Spring is around the corner!

Whoops, meant to post this yesterday but I got distracted by a conversation!  

OMG ! Saturday is meteorological spring! I was leaving for work on Monday and when I stepped outside I heard robins!  The temperature did go up in the 50s that day.  I also saw one on my way home, too!  

First things first - look what's looming in the future!

Sign-ups aren't until later next month, but the theme reveal bloghop goes live on March 9. 

I've already figured out a topic for most of my letters, so I'll start writing drafts soon. 

And of course I am having second thoughts - I had another idea of a theme that would be good to do, too.  Maybe next year.   

*Noted*

Carrying on. 

We've had some drama....

My car kicked the bucket.  

I stopped at the grocery store going in to work last Wednesday.  It stalled coming out of the parking spot.  Then proceeded to run rough the mile or so to work.  As I pulled into the parking lot at work, a "Stabilitrak needs service" message popped up and before I could grab my phone to take a pic, it changed to "engine power is reduced".  After work, I hoped I could limp it home, but I made it about a mile before the engine power message came back and it was indeed reduced!  So I coasted into a parking lot and proceeded to wait 2 1/2 hours (in 19* weather!!) for a tow truck.  The Spouse ended up coming to rescue me, since even tho I had extra socks and a blanket and gloves, etc (so glad I had my SAR gear with me!!) - it was still getting really freaking cold!   

We stopped by the auto shop Sunday to get the Grandkids' car seats out and the Spouse was able to talk to the guy who looked at it and apparently it burned thru all the oil and locked everything up and ~poof.  I'm careful when it comes to car maintenance, so I know I still had over 1000 miles from needing an oil change.  I never had any lights or messages or anything saying the oil level was low!  

So anyway.  I'm currently driving a rental until I can do some shopping.  We haven't decided if we're going to turn it in to get some $ from a dealership or donate it and claim it on our taxes next year.  Sucks because I've only had it for just over 2 years.   I'm definitely staying with an SUV because this Nissan Altima that I'm driving now is really hard to get out of. 

I finally opened the trunk to the Nissan to put my SAR gear in there and that thing has a big ol' trunk!  You could easily fit 2 people in there! 

We didn't pay to have the XM turned on since I have the app, so I was changing all the regular local radio presets.  I almost cried when I saw Metallica on the Classic Rock station! 

I also was reminded how much I like Metallica.

Last Saturday was a SAR Initial Actions class that is always interesting.  It's basically what you need to do within the first 30 minutes of being on a search scene.  The 4 of us sitting in the back have already taken this class and were sitting in to "audit".  Which means we're already certified, we just chose to be there so we don't forget.  Plus we always seem to learn something new and get to meet new people! 

The Spouse & I saw this guy Sunday - not sure if he's just fabulous or he lost a bet?

Either way - he had to be chilly!  And the direction they were heading was toward a trail that runs along a river!  And those are boots that he's wearing, too.

Sunday was the VFW's District meeting - they happen quarterly and rotate around between different posts.  So in that case, they're kind of neat to go to since I don't normally visit other VFWs and it's fun to see what they look like.  Commander likes for members to go with him since it makes him look good, having a good showing from our post.  It was also useful for me, since I got to talk to the District Historian.  I am our post Historian and we're planning for our 80th anniversary in November.  He said he had all sorts of good stuff about individual posts and would keep in touch with me.  I'm pretty excited about that. 

Ooooh, update on the newsletter situation.  I took over as the VFW post newsletter editor and the January/February newsletter (my first) was awful because we were transitioning over from Apple to not and it was insane.  Then once I got it looking somewhat OK, one of the guys from the post messed with the margins and jacked it all up and submitted it while I was at work.  So I told him we were going to fight if he does that again and he is now very aware of staying in his own lane.  Monday night I submitted the March / April newsletter to the printer.  Mike still helped out (extra eyes for editing is necessary), but I had the final say.   It was much less stressful this time, too!   I'm a lot happier with how it looks. 

Until later! 

It's supposed to rain this evening, I hope it waits until later so I have time to get the snowmen blowmolds in from the front yard.  These last couple nice days have melted a lot of the snow, so I hope I can pull the stakes up out of the ground and get stuff put away.  

Beautiful sunrise on the way to Sis1's house before class Saturday. 

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I should have done this for an earlier Skywatch post!

Today is a blast from the past - early February 1995 to be exact.

At the time, I was stationed on this lovely little vessel,

USS Abraham Lincoln CVN72

We were out off the coast of San Diego.

Several of us were on the flight deck, waiting for a helicopter to come in.  

I worked in the post office, so it would be bringing a small amount of mail, possibly people and other things.

As we stood on the flight deck, we could see a whole bunch of sailboats entirely too close to us and I'm sure they were staring and saying "WTF" just like we were! 

We had wandered onto the course where the America's Cup Sailing Regatta was being held! 

More about it....

You can almost see the bow peeking around the sailboat's mast...

Skywatch Friday

This is the picture that I've seen the most.  I think it's from the San Diego newspaper. 

I was standing in what's called the "bomb farm" next to the island.  

That area is on the far right side of this picture, right where it goes off the frame. 

This is the video I grabbed screen shots from - they start around 10:40....

Just one of many Navy stories I could tell! 

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!

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

Skywatch Fridays

 

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!

SkyWatch Friday

 

Brrrrrr!

Of course, it looks like most of the country is feeling the same way right now!

I grabbed this screenshot of WhatTheForecast shortly before noon today. 

The sun is actually peeking out once in a while, so that's a plus. 

So this past weekend - Friday night we had a SARtopo refresher course.  

It's basically mapping software for search & rescue.  

That's me in the orange with the pony tail. 

I enjoy these refresher classes, since if you don't use the information, you forget it!  So either I learn something new every time, or they're reminding me of something I totally forgot every time! 

Sherlock Bones supervised the class. 

We usually have our meetings/training at the County EMS Admin building so an anatomically correct skeleton hanging out isn't much of a surprise.  

Saturday, was the Statewide SAR Skills Day.

45ish people representing 7 teams were there. 

And since we're technically under the Sheriff's department - the guy we call "our" sergeant stopped in to visit Friday and a Lieutenant from the State Police who is in charge of all the SAR teams in the state paid us a visit Saturday.  

First we had a guy who dabbles in trapping show us some animal traps, how they work and more importantly - how to open them!  A lot of people in the room were K9 handlers and their dogs are a very important resource.  I think this freaked a lot of them out!   While we do train in urban searching, most of the searches we actually get called out on are rural areas - so traps are a good possibility.

Then we trooped outside and learned how to build a fire in the adverse conditions.  

We had snow & wind. 

We got into small groups and made our own fires. 

Then we stayed in our little groups and were given 3 sets of coordinates and had to use our GPSs to find points out in the woods.  

I "C" you!!

My team of 6 ended up splitting up (due to impatience) and I went out with Bill from my team and Mike who is the emergency manager for a couple counties up in NE Michigan.  We were the last ones to come back in and everyone else had already started working on tying people into stokes baskets. 

I took a screen shot of the weather at 3pm Saturday to send to the Spouse (he's in Arkansas right now) - it was 27* with a Real Feel of 12* - and I was sweating!  I ended up taking my gloves off after we found the first point and just carried my GPS in my bare hand.  The sun had come out, the wind died down and we were in the woods anyway.  So it felt pretty nice.  Except for the 4-5 inches of snow with a crust of ice on top.  My boots ended up soaked!  But the socks I had still kept my feel warm as long as I was moving - once I stopped, they got cold. 

New actual winter boots have been ordered!  

I spent Friday night at Sis1's house since it's way closer to where we had to be both days.  

Before we left that morning, we had to take care of Sis1's horses - I sat down and her barn cat hopped on up my lap and demanded attention.  He had muddy paws and left a perfect footprint on my shirt!

Leroy, the culprit!

When I got home, I was feeling all the aches & pains.  Surprisingly it wasn't my knees like usual, it was my ankles and lower back.  Oh the joys of age creeping up.  Thankfully the aches worked out and I was fine midway thru Sunday.

One of my cats is getting older and can't take care of herself well anymore - so I brushed a cat out of her coat.  Baby Maddie!  Thankfully she's not very strong anymore so she didn't do any damage when she tried to bite me!  

The Spawn takes the Granddaughter to gymnastics on Mondays so I had a dinner date with the Grandson. 

He's also a great helper in the grocery store!

Gratuitous goofy shot of Daisy & Rusty. 

I've been really bad - I skipped going to Weight Watchers last week and this week is iffy, too!  

I'm just in a real bad mindset right now and just can't get back into the groove!  I've gained all I ever lost thru WW plus a few more pounds for good measure.  Of course it doesn't help that I have 2 picky young people and their picky mom in my house that adversely affect what I can make for dinner.  It's insane how much food they waste.  I bet that'll change once they finally get their own place and she has to pay for her own groceries.  

Anyhoo. I don't ~feel~ as enormous as I look when I see myself in pictures.  So when I do see pics, I'm appalled!  See above - I'm a high-vis pumpkin! 

But now I need to get back to work - stay warm ya'll! 

"Hobo in the Snow"

Artistic shot of Sis1's barn / house cat on a rock.