Miscellaneous

Good morning.  So, I made it in to town and the office for about, what, four whole hours yesterday?  And, it took the stuffin' out of me.  I really felt yucky when I got home last night.  But, having a long-standing appointment with a client this morning, I made myself a good dinner right away and then settled down with a cup of tea and my crocheting (in bed), and prepared for a good night's sleep.

And couldn't fall asleep.  Not for love nor money.  I curled up on my right side.  I flopped onto my stomach.  I lay stretched out on my left side.  I turned onto my back.  I got up and peed.  I came back to bed and sang '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall'.  Then I braided my hair.  F-I-N-A-L-L-Y . . . as I was juuuuuust falling asleep . . . BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  BEEP!  (The sound made when a large piece of machinery is put into reverse.)  It was the Piston-Bully snowmobile groomer right down below in the valley.  Stuck.

Lights flashing, forward and back (beep!  beep!  beep!) over and over.  Finally, all lights are extinguished, one by one.  Silence.  And the dull spread of a flashlight's beam.  Shee-it.  I am SO tired and am ALMOST asleep now, but I have to go help him!  I'm the only one!

I linger.  Have made all the mental preparations for heading down to help . . . just haven't gotten out of bed yet.

Then, ggggggrrrrooowwwl!  The engine fires up again.  Blinding lights come on, one by one.  (Seriously, the lights they use are like the lights from a Texas high school football field.)  The orange rotating safety light starts whirring.  The engine engages, and . . . he's off!  So, what was the problem, engine malfunction?  Did a track slip?  Or . . . was it . . . (dum, dum, dummmmmm) . . . my fault?

Another story waiting to be told is that of my winter driveway having been OPENED!  Matter of fact, it is SO open that if you drive on either side instead of directly down the center, you'll get sucked into the ditches!  But, the 'dozer that opened the road also left huge 3 and 4 foot boulders of snow at either side . . . boulders which, if they're anything like their siblings left at the sides of my (personal) driveway, have frozen into S-O-L-I-D, massive hunks of white concrete.

Now, additional back story:  the local band of Chippewa (Ojibwe, Anishinabe) sponsors an Easter Seals snowmobile fundraiser at the beginning of each February.  Part of the route includes my winter driveway.  The race is scheduled for tomorrow.  I always try to plan around this event to make sure I'm not coming or going when there's going to be extra sled traffic.  And, when I'd been planning to have the road widened, I had consciously decided to have it done AFTER this race, baring new snowfall:  knowing it might screw up their parallel-to-my-road trail.

HOWEVER, a snow angel came to me last . . . Sunday, was it? . . . and I had the option to have things opened up.  Then.  As he was leaving my part of the county that night.  So, I took the chance and ran with it, so to speak.

To make a short story long (!), though, I'm worried that having the road widened and the resulting mountains of frozen boulders are what caused the groomer's problems last night.  I'm both anxious and apprehensive to see what I find this morning when I drive past the place he was stuck / stopped.  In a way, I wish I HAD gotten out there last night to offer my help, if for no other selfish reason than to tell him that I'd WANTED to wait until after the race to do the widening but had no choice.  I'm worried that my name is mud.  On the other hand, he should have seen where the same road-widening contractor opened up an old logging road into the woods and went to work:  hopefully he'll add those two and two instead of my need for a wider winter driveway.

In other news, I did my monthly inventory check at the floral shop yesterday and put in the sets of five new Valentine's Day cards (and sold one before they were even in their slots!).  Haven't had time to redo that one that I printed incorrectly yet (horizontally instead of vertically).  Anyway, here's the last image (and the one that sold immediately) that I haven't yet shown you.  Depending on what OS (operating system) you're running, you can actually see the fun fonts that I chose.  I think.  Maybe.  Kinda.

I wanna nuzzle your muzzle.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

And, finally, no snow lately, which has been just fine, but the weather feels like it's prepping for something big.  It's warmed up, and it's very grey out with some wind.  Has the feel of a clipper comin'.  But, whaddo I know?  Time will tell.

Have a great . . . what is today?  I'm SO off my schedule from staying home on Wednesday and only having a partial day yesterday!  Right, Friday!  Heck, having the radio on this AM, I just learned that this Sunday is the Super Bowl.  I LOVE not having a TV!!!  Now, that's . . . football, right?  ;)