After The Blizzard

This is what I wrote over the last several days, as we struggled through the aftermath of our blizzard. I feel so badly for the folks northeast of us in MO that are getting completely hammered by the snow and ice. I went through forty years of that growing up and living in Michigan, and this is the first real Michigan-style bit of winter I've had to deal with since the move down here, and it does little but make me remember why I hate winter so much. Enjoy our little bit of fun the last several days, boring as it is! Oh yeah, and I got me a new mouse today ... my old USB mouse was starting to get old and not left-click properly all the time anymore, so I splurged and got me an optical mouse. I am learning to already like this wireless option on it, haha!

December 9 - Monday
Sort of after, anyhow. It's Day 5, I think. I'm losing track of the days. The house remains comfy, thank goodness for a few inches yet of snow on the roof, though it's starting to thaw, to help hold heat in, along with all the winterizing that was done. Makes it rather cozy. Now if Quentin had just worked all year, so we'd have a propane heater or the woodstove in, we wouldn't have a $165 electric bill due to having to run electric heaters, and things would be a lot peachier.

The county was extremely nice to everybody in this horrible weather. While the mountain road is still not driveable unless you have 4WD or AWD, it's a lot more walkable up and down, without having to slog through and over snow and a lot of ice. They came through over the last couple of days and have pretty well plowed all the roads, even the dirt county roads like ours, which they normally don't do. This makes it much easier to get in and out, though the walking uphill is still not fun. Takes about 45 minutes to walk down from here alone, due to trying to avoid walking on what slippy spots there are, and uphill is about double that, for the same reason. There's a lot of bare spots, but not enough is bare to drive up and down safely for several days yet in the van, and it will be a few days after that before it's clear and dry enough to get the car up and down safely. Too many inclines and curves to risk hitting a tree or getting stuck in the snowbanks!

On the bright side, once the main roads are a bit more cleared, I can get to work, likely Wednesday. This is fine - I have plenty of points to burn for this kind of emergency, which I don't like to use, but as my friend Christine, who I work with, said when we talked last night for a few minutes, it won't take long to work them off (28 days and you work one off, so the ones I do have will be gone sometime in early February), because I'm there pretty much all the time. We did get the car unburied and turned around after quite a while of towing with the van and digging it out, but far too late for me to even try to get to work today. Ugh. Hate that. We went back to full production, but the main roads in spots are still not that great, and with me driving a compact car, I'm a bit leery of risking it.

We're lucky the van still runs, though, after the silliness Quentin did yesterday afternoon while we were at the laundromat. He wanted to add more wiper fluid to the van's reservoir and wasn't paying attention, and ended up putting a whole jug into the RADIATOR reservoir. I'm glad we were only a couple of miles from an O'Reilly's at that point, so we could grab a cheap siphon pump and a gallon of antifreeze, and he could stand there in their parking lot to drain out the wiper fluid and top off with real antifreeze.

I got paperwork today on the darned garnishment again. The last six months on it got done a few weeks ago, and here they are, going after more. They really want that money that I don't owe them. And they are not doing their numbers correctly. The amount they say has been paid as of the date on this one is $599.00 short of what HAS been paid, so I'm demanding some things from the court in response. One is that the amount paid be corrected. Another is that the 17% I'm supposed to have paid by pre-existing court order be honored, which means they owe me about $2000.

I'm putting the court, the stupid hospital and their attorneys on notice in this letter that if the excess over the 17%, plus whatever they collect in the meantime till this is fixed, is not sent back to me forthwith, they bleeding well better be prepared on the part of the hospital and their attorneys for a nasty lawsuit from me for ALL the monies to be returned, plus court costs, attorneys fees and damages. Yeah, I'm that mean. I don't mind paying my fair share (about $1200 all told on the 17%), but I'm not paying the biological father's share as well, when the court order specifies otherwise.

The hospital and their attorneys have several copies of the court order from years ago when this all first started (like FIFTEEN YEARS), they just choose to ignore it. I'm not taking this lying down. It's high time they got smacked in the face with their garbage, and I'm just the one to do it. We shall see what happens with this, as I'm sending not only my letter, but copies of my spreadsheet showing all the payments, my last paycheck stub with a garnishment on it, the court order, and anything else to support my case in a big packet to the court. Heh heh heh. They ain't gonna like me much, ya think?

Ah, must be mutual washup time. The boys are curled up at the foot of the bed, taking turns washing each other. Smudge loves it when Bouncer grooms him. He just lays there with his eyes shut and a happy look on his face and lets Bouncer wash. Then they swap, and Bouncer's the happy kitty while Smudge washes him. One way for them to get their faces and ears clean, I guess. Oh yeah - the camera batteries are in the charger, which I finally found knocked on the floor, so I can take some photos tomorrow on my last day I'm making myself take off so some of this can clear up a bit more and I'll feel safer driving to work. Forty years of this crap in Michigan, and I know what I am safe driving on, unlike some of the yahoos I work with!

So for me, it's curl up with that box of granny squares and sew a few more together. I want an afghan for the couch darn it, and somehow they all end up on the bed!

******
December 10 - Tuesday

Gosh, the house is so nice today. Still can't get the car out quite yet, over the ice piles at the bottom of the road, which means another point, but I'd rather take the points and lose the pay than risk my life or the car, as I'm sure most of y'all would do for yourselves. On the other hand .... having one more day off has meant:

The end of the driveway got shoveled out.
Snow is being melted (finally) to fill water jugs - something Quentin has said for three days that he'd do and hasn't, nor has he let me get busy on it. (Why is it that I get so much more done when he's not around? Is this a universal thing with husbands, or what?). So far, I'm filling jug three of ten empties, because it takes a while to melt an eight-quart stockpot full of snow so I can pour it into the empty jugs. But if I pack it in good, a potfull will melt to a half gallon of water.
The granny afghan has almost two full rows done at eight squares a row.
Photos got taken, including of the latest pair of socks!
A couple of books have gotten read, which is good when you have about a zillion of them in your "to read" pile.

So while we've had some really crappy weather that's made for some days of no work or having to call in and take points, there are things getting done anyhow. I like getting things done!

*****
Wednesday, December 11
I did manage to get to work today, though it took a bit of help from Eric (who was getting to his car about the same time as I was to mine) to push it off the ice it decided to sit on and just spin the tires. Bummer, that. But a good shove and my little car went vroom-vroom on the road and off I went to a very cold day at work. The blast door still isn't fixed, so debone (my overall department) is freaking cold! NOT a lot of fun, but it was nice to be back and find out how much I was missed. People were gone a lot the last couple of days, and there's still a lot of folks in the more outlying districts who can't get in. It's quite possible we'll have to work Saturday, which is fine with me. More money for me, yay!

I've put aside the afghan for the moment, in favor of something to keep my hands a bit toastier on the way up and down the mountain road for the next week or so. I'm not working with a pattern, because I keep forgetting to get one when I'm at McQuack's, so I'm just kind of knocking the pair out as I go, trying to make them fit a bit loosely so they go over the lighter gloves I already wear. Warm, warm, warm, that's my motto in this frigid weather, which isn't likely to get better any time soon. Hey, it's that close to winter solstice, and Yuletide is the official start of winter. One of my favorite times of the year.

I know, I know. How the heck can I so enjoy the cold weather like this? Well, there's lots of time to be indoors doing fun things with fiber, or reading, or playing computer games, or loving on the kitties. Plus it's the time of year when I do a lot of baking, and enjoy tons of get-togethers with friends and family. So my family has to be called and thus the get-togethers are on the phone, but still ... it's the tradition, darn it! Not to mention that, given half a chance, I will decorate the heck out of the house. No lights though. I go a little manic on the decorations, and if I added lights, I'd have airplanes trying to land in my driveway, lol.

Right now, it's time to dump the latest potfull of melted snow into a jug to cool off before it's capped and stuck into the metal cabinet we use for holding the full jugs. Plus I want to work on those mittens some more - the first one's nearly done, and it would be nice to whip the pair out tonight before bed if I can.

*****
Thursday, December 12

Not a blasted thing got done tonight after supper. Not that I didn't want to, or felt I needed a night off, but oh my god, the freaking migraine that started setting in. I barely made it through work, it hurt so much, then getting home was a right treat. Made it halfway and had to stop at the gas station in Alpena to rest for a few as I could hardly keep my eyes open, they hurt so bad. Hate times like this, it really is NOT a lot of fun. So sum total of today was work, get home, eat supper, and collapse under a warm blanket on the couch to listen to the TV. And I do mean listen ... I burrowed under that blanket all the way to over my head. The TV just provided background racket on the quiet side to rest to till I was tired enough to go to bed and sleep.

Note - if you have a migraine caused, as this was, by muscles in your neck getting overtight and pulling your vertebrae out of whack, don't use muscle rub to loosen things up. Not sure which hurts worse, the neck, the migraine, or my skin from the icy-hot sensation of that muscle rub!

*****
Friday, December 13
Staying home today because the migraine afteraffects are a bummer. Got up to double vision and lightheadedness, which makes for nothing major if it hits at work, considering my job isn't that complicated, but for driving? No thanks. I'll take yet another point and call it even, especially since we're scheduled to work tomorrow anyhow, to help make up for the snow days. Production is way behind, so there's a few weekends of work ahead to play catchup.

Right now, it's mid-afternoon, and I'm finally up and dressed and have had some lunch that is actually staying down without a fuss. Note to self - migraines don't let food sit well, remember the peppermint tea next time to go with. Quentin's off to work, hope he gets there safely. The mountain road is getting much better, but we still can't drive up it without a lot of hassle and worry about icy spots, because it's so shaded by trees. And today makes it worse, because it's warmish out, around 40F, and it's raining. Guess it helps some with melting off some of the blasted ice off the road so it will go in the ditches and get out of everyone's way on the mountain, but goodness gracious, it's a mess out there. Rather a bit slippy in spots, Quentin texted me when he got to the truck.

Guess it's a good thing I didn't feel up to work, I would have worried the whole time that the roads were going to get too crappy for my little car. I really, really want a 4x4 to drive right now ... my next vehicle is going to be an SUV of some kind. Victor the Aveo will stay with me, as a backup car, and maybe someday get fixed up enough to go into local car shows for the larks of it. Goodness knows they put enough oddball stuff into some of them. (Saw one last summer where someone took a VW Beetle and painted it Razorback red and put feet and a head on it to make it a Razorback!)

And yes, I know, I'm a bit potty at the moment ... been reading a bit too much Terry Pratchett's Discworld, methinks. Though if I had a choice of fantasy worlds to go live in, I think I'd pick Pern. Speaking of reading, I'm also busy working my way through a PDF copy of Carla Emery's "Encyclopedia of Country Living." It's so enjoyable. So much there, and I'm only to Chapter 3, on Grasses, Grains and Canes Contents. I'm so inspired in homesteading by her and so many other people who've been doing it for practically forever, and it fuels my dreams.

Mind, I'm not averse to slimming back the dreams if need be. I'm willing to give up the livestock (except perhaps the chickens and rabbits) if need be. I'm not willing to give up the garden, the fruit orchard, the berry plantings, the flowers and herbs. I love living things, and growing things, and making things. I grew up in a little house sitting on a three-quarter acre lot on a dirt road in very suburbia "country" in Mid-Michigan. Okay, it wasn't a homestead per se, but I was so thrilled to grow up there. It had established Concord grapes (oh the jelly from them!), apples, tart cherries, bartlett pears, and plums. We got so much out of those trees, and the back yard was open enough that I had a rather large garden out there. Lots of fun then, and there's got to be a point one of these days when I can make a lot of that kind of thing happen again. (I miss that yard ... but the house was oldish, and didn't heat well at ALL in the winter, worse than this trailer, and the winters in Michigan are freaking LONG.)

Anyhow, it's time to make some supper, and then melt some more snow before it ends up all getting rained away, because it's not likely we're going to be able to get the van and car all the way up the road for a few days yet. Though I'm glad the temperatures are a bit warmer right now, as it's helping to melt the ice off the road. It's even supposed to get up near 50F this upcoming week, for which I am grateful. While the snow is melting for the water jug refills, I'm going to eat and work some more on that afghan. The freaking migraine kept me out of it for most of the day, so I've only added another three squares. Bummer.

*****


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And now it's time, while I have it this week, for a few Kindle freebies!!! And yep, incentivised again - just wait a few seconds and skip the ad, thanks! For those wondering how much, if anything, I get for the adf.ly links: about $0.0004 per click. However, that's only if the clicker has Java, Flash and cookies enabled, is not using a proxy server and waits for the five seconds for the ad. Also, they can't do more than five per day ... but still, every bit helps. Not sure how many I'll get done - the internet at McQuack's is being flaky as usual, and when I got here today, I had to go to Wendy's to get lunch and come back, because half of Harrison was without power - including the only one of the two McQuck's that has internet! I need to note - not all of the links are adf.ly links ... with limited time, I paste the Amazon links first, then edit them to make the hoplinks to be adf.ly shortened. Today, just not enough time to do it all. SOON!!!! I will have internet and then there will be daily postings!

FREE KINDLE BOOKS FOR THE WEEK

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Baking Texas Pies-Sweet & Savory (Delicious Recipes)
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The Cookie Factory - ALL-TIME FAVORITE COOKIES AND COOKIE BARS ( Easy and Delicious Cookie Recipes & Cookie Bar Recipes)
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Pamela Landsbury's Creative Christmas Cupcakes: The Top 32 Modern Family Favorites [2013]
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An Easy Guide to Cornbread : Delicious Recipes, Advice, and More!
Vegetarian Cookbook
Freshwater Fish Recipes Made Simple - 99 Classic Recipes for the Homecook
Lively Gluten Free Recipe Book (Living and Eating Well With a Gluten Free Diet)
Gluten Free Diet:Helpful Beginners Guide For G Free Lifestyle

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Organic Gardening - Beginner's Guide Learn the Healthy Way to Plant
The How to Book on Building a Raised Garden Bed: Growing Luscious Vegetables, Fruits & Vibrant Flowers / The Thriving Soil System (The Jonah Green Gardening Series)
Candle Making Guide: The Complete Guide To Homemade Candle
Preserving Food at Home: A Step-by-Step Guide to Canning, Freezing, Drying, Brining, and Root Cellaring
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How to Grow Beans and Peas: Planting and Growing Organic Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, and Heirloom Dry Beans and Peas
How to Vertical Garden: What You Need to Know About Vertical Gardening & Creating a Beautiful Living Wall (The Jonah Green Gardening Series)
Container Gardening Designs & Woodworking Plans - Volume 2 Ideas for Organic Gardening & Urban Gardening
More Practical Solutions to Everday Household Problems (Practical Solutions to Everyday Problems)
Gardening Challenges & Solutions (Gardening Briefs for Beginners)
How To Stain Concrete Floors
Natural Colors to Dye For - How to use natural dyes from plants and fungi
Gardening for the Girls
Canning Vegetables, How To Can Vegetables,Step By Step Guide (Canning and Preserving Guides)
Blueberries in Your Backyard: How to Grow America's Hottest Antioxidant Fruit for Food, Health, and Extra Money (Booklet)
how to grow a miniature garden
Leg Warmers Knitting Pattern
HOMESTEADING: A 21st Century Beginning of Self Reliance
Perfume Making On The Cheap: Make Designer Knock-Offs At Home!
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