Fall

Life has been busy, so once again I won't make any excuses for not updating this blog.

Number one big change would have to be the birth of my third grandson, Evan Michael on October 8th. Everything went well and now I have a new "little man". Mason has now become my "middle man" and I guess that makes Sean my "big man"! What a pleasure grandchildren are.

A most amazing thing has happened to me this fall. I always was afraid to fly and really haven't done it much in the past. In September I went to a training seminar in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and of course had to fly. My supervisor was fired shortly before so I ended up making the flight by myself which I was actaully quite happy about because the man had started to drive me insane and the idea of traveling with him was just beyond what I felt I could endure. So off to the airport I went and the flight went well. I was able to call the hotel to get picked up at the airport, something I had never done and was quite proud of myself. I know these things are quite simple but for me, someone who hates to make phone calls and is afraid of trying new things because of the thoughts of failure, this is quite an accomplishment. I guess some of my past therapy has worked after all!

The training was excellent (Q'Straint) and within days I was flying home. I had a chance to take a bump but figure why bother, I don't have anywhere else to fly to. When I mentioned this fact to my guy, he replied something along the lines of "you could always come here". I was surprised because he had never mentioned me going to visit him and when I mentioned that to him he was surprised that I felt I needed an invitation. It was a pleasant surprise to me and now I regretted not making a trip to NC during the summer. Oh well.

A couple days later I was looking at the school calender and noticed we had a long weekend coming up. That night I was on the computer checking flights, talking to my guy on the phone and making plans for a trip to NC. The next day I ordered the tickets and last weekend I was flew to NC to spend a wonderful weekend with him.

I was nervous about this because even though we have been together almost two years, we had never really spent much time together for hours and hours much less spending even one night together. What if we found out that we really couldn't stand being together that long? We talked about this before I got there and I think we were both very pleasantly surprised and pleased to get along just great!

Now I'm looking at prices of tickets for another trip to visit for a longer time. So I have gone from fear of flying to a semi savy traveler looking at different flights going to different cities wondering if I should try different carriers to see which works best to get to my ultimate destination.

Once again I have to remind myself that change is good!

Returning to Normal

• Fall is coming soon.
• School is open again.
• I've returned to my driving job at school with added duties this year.
• I can put court behind me now from the accident.
• Mom is in rehab now and will soon be going into the nursing home to live.
• My friend Jody is going to start cleaning out Mom's house.
• Cory and Krista plan to remodel then moved into Mom's house in the future.
• My supervisor at my second job was fired.
• I think they think I'll be applying for the position but now I know that I belong behind the wheel of a school bus.
• Last weekend I got to spend time with my guy.
• I won't see him for months now. I'm sad, but accepting.
• Got a new roof on the house.
• Put in new windows.
• The garage is secure now with new "man" doors that lock and a window instead of a board in the wall!
• A new mantle on the fireplace! (made from wood from the old waterbed!)
• Went to Adirondacks with my friends, what a good relaxing time that I needed so badly.
• While going through my Mom's place, I found my baby shoes, made from white elk and costing $2.95.
• Also found my Dad's baby shoes and locks of his hair from his first haircut. What a blond he was and with curls.
• Learning much family history and finding wonderful family pictures.
• New baby coming within the next month, it's a Boy, Evan Michael.
• It has taken a while, but I finally feel like life is returning to normal just a tiny bit.

It's Been Ages... Again

Once again it has been ages since I have posted. So many things have happened that I don't even know where to start. So I guess I'll just give you a list

• My guy moved away.
• I was in an accident.
• I had many medical tests. Some were really strange but got good reports.
• I have sleep apnea and now using a cpap machine and I'm sleeping again!!!!!!!!
• I'm dreaming like crazy for the first time in many years.
• My guy came home for a visit. I can't wait until the next time.
• There is the possibility of being offered a full time job at my "second" job.
• Gas got so expensive I'm not even doing joy riding on the bike, just back and forth to work.
• Nicki was home for a few days for a visit.
• Friends from Canada came for a weekend visit.
• Another friend from Canada comes next week.
• I haven't seen one honey bee all summer long.
• Seen traps for the Ash borer beetle in local trees.
• To save gas, not mowing lawn very often, takes twice as long to mow so not sure I'm really saving anything.
• Letting the pool just sit this summer, sorry I even opened it, still thinking about filling it in.
• Had plumber come to fix the toilet, ended up getting new outdoor faucets, new water heater (other one was 35 years old) and today they are installing a new more energy efficient furnace.
• Not sure I ever want to drive school bus again.
• Still don't know if new baby due in October is a boy or a girl.
• Knitting baby things like crazy in gender neutral colors.
• Summer is going by too fast!
• Heading out in a few weeks for a motorcycle trip to the Adirondacks to meet many new friends from the Venturers.
• Had to postpone tattoo work planned for my back because of a slow healing wound/infection in my leg from the accident.
• I talk to my guy everyday.
• Been hot and humid but my fans are still working.
• Bought a new boxspring and mattress for my bedroom to help me sleep better.
• Getting rid of the waterbed in the guest bedroom.

A Doggie Tail (Tale)

In mid-March, I adopted a Saint Bernard that I named Penny. She is the third Saint that I have owned so there should have been no surprises. Each of my dogs has had their own special personality and caused their own frustrations. The number one thing I have learned with this dog, which is my first smooth-coated Saint, is that smooth-coated dog shed just as much as a rough-coated! The only other explanation for all the hair on the floor in my house is that I just don't remember how much more there may have been with the other dogs.

So now here it is the beginning of June and I decide that Penny seems to be pretty needy and likes to follow me from room to room so maybe she would stay right with me outside. Last night was the first test. I had been working on the pool, getting it ready to be started today so took Penny out with me and she did great, staying just a few feet away, peeing and pooping and then gladly going back into the house with me a little while later. Then just before going to bed I took her out and she peed while I sat on the deck praising her. No leash and she showed no desire to take off.

Now the next morning I'm beat from a not very restful night's sleep. My alarm goes off and I know I have to get up and hit the shower. Hey, Penny was so good, let's see what happens this morning. So out through the bedroom sliding door, I sit on the deck and off she goes to pee, then she moves off further to poop and then she looks at me as if to say "see ya", turns her back on me and away she goes to the woods working her way over to my Mom's. Of course I call her but get no response from her. I head back into the house, calling myself some names, throw on a pair of shorts, slip into some clogs and keep my football jersey jammies on. Get in the car, head down the road and when I get to the corner notice Penny at the house across the street from Mom's. I pull into their driveway, open the back door of the car, call Penny and she comes right over and into the car. I turn around for home, pull into the garage, close the door and we head back into the house with me praising Penny for coming and getting the car.

I head into the shower after calling my boss just to assure him that if anyone wondered where I was, that I was running late but would be into work in plenty of time to start and pretrip my bus. Into the shower I go, get out and get dressed then start to walk out into the kitchen, thinking how I'm making great time and I might get to work my normal early time. Then all of a sudden I notice that the dog isn't following me around. I look around from room to room and no dog! What the heck!

Then I notice it. I had never closed the sliding glass down in my bedroom! She is out on the loose again!!!! Once again I get into the car and head down the road. She isn't back at the neighbors so I turn around and head up into the subdivision up the hill from me but no sign of her. I head back into my yard and decide to drive back behind the house. Sure enough, I get back by Cory's "stuff" and there she is. I call her and she runs right over but I decide not to put her into the car, just let her run along side me. When I get back up to the house I just head right into the garage thinking she will follow me. WRONG!!! Down the driveway she heads out to the street. Thank Goodness I leave on a fairly quiet road, especially at 6:30AM. So I back the car out to the road and get out calling her after I open a couple car doors. She run back and forth on the road for a minute, I see a car coming and then she runs to me, past me and turns around and does the same thing in the opposite direction. The car passes by with no problem and then I figure I might as well walk back to the car and call her. She runs right over, hops into the front seat then crawls into the back seat.

Now my driveway is only 250 feet long, BUT, as I drive back into the garage, she shakes that big head of hers and the slobber goes everywhere! In the garage, I close the garage door then let her out of the car and we both walk into the house. She is panting like crazy so I refill her water bowl, grab the rest of my stuff for work and head back towards the garage. Penny spends her day in the laundryroom where I say Good-bye to her and out the door I go. I get back into the car (it had started to rain so no bike today) and pulled out, finally catching my breath and thinking "maybe this dog is more trouble then she is worth".

So now it's evening, Penny and I have been outside several times, always on the leash and I'm thinking "one of these days she is going to grow up and settle down". I must have been crazy for getting another dog! But I did get her and I'm sticking it out!

Just in case you are interested, I did get to work on time, 15 minutes later then I usually do, but in plenty of time to get my bus pretrip done along with my paperwork. I even had time to shut everything down and just relax a few minutes before heading down the road.

Tough days ahead

The last couple of weeks have been a bit rough. The days are drawing closer to the day my guy leaves to move to another state 600 miles away. I will only see him another time or two before he leaves and as much as I want to say I'm dealing with it, I can also feel myself falling apart.

If you watch Good Morning America, the weekend edition, then you have probably seen the bit they do every few weeks call "Three Words". The idea is to sum up your week in just three words. An interesting concept, somehow based on the idea of using only Two Words, but expanded to three. It also calls to mind the idea in "Eat, Pray, Love" when one person in the book asks another person what one word tells the most about that person. I decided that one word doesn't do it for me and picked the words "Sorrow" and "Strength" as I feel that from each Sorrow in my life I have gained great strength.

So now I'm going to try to put my feelings into a series of three word comments.

• He's moving away
• I'll miss him
• I love him
• Don't forget me
• Heart is breaking
• I'm so sad
• Please come visit
• Heart will mend
• I'll be fine
• I'll be stronger
• Never forget you
• Thanks for fun
• It was wonderful
• Always my friend
• Call me often
• Life goes on!

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and I got an annual e-mail from a good friend that tells about how she reflects on Mother's Day each year and how wonderful motherhood is and how amazing her kids are, etc, etc.

Every year I get that e-mail and I'm so happy for my friend that she feels that way. My conclusion is about the same as hers but I go about it in such a different way.

I think I was a really crumby Mom. I was raised by a grandmother who did everything for me so I guess I kind of grew up thinking my whole life should revolve around me. I was spoiled rotten as a kid and I felt it should just continue into my adulthood. So I have my two kids, daughter Nicki and son Cory. I'm sure it didn't help, but when they were 4 and 2 years old, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, a rather extreme case. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and within a couple of years of having a massive heart attack due to my body going completely out of control. Of course one of the tricks your body/mind plays on you is that you think everything is just fine when really you are falling completely apart.

I did make a complete recovery but did go from having hyperthyroidism to hypothyroidism brought on by the radioactive iodine used on me wiping my thyroid right out. I was in such bad physical shape they didn't believe I could survive thyroid surgery. Mind you, this all happened in my early 20's, so I've been on thyroid medication for over 30 years.

I always use to say that my son turned out the way he did because of me being his mother and my daughter turned out the way she did in spite of me being her mother. Cory didn't have it easy during his childhood while Nicki always seemed to be able to breeze through life.

So now I'm in my mid 50's. Nicki and Cory are in their mid 30's. I couldn't be more proud of my kids! I don't try to take too much credit for how they have lived their lives. They have my genes so I guess there are things that can't be denied. I have seen them overcome some tough times in their lives, a child born with a disability, a divorce, addictions, watching their parents tear about their own lives in a divorce, changing jobs, listening to their mother rant when my life seemed to spiral completely out of control and so many other things that I've never been made aware. Oh yes, I'm proud off all their good things in life, producing wonderful children, working so hard at their jobs, having warm and caring homes, etc, etc. Those things are easy to be proud off. But I think I'm more proud of the rough time they have overcome and come out stronger people because of it!

So Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

A beautiful end to a dreay day

Yesterday was a rather cold damp type of day. I didn't do much outside at all. About 8PM I noticed the sun coming out and that it was raining so I figured there was a good chance of a rainbow and I was right!

The first three pictures are looking east at the rainbow. The fourth picture is what the clouds looked like at the time, looking west. The last picture is the clouds again while looking north. They were moving along at a pretty good clip.

What a Week

What a week it turned out to be. I got my E-Z Passes on Wednesday, I got my passport on Thursday and sold my Yamaha FJR on Friday! I loved my FJR but just couldn't ride it anymore due to my back and hip problems. I hated to sell it, but it was silly to keep it if I couldn't ride it. I had taken it to Don George's Sports Center to sell on commission almost a year ago. Yesterday Steve, my salesman, called me and let me know he had a buyer. I had recently told Steve to get whatever he could for it, I just wanted the money. So I was very pleased when he told me what my cut would be after taking out the commission. I got more then I thought I would end up with.

Within a few hours I was at the store to sign the paperwork expecting to get a check for the amount owed me. Imagine my surprise when Steve walked up to me and handed me a fist full of $100 bills! I went right to the bank and deposited it, most going into paying towards my home equity principal and the rest going towards paying off the work I had done on my Venture last month.

So now I have enough money saved up to have the new windows put in the house that I need so badly. My bills will all be paid up and now I can save up for my trip this summer up to the Adirondacks to spend time with friends.

I did spend a little of the cash to take Cory, Krista and Mason out for dinner and then later downloaded some music from itunes (Carly Simon's new album, some Goo Goo Dolls, some Kingston Trio that I was missing [drats, I still can't find the Tattooed Lady song] and one cut by Chris LeDoux [Life is a Highway])

This morning I continue fighting the cold or sinus infection I picked up this week, a relatively mild case but annoying just the same! I vacuumed up massive amounts of Saint Bernard hair and now must fight my way through a mountain of mail and get some laundry done. I also put the finishing touches on a couple of knitting projects so I can get back to work on a big knitting project that I'm actually getting paid for. Cory will also be over later so we can get some trash out to the road for the townwide spring trash pickup. No wonder weekends fly by so fast! There is just too much to do!!!!!!

Progress

There are things I've been thinking about that I kept putting on the back burner. You know, kind of like Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind saying "tomorrow's another day". So last week I got my act together and got some stuff done.

Number one was applying for my passport. I blogged earlier about having to get another birth certificate and how quickly it arrived. Last Tuesday I stopped to the post office with all my paperwork and money and got the paperwork sent to the government. Yesterday I noticed that my check cleared. Today I got my new birth certificate returned to me with the notice that my passport had been approved. Yippee! Now it's just a matter of getting the actual passport.

Over the weekend my fella' was away, visiting North Carolina, where he is moving at the end of this month and we got talking about how nice it was that the E-Zpass works in so many different states. I mentioned to him how I had thought about getting one and with his encouragement, after we said good-bye I went to the computer and ordered them online. I say "them" because it ordered one for my car and one for my bike. Turns out if you have an E-Zpass on your motorcycle, it's cheaper then paying cash, so I figured I might as well get them both. You are allowed up to 4 passes per account. Today when I got them mail, there were my passes. WOW, that was fast.

So now a couple things I've been talking about doing for what seems like ages have now been done! Hmmm, so what should my next goal be?

I did take most of the day off from work. Yesterday I felt a bit of a sore throat. Just a tickle really, but enough to remind me that I hadn't been sick all winter, which is a real milestone for me. During the night I found myself waking up every hour during the entire night. When I woke up to get ready for work I realized that I really felt grummy and decided to call in sick. I took the dog out quickly then crawled back into bed and fell to sleep waking up shortly before my guy called me. After talking with him, I decided to call into my other job and tell them I wouldn't be in there either. I stayed in bed until after 10am. It was wonderful. My throat felt worse and then I started with some head congestion. Call me slow, but it was then I realized that it's probably my sinuses that are acting up. I decided to go to school and work in the afternoon. My sore throat just about all gone but now my nose is feeling a bit congested and I'm on the verge of a headache. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel much better. We have a half day of school so a bunch of us will head out for breakfast in the morning between runs, then after the runs are all done I'll head to Aspire for the rest of the day. That's the plan anyway.

Podcast Freak

Ok, so I'll admit it. I'm a podcast freak. I blame my daughter of course. The last time she was home (at Christmas) we hopped in her car to do some errands and she plugged in her iPod and started to play a podcast. Something we laughed ourselves silly over (a conversation between Fred and Barney of the Flintstones after Barney had run over and killed Dino - it was hilarious). This was all the encouragement I needed to look into downloading some popcasts for myself.

I started out slowly, looking over each one carefully. I wasn't sure if I would even enjoy listening to the spoken word but within a few days I was totally hooked. Before long, my son had the hook up installed in my car so that it would play right through that system along with charging. Not that I'm in the car all that long, but suddenly my trips between my jobs and home seemed much shorter.

Let me see if I can find more podcasts I might be interested. Funny how just about everything looks interesting when your thirst is great. I downloaded things from NPR, APM, CNET and many independents.

OH NO, then I discovered video podcasts! A whole new genre to enjoy.

I checked for update almost every day. The heading into bed at night, I would put the iPod on the docking system I kept in there and watched any of the videos that were new that day. After I was done with the videos, I would listen to an audio podcasts and fall asleep. The next morning I would hook up the ipod in the car and try to figure out where I had fallen asleep the night before. I no longer went into the bus garage between routes. Why would I want to talk to anyone when I could sit in my bus and listen to a podcast? While grocery shopping I would walk around listening to another podcast. Waiting at the doctor's office, I would sit where I could watch for the nurse coming to get me so I wouldn't miss my name being called while I listen to another podcast. Out to lunch on my own, no problem, a podcast on the good old ipod would keep me company.

Reading became a thing of the past. I haven't touched a book in weeks. None of my friends listen to podcasts, much less own an ipod so I had nothing to share with them. On occasion when my daughter and I would talk we could share different podcasts that we enjoyed and amazingly, we have very similar tastes.

Today I sat down at my computer and deleted ALL my podcast. I wanted to start out fresh, wipe out all the old podcasts that needed deleted and then reload just my favorites again. Would I remember them all? I ended up with 18 podcasts, both audio and video. That's down from over 30. Now let's see if I can control myself!

But in case you are interested, here is some of my very favorite podcasts.

I guess I would have say the podcast I enjoy the most is NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me. It's a game show based on events of the past week, mostly political with guest stars playing for people who call in. It is hilarious. The host, Peter Sagal is a riot. I often worry about listening to this while grocery shopping because it makes me laugh out loud.

Another favorite is CNET's The Buzz Outloud. This is a technology podcast that is very funny and educational. Many time I don't have a clue what they are talking about but I still love the way they present things with so much humor.

More Hip Than Hippie is another timely podcast. Two woman talk about how to live a greener life with simple suggestions for around the home and also discuss much larger world issues of energy and the like. All is told with much humor as they sample the beer and chocolates that are sent to them. These girls now how to have some fun!

My week wouldn't be complete without Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion from APM, the news from Lake Wobegon. His calming voice is very easy to listen too as he weaves his tales about life in Minnesota. I think maybe it reminds me of listening to my Dad telling stories when I was a kid. It's amazing how a soft spoken male voice can pull you into the story so completely. This is another podcast that I find myself laughing out loud.

Another story teller that I've become fond of is Baba The Story Teller, Timeless Tales Told Tastefully. Baba gives hints on being a good storyteller, gives a moral of the day and tells a very simple story, often very short but with much meaning.

Because I'm a knitter, I decided to download some knitting podcasts. I'm not down to listening to only one, Sticks and Strings done by a bloke from Australia. I guess part of my first fascination was to listen to a guy talk about knitting but after a few weeks I realized he was the only one I was listening to and have deleted all my other knitting podcast. With the accent, he's fun to listen to but I also really enjoy his style and what information he presents. In his "real" life, he's a school teacher so I'm sure that's why he present himself so well. What is most fun is trying to figure out what he is talking about sometimes as some of the terms he uses aren't what we use here in the states. Luckily I have an online motorcycle friend in Australia and he helps me out when I have a question about what this podcaster is talking about. An example, recently he was talking about knitting a jumper. Turns out that is a sweater to Australian, not a dress like I thought. Then I found out that they call sweatshirts sloopyjoes! Oh the many things I have learned!

There are many more podcasts that I'll be listening to in the future including The New Yorker's Animated Cartoons (a video), The Onion News Network (another laugh out loud item), The Twisted Wrist (motorcycling) and NPR This American Life (which takes a different and interesting look at life with three acts, extremely thought provoking)

There are so many other podcasts I would like to try but now that I'm riding the bike more I won't be listening to podcast as much. The spoken word just doesn't come across as well on my radio speakers. But there is certainly something for everyone in the world of podcasting!

What a Week!

What a week it was. I had the week off from school due to Mid Spring break. I was hoping to be able to really enjoy some time to myself, but I'm sure you know the saying "the best laid plans of mice and men........". All and all, I did have some additional time to myself along with more time to do things that had to be done and had been put on the back burner for a while. I guess I've also been blessed because no matter how out of control things seem to get, I'm usually able to find the bright side of just about each situation.

I was able to put in extra time on my Aspire job so that I was able to take a day off in the middle of the week. I had set up an appointment to meet with a social worker from the Catholic Health Systems to have Mom evaluated to see if she needed to be moved into a nursing home. I prepared myself for a week for this decision and how Mom would deal with it. Wednesday morning I meet with this woman at Mom's house and to my surprise, Mom is OK'ed to continue living on her own. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I explained to the lady that I was having some health problems, that I have no real support system here to help me out with Mom and that due to my health, I'm still trying to travel as much as possible while I can. I was assured that this is no problem, all I need to do if find some outside help and that Mom should be fine for who knows how much longer on her own.

I leave that meeting to head to the post office to apply for my passport. Fortunately I had notice there was a newer form to fill out and had that ready along with my birth certificate. I had the cash in my pocket to pay for it and knew that the folks at the post office would be able to take the needed pictures. The woman at the post office looks at my birth certificate and what the hey, they can't use my birth certificate because it doesn't have a raised seal! OK, nice way to make a person feel old. She explains to me that I have to go to the Buffalo City Hall to get a copy of my BC with the raised seal and all I can think if how much I DON'T want to drive into Buffalo and find a parking space and have to take time off from work in order to accomplish this whole project. Meanwhile, they went ahead and took my pictures for the passport and checked my other paperwork to make sure that was all in order.

I'm soon back on the road again, luckily on the bike so I can enjoy the beautiful day. I head on over to Don George's Sports Center to drop off my lien release on the FJR and also pick up the plate so I can turn it in. I also tell Steve to sell, sell, sell. I need, want, lust, desire for the money I can get for the sale of this bike.

That night I decide there has got to be a way to get a new birth certificate online and save myself the trouble of going downtown Buffalo and sure enough, there is a link right from the Buffalo Vital Statistics page to order new BCs at a cost of a fee of only $8.50. I'm pleasantly surprised at this as what I will save from not having to pay a parking fee and taking time off from work, this is a true bargain! So I proceed with the process then end up having to print up a form which I just need to fax to the proper office. The next morning I do just that once I get to work at Aspire. Then I figure it will take a week or more time to receive the goods. Surprise, Surprise, it's in the next day's mail! When I open it, what another surprise, it must be a copy of a microfiche or something as it appears to be a negative image meaning the paper is black and the writing is white! and it's tiny but sure enough, it's got the required raised seal so I guess it is official. This morning I take a good long look at it and find out it's really the very original with more information then what my regular BC has. I know now that I was born at 6:59PM which is something I never knew before. Turns out this is the form that the attending doctor signed, the same doctor who delivered my sister and most of my cousins. The only thing it doesn't tell me if how long I was when I was born.

Friday I get to go out to lunch with my buddy Jody. As some of you will remember, Jody was my "spiritual guide" during my divorce. The other day we realize how much we missed having some time to just spend together and really catch up on each other's life's twists and turns. Keeping true to form, we couldn't meet on Thursday as we had planned the week before but were able to meet on Friday. Jody had worked in the early morning at school doing some training of new drivers then came to my Apsire office but of course I was in a last minute department meeting which went a bit longer then I expected. Top that off with Jody having to get to the Vet's office to pick up Merle from his surgery by 1PM, well, our lunch was shorter and faster then what we had hoped but still very enjoyable. All I can say is that I hope we find time again soon to get together hopefully with Bev when she gets home from her winter in NC.

Friday afternoon was topped off by taking Mom to the doctor's office. I called her to remind her that she had an appointment which of course she had forgotten. It was a long wait at the doctor's office but it was good to see her leg had healed up very nicely and the swelling in her legs had gone down very nicely as well. While we were waiting in the office I received a phone call from a florist telling me they had just delivered flowers to my home and left them on the front porch. Flowers! Wow! I texted Nicki and sure enough she had sent them to me. I couldn't wait to get home to see them. I get Mom home and then get to my home and there are my beautiful flowers.

A couple of weeks ago, I found half of a $20 bill laying in the bus garage yard. I took that to the bank just the other day, hoping to get a new $20 but alas, you have to have both side with both numbers in order to get it replaced. I'm assuming the other half was blown away when the snow uncovered that half. I'm not sure it's worth hunting around the yard anymore. That same day I finally turned in a lottery ticket worth $2 that I had received as a Christmas present from a family of some kids that ride my school bus. Hey, $2 is more then I expect! While I was disappointed not to get the $20 from the bank, then next day I open my mail and there is a check for $20 from Mercy Hospital from something I had done in May of 2007 which would have been a co-pay. Must have been for some x-rays I had taken last spring. So that was like found money in it's own way.

The worst news/event of the week was that Russ has pretty much made up his mind that he is going to move to North Carolina. He recently sold his house and after some time in the hospital and having a stint put in one of his arteries for a blockage, his company came to him asking him if/when he was going to be ready to move. While he says he is still conflicted about the move, he is going down there next weekend to look for a place to live. They expect him to move there by the first of June. He needs to be out of his house just about the same time. So our time together is limited now. Not that our time hasn't been limited all along due to our/his circumstances, but now he will be 600 miles away, not 10 miles. Yeah, I fell apart for a while, but I'm dealing with it and I know I will be just fine. After all, I have in the past and I know I will be just fine in the future.

With all the ups and downs of this past week or two, the weather has finally turned around and spring is finally here. The flowers are blooming and the trees are starting to leaf out which means that the grass is starting to grow so I guess that means I need to get the lawn mower out. I'm started siphoning the water off the top of the pool, the peepers have been peeping for the last couple weeks and just a couple days ago I started hearing the boy toads making the love calls to the girl toads. I've been able to leave the bedroom window open over my bed during the night and Penny, my new Saint Bernard, is shedding as is Dickens the cat.

I'll try to be more in touch with my blog, but not making ANY promises!

Happy New Year and Happy Groundhog Day!

Guess I should start out by saying I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post anything. Things sure were crazy around the holidays and then just didn't seem to slow down afterwards.

Today I'm enjoying a nice lazy day. Oh sure, I've had a couple easy days recently, including MLK Day when both the school and Aspire were closed so I didn't have to work. This past Monday the school was closed for a staff development day so I just had to work at Aspire where I put in a little extra time. But today is really sort of special because it couldn't be planned for in advance.

The weather people were calling for wind gusts in excess of 60 miles per hour and they were right. About 4AM this morning the winds kicked into high gear and the temperature dropped quickly from in the low 50's down into the high teens in just a few hours. I haven't heard how much snow has fallen, but with the strong winds, none of it has hung around for long. It just sort of blows on through. All the schools are closed and when I called into Aspire, all the programs had closed, all the drivers had gone home and due to my empty schedule for the day, I decided I would just take the day off as well. I also called the doctor's office to cancel an appointment.

Now I'm a professional driver, I'm sure I could have gotten to work or the doctor's appointment, but there is also the problem that my car is sitting in the yard over at the bus garage. Last night I worked later then normal so I had permission to bring my bus home. My first route in the morning starts right down the street from my house so I do bring my bus home when I work late. That way I get to sleep in a little bit more. It's amazing what that extra half hour can do for a person's soul!

So here I sit in a cold house (I'm almost out of fire wood so I let the fire go out during out recent warm spell) and every time I walk past a window in the front of the house, I'm surprised to see that big yellow bus in my driveway. Of course my poor car is not use to sitting outside, but at least I had a remote starter put in it just a couple days ago, so at least I can get it started tomorrow when I pull into the bus yard so it's warmed up before I head on down the road back to Aspire.

I've also been very busy with some knitting projects. Between watching a DIY network program called Knitty Gritty and now listening to the many knitting podcasts I download, I've become inspired to try some new projects and I'm thinking about trying some new yarns including alpaca. I've even learned about a big yarn show that is held in October near my daughter's area so we are thinking about heading there later this year. I've even toyed with the idea of trying to dye some yarn myself. Meanwhile I'm content with using my cheapo yarn and putting it together in interesting patterns to make scarfs. I'm also contemplating making socks, which is something I swore I would NEVER do! I guess I finally feel like I'm up to the challenge. I'm also hoping my feet have forgotten the socks made me back when I was in elementary school!

So the New Year has brought new challenges to my life. I'm just as busy as always but even with the awful weather today, I'm amazed at how quickly this winter seems to be going by so I'm glad that I've been keeping busy to make it zoom by!

I'm also looking forward to meeting a couple Venturer members. This weekend a bike from GA that is presently garage in Delaware will be transported to my garage until it's new owner from North Bay, Ontario can get all the paperwork taken care off. It's been fun being part of this transportation relay and it will be fun having another Venture in the garage.

I'll try to keep more up to date with my Blog, but I ain't promising a thing!