The soundtrack you should be playing for this particular post would be Joseph Arthur. :) Just kidding. It's just what I'm listening to while I write it. I do highly recommend it if you haven't listened to it!
Onward.
There have been busy weeks and days off for cold and all that.
Last weekend, we traveled out to Alliance to hand feed chickadees at a park there. We won't be giving free press to that particular park because the people working there had the personality of wallpaper paste. It was much like the woman we encountered when we visited the NPS Johnstown Flood Memorial. There are few parks we will NOT visit. The few we have marked off the list are those with people who just don't care about the people visiting and helping them TO KEEP THEIR JOB. My husband is a public servant and just doesn't understand why people can be so very crappy in that job. He is thankful every single day that he has the job he has. He knows that in this day and age of technology, he's a bit of a dinosaur that can easily be replaced by an app. (Not in our eyes because he is truly VERY good at his job. Still . . . )
At any rate, we tempted the thick layers of ice, hiked about 3/4 mile into the woods and found the site. We didn't find the human handing out seed. There were no signs. It wasn't obvious to figure out what was going on. We went into a little shack that they had and we may or may not have helped ourselves to the trash can of sunflower seeds. We went out to start with the feeding and a somewhat disheveled woman, looking much like the bird lady from Mary Poppins, came up with a reused peanut butter jar of diced peanuts. (I really though she'd say, "Tuppence a bag!") Instead she said, "Oh, I see you brought your own seed!" "Kind of."
You have to stand still with your arm out. It seems silly, but your arm starts to hurt rather quickly.
My girl had her handful.
M was the first with a visitor. It turns out that he would be the only one of us. Those chickadees are quick. Not the greatest photo, but it's all I could do!
You see, there was a boy scout troop that came in ahead of us. Now, this isn't to say anything against boy scout troops. The boys do great things and can truly be wonderfully behaved. These children were not those children. They were loud. They were running around. They were throwing snowballs. They scared all of the birds away. In fact, we moved to the bridge to try to get away from them.
My beautiful girl here trying to be patient. Neither she or I corner the market on patience.
In other news, these were hand-me-downs from my girl. They are just slightly big on me. I just figured this might the place I state that we can no longer share shoes. Girlie wears an 8 1/2 and I wear a 6 1/2. These happen to be Keens that run a half size small. With thick socks, the 7 1/2's fit my feet just fine. Still, girlie has such big feet!
I admit that we gave up. K and I couldn't take the snowball fighting and screaming any longer. I looked over at her and said, "If that were me, my mom would have beat my butt." She smirked. The ladies standing somewhat within earshot laughed and agreed.
Yesterday was our 18th anniversary. We had plans to go snowshoeing at The Wilderness Center. We packed up the snowshoes. We headed out. People kept talking about how cold it was supposed to be. We had planned for that. What we hadn't planned for was this.
The true white out photo is on my phone. I had to stop a few times, put my hazards on and hope that no one hit us. This photo is the same one as below. They would come and in a minute or so, the white out would be gone. Still, the driving was nasty.
Add to that that we were in -- Amish County-- home to the unmarked 90 degree turns.
Oh, yes. The 90 degree surprise turns about wiped us out. The road suddenly disappeared. "Where'd the road go?" I asked M, then suddenly I found it. "It's a curve!" The traction alarm was going off. We were sliding. I was hanging onto the steering wheel with one hand, tempted to shift into neutral with my right. My foot was on the break, but I didn't want to slam on it and cause it to be any worse. There was one very small, low arrow on a sign in the middle of the 90 degree turn. Um, thanks for that. I didn't want to shift into neutral because I thought the traction control wouldn't work. It seemed like we were sliding for minutes, but truly, it was only seconds. The traction control kicked in and stopped our sideways slide. We weren't head first sliding. Oh, that would be too easy. we were sliding sideways across the turn with my drivers door clearly where the front end of my RAV should be. She corrected it. She pulled us all around. She saved us from biting the ditch. :shakes of the head: Wow! We did have a nice day and I was able to buy all of my spices in bulk. I found that my spices were old and frankly, some were dead.
Sunday brought us negative temperature weather. I guess it got to -12 F last night. What are my people doing today? Oh, they are headed to the Columbus Zoo because it is free admission day. :shakes of the head: They wore so many clothes that K looked like Randy from A Christmas Story. They promised to be down there for a few hours and to head back up before the storm hits.
I have a cold. It isn't severe, but it's enough to make me feel a little funky. Yesterday, we were stuck going to the Big Box of Blue. M needed his cold drug of choice-- Advil Cold & Sinus. I pop up and asked the pharmacy tech, "Can we get some Mucinex with that?" "You have to purchase it separately with a different ID." I told her that I understood. She laughed and said, "Not that you guys look like you are a problem." "We aren't. I promise, I really do have a cold! Besides, my teeth aren't rotting out of my face and my skin is surprisingly clear." "Honey, you would be buying generic in the biggest box you could and would be faking a cough." (To note, I bought the smallest box of Mucinex that they had.) So we suited up with our cold remedies, K and I perused the leftover Valentine's items for Easter egg stuffings. (I watch what I buy, but the kids don't care.)
M threw some shoe glue into the basket. We were going as a line of ducklings towards the Kleenex. M disappeared. It's okay, because I had to stand and patiently wait for the tissue display.
There was a woman and her 9 year old daughter. They had the entire display either blocked with the cart or the woman body blocking the rest of it as she dug through all of the boxes. She looked up and saw me standing there. I admit that a cold in combination with a delightful case of PMS may not have caused me to give her the loving look that our Lord would have preferred. I think she was struck with a sick look combined with bewilderment. "Oh, I just don't know why but I just had to dig through all of the designs!" I reached over, grabbed the massive 4 pack and said, "Ma'am, I just need to wipe my nose." Grant you, they are the marbly ugly Kleenex boxes, but I'm going through them so fast that it doesn't matter as long as the box doesn't empty out at the wrong time.
We went to the cash lane. We obeyed the sign that talked about 20 items or less. The girl flagged us and our basket over. I was ID'd for the shoe glue. "Are you 18?" I laughed. The gray streaks on the top of my head might suggest, but I told her, "I promise, we have shoes to repair. No huffing at my house!" She did laugh. Just doing her job. I get it. She managed to somehow overcharge us for Airborne. She caught it and charged us again. She overcharged us by over $9.50. She charged for 3 packages when we got 1. Of course, I didn't find that out until we got to the car. We schlepped everything back in. They cheerfully refunded the money, but still . . . Rrrr. I know, I know. It's another reason of why I don't shop there.
K had a "snow" day on Friday for cold. I think that they called that one too soon. I envision another "snow" day for cold this week. Never mind that they have today and Friday off anyhow. I see Thursday being possible. Who knows?
Finally, my husband handed me a bag of chocolate yesterday. "No, really. I bought this for you. Please eat it. If it runs out, I promise that I can buy you more. Please. Have chocolate." Bless his heart.
Be warm!
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