Tales from the Love Shaque: 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.