 1/2 inch of ice - now THAT sucks!
We were down there a couple years ago when they had their first blizzard warning.  They got ice with 6 inches of snow on top!  They don't have the equipment to clear the roads and once they did - there were tons of trees down from the weight of the ice & snow.  At least it melts fast.     

It's the 4th birthday of my SAR team!
I'm pretty proud to be part of this awesome team. 

Anyhooo, I'm going to head to bed since I want to get to work early.  We have to have the previous month closed out by at least the 10th of the current month and I already feel like I'm way behind!  Plus said coworker is going to be on vacation next week and when she's gone, I don't get much of my own stuff done.  So yeah.  **stress**
Awwwwww
💖