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.