The beds are free of flannel which means that it will probably snow 12".

Last week, K's bed was freed from her cozy penguin flannel sheets.  She was sad to have to change to regular sheets, but did as mama asked.  This week was my week to free the bed of flannel.  The polar vortex seems to have moved northward, at least for now, and I wanted to move forth into spring with lighter sheets.

That probably just gave The Weather Channel the green light to name another storm a name often found on some model of vehicle.  Don't worry.  I haven't been brave enough to put the snow shovel away-- yet.  That usually comes right after tax day.

The Multimedia Extravaganza

That's what my husband calls it.  Tonight is the night that I set the school newsletter.  This evening I have had all of the following going simultaneously:

1.  Bounced between Fugazi and Minor Threat on iTunes and finally settled on Ten Club Radio online, listening to the Pearl Jam's Sydney, Australia Big Day Out concert on 1/26/14.

2.  Answered the phone a few times.

3.  Sent and received texts to get a few of those phone calls.

4.  Typeset the incredibly tiny notes that the recording secretary gave to me, all the while having a conversation on the phone.  When K saw the size of the handwriting, she offered me a magnifying glass.

5.  Listened to the news, Big Bang and now I think Arsenio is on.  And yes, this was while I was listening to the concert online.

6.  Typeset the entire newsletter while bouncing between Word, e-mail and the Scholastic Book Fairs Toolkit.

It drives my husband crazy.  He says that he doesn't know how I do it.

Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns now plays.  It's quiet and a tribute to Mother Love Bone.  I shall shut off my multimedia extravaganza and start to wind down.

'Night!

Music that makes me happy.

Glen Hansard and Eddie Vedder are singing "Drive All Night" to me on Ten Club Radio.  Though I had heard of him and Eddie working collaboratively, I hadn't heard Glen Hansard's music until now.  It's delightful music that is making me happy.

 

What is large and loud enough to rattle the pans on the pot rack and drowns out Temple of the Dog?

This:

After texting Rachael to ask the kind man in her life what it is, he confirmed her initial thought-- an Osprey.  Now, when she said, "Osprey" to me, I thought she meant the bird.  My husband is a park naturalist.  Osprey to us means bird.  Osprey to the Household of A Monkey, A Bit and A Bean means military aircraft.  

It's pretty spiffy!  When we went for our walk, it was out (because it is so loud that there is no way that you could miss it aside being deaf) and the motors were turned like airplane props.  It was so cool!  I thought it was neat, but apparently my people were already aware of it's transformer abilities from their viewing of G.I. Joe.  

I'm glad that this is only flying over for daytime exercises of take off and landings at the little airport up the street.  I'd hate to have something like this flying over in war.  It isn't tiny.  It was flying over our house for hours.  If it was wartime, it definitely wouldn't be labeled as "neat."  

Quadratus Lumborum, thou art a heartless muscle.

The quadratus lumborum muscle resides deep in your lower back. It stabilizes your pelvis and lower back, and assists in sideways flexion of your spine and lower back rotation, according to ExRX.net.

I bent down this morning to fix K's skirt hem and darned near was stuck.  It's my springtime QL fit.  It's not completely out, but going that way.  When it goes out, or has a horrible fit as would probably be more proper to say, it ends up feeling as if I have someone beating me in the back with Bert's chimney sweep brush.  

Image from Wikipedia, though I wished that he had his brush!

Good times.  

I took two Advil and hauled off to school.  PTA meetings wait for no man.  (Or woman.)  I saw the gym teacher and asked to stretch my back on his floor.  "Has anyone puked on this floor recently?"  "None at all that I know of."  I pulled, I rolled.  I rocked.  I stretched.  K saw me and said, "You know that kids have sweated on that floor?"  "I don't care.  I'll take sweat over puke."

The principal pulled me into his office for a quick chat and I was standing like I was ready to play football.  I had explained to him my back issue and as I was struggling to find a reasonable way to stand, he just chuckled.  He suffers from back issues, too.  

My friend, Kay, tried to come to my rescue.  She picked me up in a giant bear hug, cracked a few upper things in my back and dropped me onto my feet.

"You just dropped me!"

She said that she meant to.  

She had me climb up on the desk and she'd try to pull it out.  Erin, our incoming president, came in and stopped.  "Um, okay."  She was laughing at Kay's Poor Man's Chiropractic Clinic.  (Kay and her family have a chiropractor and use him frequently.)  

"Your right hip is out!"  

"I know.  It's been killing me for a while." 

It makes me think, the hip has been jacked for about a good week if not longer.  It gives periodic fits, and I'm convinced that it is the first part I will have replaced.  That probably threw the QL all out of whack.

Kay pushed, pulled and tugged.  She tried.  I think it helped a little.  

In any event, if it isn't the pollen, it's the QL.  The buckets of rain have rinsed the pollen out of the air, but I don't think that the dampness have helped the back.  

I'm a hot mess.  

Hello, Pollen. You are killing me.

We walk K to school each day.  I saw "we" because 98% of the time, Hubs is able to join us.  We walked this morning and as soon as we got back, I got a migraine.  Before we left, I took Allegra (Rx strength.)  When I started with the migraine, I took what Hubs refers to as my "concoction."  I take an Advil, a Tylenol, and 2 baby aspirins.  That generally does it.

It didn't touch it.

An hour later, I followed it up with an Advil Cold & Sinus.

That didn't do anything.

I pulled out a Coke and rolled a lavender headache essential oil roller all over my forehead, temples, up the back of my neck and into my hair.

Praise God!  It started to let up.  I had a haze for a while and that feeling like I thought that maybe I would vomit, but I wasn't certain.  I had life to live and I wasn't light sensitive with this one, so I rocked it out.

I also watered it to death, meaning I drank a whole boatload of water.

Wow.

We went for another walk tonight because, well, this winter weight is not melting off on its own.  Add another 2 1/2 miles to the 2 we did earlier.  My eyes were burning, but my 24 hour Allegra still held.  I looked the pollen count up this evening.  Surprisingly, it was high!  :much sarcasm:

We're suffering here.  We can't open the windows or we would all surely curl up in the fetal position from the intense cranial pain.

Welcome spring.  Rain.  Rain is very good.  It rinses this out of the air.  At least the cars aren't yellow-- yet.

Roll out the barrels . . .

(You can thank me for that ear worm later.  ;) )

The city that I live in has chosen to ignore EPA mandates regarding updates in the water and sewer system for the past 20 years.  They've been asked.  They've been asked.  They've been asked.  Since they have chosen to ignore THE GOVERNMENT for 20 years, the EPA mandates are, well, mandated now and since they have chosen to ignore the mandates for 20 years, our city doesn't qualify for federal funding to offset such updates.  Those update requests that are now mandated mandates are to be paid for by-- you guessed it-- the tax payers.

Last month, my water/sewer/trash (combined bill) went up $40.  It was still billing for the middle of winter.  While I admit that trash didn't go up, the sewer bill went up from $16 to $36.  The water costs went up, too.

This isn't the end of the increases.  The bills are to fully double (if not more) by the end of the project that they ignored for so long.  Where does this put us?  We're on project water conservation.

You see, the water you consume is factored into the sewer costs.  They have given an option to have a separate meter placed on your home for garden watering only, but you have to pay for the installation.  We're not completely convinced that system will work and frankly, I don't want to pay an additional fee to have another meter placed in my home.

About three years ago, we installed a rain barrel.  We love our rain barrel.  Hubs suggested that we install another.  "I wonder how many we can install?"  I told him that you can link 4 together.  I seriously don't believe that we need a total of 16 rain barrels surrounding our rather modest home, but a few more in the back certainly won't hurt.

So what are we going to do?  We're going to purchase more of these.  The compost barrel works well, isn't ugly and blue and will be just fine.  We'll purchase a few of them for the bargain price of $15 each.  With the connectors and tubing, I figure that we'll probably have $50 in the barrels, but the money it will save will be well worth it.

My only complaint about my current barrel (which is still in winter storage) is that we could definitely stand to raise it.  Hubs intends on addressing that issue.  You see, I figured with the slope of the yard, raising it wouldn't be needed.  It works, but I feel that it would be a bit more effective if it were a bit higher.

I can't give up on watering plants.  Grant you, we've planted natives and they require very little water.  I'm more of a perennial girl and purchase very few annuals.  Annuals are basically for a few pots and hanging baskets.  The rain barrel always quickly fills, so to have a few additional ones is welcome to help keep the vegetable garden going.

As far as other water conservation is concerned, washing the cars is going to have to be done at the car wash.  I hate to say, but I believe it will be a lot cheaper.  The fun summer sprinkler will have to be a very short lived enjoyment and only if it is overly scorching.

I announced to my people last night that I'm only doing laundry once a week and am doing large loads.  Between the three of us, I had three full washer loads yesterday.  For a week of laundry including laundering towels, I didn't think that was horrible.  ETA:  I did forget the sheets and a load or two on the weekend.  Still, we're keeping loads large and not multiple small loads.

Still, if people would have only done what was asked of them when asked, life would be a little easier.  Our city encompasses the full spectrum of financial states.  You can go from the largest mansions in the area down the road for a 15 minute drive and end up in the deepest poverty of the county.  If we're really having to study how to afford such increases, how are the families going to do it that can't pay the bill to begin with?  That's thinking about the people in your city.  Way to go.  :S