Shoveling Snow

Hello,

Five more inches of snow meant more shoveling time. At least my guess is five inches. My internet is still slow so I am not looking up things that I do not need to know.

Leroy and I shoveled before breakfast with snow still seriously coming down. By the time he left for work the walk was again covered. Later I went out, cleared the front walks, rested, cleared the back and some in front of the garage, rested, and went back out to finish the job. Before I got done a neighbor with a snow blower came and cleaned off the bit of the alley that I had not gotten to with the shovel. The world has so many nice people in it. I thanked him for his help. There was a thin layer of ice under the snow that I did not remove, but my downstairs friend attacked with vigor so it looks much better in the back. I had been hoping for help from the sun, but it was not able to do much. Those low temperatures won that battle.

I am grateful for a choice in shovels so I can use the one I like best. I am also happy to shovel because I like the challenge as well as the feeling of accomplishment as the cleared walks appear. Can this count as exercise? I still like to do some stretching to move all things around a bit.

On my rest breaks I have been putting together a picture puzzle that I got for Christmas. It is called Great American Novels. Fifty book covers are the pictures. This 1,000 piece puzzle is easier than I expected because each cover is so different from the other. Leroy even helped me. He is not always so excited to do puzzles, but he also got one called Globetrotter World. It has a similar grid design so it will fit him nicely. My only complaint is that I was leaning over the puzzle too much and my shoulders hurt from bad posture.

Paula

Snow Day

Hello,

With school cancelled, tai chi was cancelled as well. It all looked good outside, but the prediction was for all that to change. Something started to come down almost right on schedule. Leroy walked gingerly to church.

About an hour later I walked carefully to the pharmacy to fill a prescription to keep some mites on my face under control. Yesterday I learned that we all have these mites all of the time, but mine are growing or populating faster than they should. My face has some red areas with some bumps. Do you ever wonder what all we might be carrying around with us?

This medicine is also used to combat scabies. I only need a little, but had to buy a large tube. I could share if I knew who to share with.

As the temperatures rose a little, the snowy stuff turned to mist and created more ice. It has now gone back to being snow. I texted my boss to find out about the roads. She told me to just stay home which I gratefully did.

Our internet has been funky since Sunday. We had turned it off several times with no improvement. That means the home phone did not work. I have my cell set to wi-fi and it did not work very well until I turned off the Wi-fi. It impresses me with how much I depend on or use this technology stuff. My downstairs friend suggested I turn off every device, unplug the modem, wait a while, and plug in the modem, when the power comes up try one device. It worked. I am grateful. I can look up any little thing that I want to know. What luxury!

Paula

Feeling Good

Hello,

Leroy spoke with a person from his pension fund and learned some things that will happen when he officially retires from the church. I was also on the phone so I was able to get a question answered as well. Things seem to be going into place, at least in our minds. Too bad they cannot answer a question about where we should live. Leroy will start to receive social security in February because he turns 70 in that month. This year, because he is retiring from church work, he will have to take a minimum distribution from his pension fund. I will still be working part time as will Leroy still be working at the museum. We are planning to work at least another year, but who knows? We do like working. Somehow we need to have work time and flexible time. Sometime a perfect plan might come to us.

Yesterday we went to a movie in the theater. Something we have not done in a long time. For our pre and post birthday part, even though we had said no gifts, we got a gift card for the theater. We both enjoyed our choice of The Upside. We had checked earlier about going, but could not agree on a film we might both like.

I have often found the volume of sound much too high in the theaters, so I took along ear plugs. As soon as the movie started the sound was quite loud so I popped in those ear plugs, however after a time I realized that I could not hear some of the quieter dialogue. I removed them and apparently I adjusted to the loud, because I did not notice it. There is more money on the gift card so we will go again when we find some agreement on a movie choice.

Paula

Storm Coming

Hello,

This morning I headed out for my weekly grocery shopping. Little did I know that many people would join me at this time. Usually there are only a few people at the store, which is why I like to go at that time. My first clue came as I drove into the parking lot to find my favorite spot filled, along with almost every other parking spot. I am not sure that I can explain it, but the store did not seem as crowded as I expected. Perhaps it will accommodate many more than I realized. Sometimes it was necessary to wait before I could reach my lettuce or mushrooms, otherwise I moved around in the usual way. Somehow the atmosphere was almost festive. Anyone I noticed was very polite and accommodating to others.

I have known that people go to the store to get supplies before a storm, but I had not really participated in such a phenomena. Last weekend it was so difficult to get around after the storm. That might have spurred people to believe the weather prediction. While standing in the checkout line, the woman behind me commented that she had come just because of the storm. She had the usual milk and eggs in her cart along with a number of other things. She also confided that she had come without a list so the number of items just kept growing as she went around the store.

When I was growing up on the farm we had many food items available.  I had no idea that people went to the grocery store before a storm.

Paula

Home Today

Hello,

I was happy to stay home even if the roads were good. I always like some time to myself to recharge. I have been reading, The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. It is about WWII females who live in New York, Poland, and Germany. The book blurb talks about them getting together, but it has not yet happened. As might be expected life is not an easy trip.

Today I learned that my action Team request was granted to gather donated non-food items for a meal site/homeless center. I will get some money that I can supplement things that were not donated. I will ask the church choir to join me in this endeavor. This insurance/financial company is nonprofit so they must give money away. I am happy that my community can benefit from that. Hopefully it will not require too much work.

I did hear a talk from the leader of the local shelter organization. They are trying to move from just giving people things to helping them be self sustaining. That, unfortunately, is a long arduous process. In the meantime people still need help.

Some of the item requests must be used by the organization itself as it is copy paper and file folders. Or would individuals need those things too?

I work tomorrow and I have seen a prediction in one place that it might snow starting tomorrow or Friday. I am voting for Friday since I do not work on Friday. I usually grocery shop on Friday, but I could put that off for another day. We have enough food in the house to last for a bit of time.

Brian had surgery on a torn ACL. The surgery was successful, but now he is to recover for some time.

Paula

Another Drive

Hello,

Yesterday the drive to work was just fine. All vehicles on my route had been removed from the ditch. Thank all those helpers: snow plow drivers, police, tow trucks, ambulances, hospitals, and sometimes the stranger. We are dependent on each other to live.

After I had been at work for two hours, a couple came in looking for some materials that they were going to take with them to MN. They had just heard on the news that an ice storm was coming in the evening and into the next day. I get off work at eight and the rain was to start at six. Not happy news, but then one of my coworkers looked at the weather and the prediction was that it was to start at midnight. Happy news!

At about 6:30 a patron commented, as she was leaving, that it had been a light mist when she came. Not happy news! I called Leroy to learn the precipitation conditions in Cedar Rapids. Leroy said, “There was a light mist when I came home. I will go out and see what is happening now.”

He reported that there was nothing coming down. Happy news!

At eight when I went out the sidewalk was not slippery, however the car windows were coated with a mist falling. I am grateful for the inventors of all the scrapers, brushes, etc. that can be use to clear the windows. With caution I went on the road driving under the posted speed limit. The windshield wipers need to work from time to time to allow an open field of vision. A car started following me, but did not pass. The two additional cars also stayed in formation. There were some places of passing possibility, but perhaps they were a bit cautious also, even though they had caught up. Again I was grateful to get home without incident.

Grateful for our downstairs friends who had the garage door fixed so I could pull right in. So much to be thankful for each day.

Paula

More of that exciting Saturday

Hello,

At work, I was pleased I remembered that the outdoor book drop was back before I took off my boots. Unfortunately the sidewalk by the library had not been shoveled, but I did not take the time to do it as I was not early.

It surprised me how many patrons came on this slippery, snowy day. Because of the new software many things take me a bit longer than usual. We also update patron information each year so I had to do that. It now involves more steps. I apologized to several because of the length of time it took me to get the job done. Also I found I was talking to myself to work my way through the steps. It seemed to me that everything was correct when I was done. With this new software there is no hiding who did it as we have to sign in with our name rather than a generic name.

An upset Leroy called at some point to tell me that he had lost one of the store credit cards. Almost an hour later he called to tell me that he had found it by going back to a previous store. He was almost euphoric with relief.

All day the snow visibly continued. However it was not so very heavy. People kept my alerts up because they kept talking about how slippery the road was. I wondered, “Should I see if one of my in town coworkers could come and I could leave early?”

One kind patron, who left about 45 minutes before closing, got a shovel and shoveled around my car so I could just drive right out.

On the way home I drove slowly again even though the plow had been there and I could see the road, but there were still patches of snow or slush. When I got to the interstate a police car was going up the ramp ahead of me when he put his flashing lights on. “What?” I wondered.

In a bit he pulled over and I sat a car way down in the ditch. Even though my trip on the interstate is short, perhaps two or three miles there were three cars in the ditch.

What a relief to get to the garage. I had called Leroy before I left work so he had shoveled in front of it, but I still did a bit of slipping on the incline before the tires got on the garage floor.

Paula