I guess it is the ‘winter of not a darned thing happening’ these days. We had a two day cold spell last week that kept me inside but there have definitely been a lot more inside days in my world lately. If there is no reason to go out, I don’t. We did have a warm up with a few days in the mid-upper 30s this week, but we are headed for another three days of temps near zero but with chill factors way below that.
I have gotten out of the house a few times but mostly for errands. I did go over to visit Mavis and we had some lunch at Qdoba ( a first for me but not bad for fast food). We had intended to go to this little neighborhood Mexican place that always had such good food but when I drove by there, a big sign on the door said it was under new ownership and under construction. We still had a nice visit and it was good to see her. She has been recovering from a knee injury that she got while walking her grand-dog (he cut in front of her and she went down).
I’ve been spending a lot of time making cards and gift bags. Now, what am I going to do with all of those? I also started to crochet a baby blanket for my niece, Ali, who is expecting her third child in March.
It fills my days and I have learned some new techniques for cutting and stamping and inking that keep my brain engaged and learning new things. On these cold, cold days Joey and I haven’t been getting very good walks in, so I have taken to bringing the ball along and throwing it down the hallway so he gets some running in. He will go after it but won’t bring it back to me and usually ends up at the door across the hall from us where Gizmo the cat used to live. He has gotten really good at retrieving the ball and returning it when we play in the apartment, but that usually involves a few treats. We’ve also been working on getting him to do the ‘go in a circle’ and he is catching on little by little. Once he gets it, he’s got it but he is stubborn and likes to do things his way.
I cleaned for Cassie and Tommy last week and was asked if I would be interested in letting their puppy, Goose, out every now and then if Tommy was out of town. I went there this week and took Joey along. After Goose got over the excitement of being out of the crate, had a drink of water, and pottied in the back yard, I took them for a walk. Joey was a bully to him and ensured that Goose knew of his dominance, but after that the walk went well. Goose is a Bernadoodle, a cross between poodle and Bernese Mountain dog and is cute as can be with one blue and one brown eye and two little white spots on his nose.
I’ve come down with another crappy cold over the last few days, feeling crummy on Wednesday but better on Thursday (good thing because it was cleaning at the Bridge’s house day) and then really crappy yesterday. I stayed at Ben’s after cleaning, so I could take Norah and Camille to swim practice, as Jill is out of town and Ben was still working. It was a really long day, but I made it. When I got home and was taking things out of the car, I realized that one of the girls left their swim bag in the car and I would have to get that back to them as they had a meet on Friday. Ben met me at Staring Lake and we made the switch.
I was rudely awakened at 4:20 this morning when the fire alarms went off in every apartment. That is the big deal alarm that means ‘get out’, although that is real confusing as we have had alarm issues ever since lightening struck the building two years ago. Nobody knows what they are supposed to do and folks on my floor were all confused. I keep a bag of stuff packed for those situations (change of clothes, prescriptions, dog food), grabbed it and got some clothes on and got outdoors, thinking I could sit in my car with the heat on but realized I had grabbed only the apartment keys and not the car keys. I also realized that I need to get some different items in that bag so it is more useful if the time should come to ‘get out’ again. A project for later today.
