SNOW!!!

Anyone who lives in this area knows what my post will be about today. We officially had 12.5 inches of snow here on Thursday. That's the most EVER recorded for a single day in Dallas. It snowed continuously and heavily from 3:00 am, all through the day and until around midnight. Huge wet sloppy flakes. I took a few pictures. Of course. It's not like I've ever seen it like this around here. This picture to the right was taken Friday morning, looking out my front door toward my little tree over my mailbox ... which looks like a shrub, all weighted down and hanging on the ground. Luckily I didn't have any limbs break on my two little trees.

Dallas dodged at least one large bullet despite the unprecedented snowfall. It never froze. Well it froze last night, but it didn't freeze while the streets were wet and snowy and slushy. They were calling for freezing temperatures every night but it hovered at 33 degrees. So although the work commute wasn't as smooth as usual, there was no ice. No commute at 10-15 mph for 30 miles. I was so happy about that. I could actually enjoy the snow, since it didn't cause me too much trouble.

That being said, I had a flat tire on my way home from work Thursday. I ended up having to change a tire on my car in a snowstorm, standing in ankle deep slushy ice water. Not my most favorite memory. And yes, I have an auto club service. But it only took me about 30 minutes to change it, even in less-than-great conditions, and there's no telling how long it would have taken the autoclub people to get to me. Of course, I was pretty cold, with soaked and icy feet and hands by the time I finished.

Yesterday I went out and spent about four hours cutting back the yaupon in front of my house. I could do it without standing on a ladder even though they've overgrown up to the roof because the weight of the snow partially uprooted them and they were hanging over into my yard. You can see from this picture that they were not quite upright. Usually this one is rubbing under and along the roof edge you see here. So I cut them back and righted them as much as I could yesterday. The one at the far corner of the house I may have to take out. It's hanging way over into the yard and if it doesn't straighten up it will be impossible to mow under. We'll see. I think the one by the front door, which is the one in this picture, may do okay. There are mockingbirds who nest in these yaupons and yesterday morning when I left to run some errands one little mocker was sitting forlornly on a branch sticking out of this snow-covered, bent-over yaupon.

Quite a bit of the snow is still around. Friday it only got to about 36, so only streets were melted, but yesterday I think it got to about 45. The snow was melted enough out of the yaupons to let me cut them back without too much problem, and it wasn't too cold for me to work comfortably out there. And you know how I hate cold. Of course I was bundled up, but it was still not bad. Today there's still snow in yards, but concrete is clear and most trees and shrubs are clear.

This picture is what my peach tree and backyard looked like on Friday morning when I left for work. Everything was absolutely pristine and snow covered. Of course, I'm one of the lucky ones. The news said 200,000 people were without power from snapped and downed electrical lines. And many, many people have damage to house, car or property from broken off and downed tree limbs, or even whole trees. The funniest thing was watching people try to shovel their driveways with regular dirt shovels. No one around here has any reason to own a snow shovel. Plus the cities have no contingency plan for lots of snow. They have sanding trucks galore, but we didn't need sand. We needed snow plows. So there were definitely some amusing aspects of the situation. Amusing in retrospect of course. Even a snowy tire-change is amusing in retrospect. I can't print the words I was screaming as I realized I had a flat tire, and was getting over and off the highway. I had to replace the tire since I drove on it flat, but at least the wheel rim was okay. I wasn't staying on the side of the highway to change that thing, and the next exit wasn't that far.

So we had some snowy advneture days here in the South. It's okay occasionally, but I hope it's not going to happen a lot. I really will have to move farther south.

Shopping!!!! :D

I really love to shop. It just makes me incredibly happy. I'm sure it's a serious personality flaw, but oh well. I'd like to claim that I'm simply doing my part to stimulate the economy, but the truth is, I just love to spend money.


From the title you can probably tell what I've been doing today. My intentions were good when I started out. I was going to run a couple of minor errands and shop for that oh-so-elusive 80th Birthday gift for my Mom. I did do those things .... too.


Here's how the morning went:


I left the house about 8:00 am, and started out by taking clothes to the cleaners. I think this may have been the only stop I made today that I didn't buy something, and of course I will buy their services when I go back to pick up those clothes. Next was Walmart for a hand vacuum, a current/voltage detector and a couple of surge protectors. Then I ran over to PetSmart to stock up on cat food and cat litter, and stopped by Staples while I was near to get some sheet protectors for trading cards. Next I went to Michael's (crafts and hobbies place) and got some poster frames because I ran out in January hanging calendars. Then I went to the Mall. While I was at the Mall I stopped in Barnes & Noble (bought a book ... yes, only one), J.C.Penney (bought clothes), Christopher & Banks (bought clothes) and Macy's (bought clothes) and window-shopped at multiple jewelry stores. I managed not to go into any jewelry stores, so no purchases there. Ah! I went into Things Remembered and didn't buy anything, so that was two places this morning where I didn't spend money. After leaving the Mall, I ran by Fry's Electronics for a possible gift idea and bought it. Then I stopped for gas (bought gas), and stopped at a fast food place to pick up lunch (bought food). I pulled back into my garage about 12:10.


*laughing* Not bad, huh? That's nine stops (counting the Mall as one), or 13 places I went to where I could have spent money. And I did spend money at 11 them. Pretty good average. And in only four hours. That's what I call a productive morning. I'm lucky all those places are within about a 5 mile radius of my house.


No, there's nothing wrong with RoboVac. I've been wanting a small hand vacuum for those small spills of cat litter or other things that I hate getting the upright or Robo out for. Robo still does a great job. Zoe is getting to the point that she doesn't run and hide whenever it's running, although she still stays well clear of it. Addy ignores it completely.


It's nice and sunny out today, if somewhat cooler than I like. It's about 45 degrees, give or take a few degrees. I'm watching the morning temps these days so I can drag the aloe vera back into the garage if necessary. This morning it was 38. It's supposed to stay above freezing until Tuesday, then hit 26 again. We've had a LOT of freezes this winter. We usually get one, maybe two good solid freezes a winter, so this one has been unusual. We call those "hard freezes". That's a Southern term and it means a freeze down into the mid-20's or lower, as opposed to a freeze right at 32 degrees or hovering just below freezing. I'm not sure where the term "hard freeze' started, but Northerners don't use it, so I suspect it originated with the citrus growers. Probably if it's going to be a 'hard freeze' they have to start countermeasures to save their crops. Just a guess.


Hmmmmmm. since I was so productive this morning, maybe I'll continue and get some house chores done.

Later.

Success!

It's been a fairly productive day so far for a Saturday. I got up and ran to Walmart at around 7:00 am. My new chair was being delivered between 10:00 am and noon, so I wanted to get a couple of errands run first.

One of the things I bought at Walmart this morning was a 'tree' floor lamp, a lamp with three staggered fixtures on it. I had a lamp like that before but it disintegrated when I moved it to replace the flooring. Literally, the base crumbled into fragments when I picked it up to move it. So I bought another one this morning and when I got home I assembled it. Of course it requires three 60 W light bulbs and I only had 75 W bulbs that weren't in use. I went around the house switching out 75 W bulbs for 60 W bulbs in light fixtures, until I had three. Then when I put them in, the top of the three fixtures on the new lamp wouldn't light up! Of course I tried more than one bulb. I think everyone's made that mistake.

That left me with a dilemma. Take the lamp back to the store since it doesn't work right? As you probably know if you've been reading this very long, I hate making multiple store trips, and especially for a $20.00 lamp. So I figured, what the the hell. It's broken anyway, I'll take it apart. That's something that I enjoy ... disassembling things to see how they work. I took the fixture apart (yes, I unplugged the lamp first) and figured out how it worked. The on/off switch fell into pieces as I was taking it apart, but it was pretty obvious how it was supposed to operate. So I re-assembled it so that it should work correctly, and I'll be damned if the crazy thing doesn't work fine now. Go figure. While I was fooling with it though, I realized that I need to get one of those devices that lets you test whether there's current to a couple of leads because that's the one thing I couldn't check when I had the fixture apart ... whether current was reaching it. Still, if something's broken and not worth getting a professional to fix it, might as well try to fix it myself, is what I think. I'm going to discard it anyway, so nothing's lost if I can't fix it, and maybe I can. This time it worked.

My chair was delivered on time and I've already sat in it and watched a TV program with Zoe in my lap. This picture is of her breaking in the new chair herself, although you can almost not see the chair for all the protection I have over it while the cats get used to it. I think Zoe's figured out that she can't get under it, so they'll have to give up on that as a hiding place. Which is fine. I have worries about them and the recliner/rocker mechanisms if someone sits in it while they're under it. Now, I hope I can keep the cat-kids from destroying it too quickly. I'm glad I went with the red (Burgundy) chair instead of the blue, even though it isn't even close to the wall color. It's far enough from the wall not to clash, and it's the same shade of red/burgundy in the pattern on my couch. Works.

The old chair is in the garage. Yesterday evening I tried to drag it out the front door and got it stuck in the doorway. Luckily a young couple were walking by with their baby in a stroller (it's been in the mid-70s here this last week). The guy offered to help and I accepted. It only had to go five more feet into the garage, but we had to unwedge it from the door. People are just generally nice, I think. So this next week I should be able to drag it to the curb for the garbage folks.

After the chair was delivered I made a trip out to the place I found that takes chemicals, old paint, batteries, etc. I finally got that leaky battery out of my garage and gone. So see. Fairly productive day. It's raining now, so my productivity has come to a grinding halt. I was considering getting out and trimming shrubbery since the weather has been so warm. About an hour ago though it began a steady, mild rain. This being Texas, it could clear up within the next hour, but I think they're calling for rain the rest of the day, clearing out tonight. Oh, darn. Guess I'll have to find something inside to amuse myself. It feels weird not to have to move anything or rearrange anything or clean anything. Weird, but nice. I suppose I'll be forced to just enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Two posts

I did get two posts in this weekend. Surprise, surprise. Of course it's a three-day weekend, so that helps.

I've been fairly productive actually. My house and garage are both organized and neat. And I actually sealed all the grout on my new tile yesterday. That was something of a chore, but I've been waiting to do it. The grout sealer stuff says to do it in a well ventilated area, with the house opened up or whatever. It hasn't really been warm enough since I had the tile installed to have the house wide open until yesterday. It reached about 66 yesterday afternoon, which is a lot warmer than it's been. So I opened all the doors and windows and sealed grout. The cats where immensely helpful, meaning that they were in my way and determined not to stay out of the stuff that says to keep pets away for about 2 hours. They just tracked through it like it was no big deal and had no clue why I was so excitable. To me the smell was strong ... not really unpleasant like some chemicals, just strong. They didn't seem to mind the smell at all and made no effort to avoid the stuff. Weird. Plus Addy has a strong drive to get into whatever I don't want her in. She probably would have ignored the stuff if I hadn't been trying to keep her out of it.

Here's a picture of the two of them sitting looking out the open door. They're still somewhat wary about going outside. The black demon terror shows up just often enough to keep us all on our toes. And yes, that huge, fuzzy, calico-colored creature is a cat. A massively overweight, Zoe cat. I've been struggling with that because Addy has been dropping weight lately. You can't really see in this picture but her shoulder blades and hips are beginning to be a little too noticeable. She's 14 years old, so it's probably just her age, but in keeping her well-fed, I'm over-feeding Zoe. It's a balance I'm not doing well with.

I checked on-line and the City garbage service will pick up furniture from your curb if you warn them it will be there before the day of pickup. So I'll probably call them Tuesday and drag that chair out there for the Thursday regular pickup. I also discovered that there's a waste center for hazardous chemicals that takes batteries and is open on Saturday. Whatever did we do before the internet? Rhetoric question, because I know the answer. We used the yellow pages and called around and asked our friends, etc, etc. Word of mouth was probably one of the most important ways people found things. Now the internet is. I still tend to do things the old way first before I realize I can find the answer on the internet. That also dates me. Most of my friends go to the internet first without even consciously thinking about it.

My new chair is red. Burgundy, the store calls it, but it looks red to me. I hope it doesn't clash with my red wall. I actually bought a denim blue one ('paige blue' ... where do they find these names?) so there would be no possibility of a wall clash, but when I got home I realized that I really wanted the red chair. So I called the store and switched them out. Hopefully it really will be the red one that arrives next Saturday. It's a very comfortable rocker/recliner. I took my shoes off in the store and sat in it the way I usually sit at home, with my feet up under me. I wanted it to be comfortable the way I normally sit, and also even though it's not a big chair I wanted to make sure there was enough room for me to curl up with my feet up in it. And if it clashes somewhat with the wall I'll probably be the only one who notices. It won't be up against that wall anyway.

My Mom's 80th birthday is next month and my sisters and I are working on getting a sizable percentage of the family clan there. It should be a blast. I'm working on a birthday gift. It's surprisingly difficult because the styles are soooooo bad right now. My 80 year old Mom in peasant blouses or low-cut smock tops is not an attractive thought. At least I have about a month to work on it.

2010 !?

Amazing. Time continues to speed by and I continue to have trouble keeping up. We're half way through January, 2010. It feels almost surreal.

I bought a chair yesterday, which they'll deliver next weekend. Now I just have to figure out what to do with my dead recliner. The poor thing has been destroyed by the cats over the years, so it's probably safe to assume no one will want it. So how do I get rid of it? Store it in the garage with the battery back-up that I also don't know how to get rid of? Hmmmm. I think I haven't told that story. It happened when I was moving everything into the garage so that the carpet could be replaced. After disconnecting all my computer stuff from the battery back-up, I lifted it and thought: "What the hell is dripping?" as I watched holes being eaten in my carpet. The battery backup was dripping battery acid! I ran through the house with it to the garage, and then back-tracked my trail of drips, spreading baking soda on everything that looked wet. The only place that ended up damaged was the carpet in the computer room where it first started dripping and I stood there watching it eat through the carpet. LUCKILY, it was the old carpet I was replacing, not the new carpet I was having installed. I'd have been sick. So that battery back-up is inside three cardboard boxes in my garage. It doesn't seem to continue dripping as long as I keep it level, but what do I do with it now? It's a Belkin, so it's not like it was an off-brand or something. I'll have to see who will take and dispose of a battery which leaks acid.

Back to the chair. I've got to figure out how to dispose of the old chair. It's not going to fit in the back of my Subaru, even if I could lift it into there. So I'll have to see how I can get it hauled off. I still haven't found a couch I like, but at least I found a nice chair.

I went to my parents house for Christmas and it was snowing hard when I left to drive there. Pretty, but driving in snow is not my favorite. I live in Texas and often visit my sister in Colorado around Christmas time, so I can drive in it if I have to but it's not my favorite. And my sister will tell you, I'm a total rookie at snow driving. This has probably been one of the coldest years I remember since living in Texas. We've had snow three times in December this year, and snow on Christmas is especially rare. We've also had over a week of sub-freezing temps and several days in the teens. Very unusual for here. Anyway, I dragged most of my aloe vera into the garage once I moved my house stuff back into the house. Three of the plants however, I covered up and left on the back porch. This picture is what they looked like when I got back from Christmas at my folks. Needless to say, the cover got blown off by the snowstorm. Also needless to say, these guys will not survive. Not after snow and multiple days below freezing. Looks like I'll have pots to split some of the other aloe vera into this year.

I'm still working on the stuff left in the garage, throwing away stuff I don't really need and deciding how and where to store the stuff I'm keeping. The house is pretty well set now, ready for new furniture as I find it. And now the garage is shaping up. I intend to keep it clean and picked up, so it doesn't get so nasty again. Hopefully I can keep up with that good intention. I storing my Christmas stuff out there now rather than in my closet. Plus I'm storing my sewing machine and my anime posters in the garage, so my closets are much cleaner and more organized. Soon my garage will be too. I've got to find a good place to store the extra carpet they left with me too. So this is my weekend to be organized and try to get everything around the house organized.

Last weekend I went to see Avatar for the second time with my sister. The first time I saw it, I went with my friend who was home from med school on her winter break. I'm blaming her for the cold weather because now that she's gone back to school it's been warming up. We had some great times while she was in town though.

I really enjoyed Avatar. Both times. I saw it in 3D both times and am really glad I saw it in the theater. I often just wait for things to come out on DVD, but this movie was definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

One that I wish I had seen on the big screen is the most recent Star Trek movie. I bought the DVD out of curiosity because I've been a Star Trek fan since I was a kid watching the original series as it came out. (Oops, just seriously dated myself). This movie was great! They did an awesome job of making an interesting, action-filled movie, with a unique plot in an alternate universe, but including enough of the original traits and sayings of the original characters to keep a ST fan happy. I think I've watched the DVD 5 or so times. Fun!

Anyway, just thought I'd get my first blog of the new year in this weekend. I may shoot for another one if I get tired of organizing.

New Year's Eve again

Wow. Another year gone. It seems fitting to be doing a post on New Year's Eve because last year at this time was my first real post. It's funny to re-read it now. I was so unsure about this whole blogging thing a year ago. Now it seems so second nature to just type whatever I'm thinking or about whatever I'm doing. It's interesting that starting next month I'm going to be doing a blog for the professional organization I'm a part of. Go figure. Not so surprising I guess. I've always liked to hear myself talk, and to me blogging is just another form of talking to myself. It's a safe way to have opinions. Of course my personal blogs are anonymous, except to friends and family who may be reading them. My blog for the professional group won't be anonymous. It'll be interesting to see if I find that very different, besides the whole content thing. Hai, hai. The professional one can't be quite so egocentric as this one is.

Anyway I'm going to try to always do a post on New Year's Eve, so here goes.

It's been a good year. Busy, but good. And I enjoy the things I do that have made this such a busy year. This year again I have a huge number of things to be thankful for. I still have a job I love doing. I have good friends. I have my health. I'm financially sound, my retirement and investments back to what they were before the bad losses in late 2008-early 2009. That last is certainly through no effort on my part. I know less than nothing about investments. That's why I have a financial adviser. He's done well for me this year.

So let's see, how introspective should I get? I have a meeting with my boss in early January to discuss my goals and objectives for the next year. Goals, huh? Hmmmmmm. I plan to stay very active in my professional associations. I should write a paper if I can, now that the book chapters are done. I wrote 5 book chapters last year, and managed to get them all in mostly on time. I just received a copy of the first book last week that has two of the chapters in it. Two more chapters I returned the proofed galleys for two weeks ago. And the last chapter went in in October. I wonder if I should make learning to say 'no' one of my goals. Nah. I managed to get them all in. A couple of my goals for next year probably won't make my boss too happy with because they're going to involve fighting City Hall, so to speak. I want some equipment and some personnel that Administration doesn't seem to think I need. So when they show up on my goals, it will be interesting to see what my boss says. Hmmmmm. I guess I need to have a good development plan to present to her to justify what I want, and a good way of explaining why they're part of my goals. Another goal I have for next year is to train someone else to do some of the things I do. We're lacking a little depth at work since I'm the only one currently that does some things, but we've been short staffed at the county hospital too, so it's been hard to catch up on things like training since I'm covering more than usual over there.

Other goals for this next year? Personally, I should probably try to get a little exercise into my routine since I've gotten particularly bad about that. I currently have pretty good health, but some exercise would only improve it. I would say improve my diet, but that's not very realistic. I eat predominately stuff I can nuke or stuff that's fast and easy. I'm not a big fan of sweets, and that includes fruit. The only fruit I usually have in the house are grapefruit. And although I like most vegetables, I don't keep fresh vegetables nor fix them for meals. Most of my vegetables come from my mid-day meal at the hospital. So basically, a pretty bad diet. I suspect that's not going to change much because it's just too much trouble and effort to do real cooking for just myself and then have the cleanup too. I have better/other things to do.

When I consider it, for all my imperfections and flaws, I'm still an incredibly lucky person. Sometimes it's hard to know where to start being grateful. If you believe in karma, then I must have been a saint in my last life, or murdered horribly, to have stored up so much good energy for this life. It's totally believable that I have guardian deities watching over me, or watching out for me. Yeah, so if you guys are listening, you have my gratitude, and take the night off. I'm home. What trouble can I get into?

*laughing* That should be a serious jinx, except they never leave me completely alone. And anyone who doesn't know me is now backing slowly away from this blog. It's okay. You can chalk it up to the alcohol if you like. Of course I'm having a glass of wine on New Year's Eve. Really, it's okay. It's not necessary for you to believe in my guardians, as long as I do. They'll still take care of me whether other people believe in them or not.

Hmmmmmm. Let's get deeply philosophical here for a few minutes. I believe that part of what seems to be my "luck" is that I believe things will go my way and then they do. Do they really happen in my favor because I believe they will? Am I bending reality to suit me or favor me? *laughing* Yeah. Right. Put that way it sounds ridiculous. So why DO things happen in my favor? I don't really know, but I'm gonna keep believing they will. And keep being grateful to whatever agency is responsible.

Okay end of 'philosophical-this-person-is-drunk-or-nuts' talk. I'll try going back to things that are a little more normal.

Yesterday I went with my friend to see Avatar in 3D. O.O Waaaaay cool. What it lacked in original plot it more than made up in visual effects and the creation of a unique world with an alien race. It was awesome. I actually had some trouble with motion sickness though. That surprised me because I have a private pilot's certificate, and I've also never had trouble on boats. Just a bad day maybe. Or maybe I should get my eyes checked. They do seem to be increasingly light sensitive. Whatever, the movie was still awesome.

Well this post has been really scattered, but at least I got one more post in in 2009. Happy New Year and may you have a wonderful 2010.

Dekita!

It's done!!!!! I have all new flooring in my house. And on top of that I have pretty much everything moved back in from the garage that's coming back in. As expected, some of that stuff will take up permanent residence in the garage. However, my garage is once more a place for parking my car and storing odds and ends. I'm really happy about that. I like parking my car inside, not having to clean the windshield on the rare mornings we get ice, not having to warm it up or use gloves because the steering wheel's so cold. The garage isn't heated really, but it stays warm enough for frost-averse plants in the winter. It does become an oven in the summer of course.

So, back to the carpet and tile. I love the new carpet. The carpet guys were incredibly efficient and professional. They were done much faster than I expected . . . about 6 hours total from arrival to departure. The carpet looks great. The color looks great. Overall I'm quite pleased with everything.

I do have some issues with the tilers, but I'll hold those for now.

I wanted to do a few 'before' and 'after' pictures. So all the pictures on the left in this blog are 'after' pictures of the new carpet and tile, and on the right are the 'before' pictures of the old carpet and tile. The first set of pictures above is the entryway, left is the new entry with it's new tile up against the new carpet. By contrast, on the right above is the old tile and carpet in the entry. The color changes aren't as noticeable in the pictures as they are in person, plus as I mentioned in an earlier post, except for the blue bathroom floors, I didn't make drastic color changes.

The second set of pictures are the back door area and since the extension of the tile to the fireplace is one of the reasons for the new tile, I was pleased with the way this came out. On the left you can see the tile extended to the fireplace there by the back door, and get a better feel for the color of the new carpet. On the right is the old carpet up to the back door and you can also see how ragged and stained it was there in front of the door. I really like stepping into the house from the outside onto tile rather than directly onto carpet. Plus the cats can't destroy the carpet there when they're trying to dig out the back door. Your basic win-win. These pictures also show how much darker the new carpet is than the old was. The new carpet isn't a dark color, but the old carpet was really pale.

With the last set of pictures I tried to capture the change in the bathroom tiles. Both bathrooms were this blue-grey swirled tile you can see on the right, up against the old pale carpet. Again on the left is the new bathroom tiles and the new carpet. The picture doesn't do justice to the tiles. They're white with a light brown and a pale blue-grey swirl through them. The brown is pulled out up against the carpet and eventually I'll re-paint the bathrooms, probably a pale blue. Currently this master bath is still a bright fluorescent yellow, which don't match anything, but then they never really have.

So that's the state of my house now. New flooring is in place and I've essentially moved the interior house contents twice in the last month. My plan now is to take a break for awhile and pay of some of this, then go for new furniture and some painting. Kitchen counters will probably be last, at some pint in the future. Slowly but surely I'll get to everything.