Scout GREW!!

Saw Scout yesterday.... a week has passed since we saw her last. Boy has she grown !! I swear she is twice the size she was.  Laurel is supposed to feed her four times a day so has been taking her into work with her playpen and bed.  BTW Scout loves car rides.... just curls up into a ball and sleeps the whole way!!

Everyone loves her ... comes to visit her... take her outside and so on.  A coworker's family member died recently and he has been coming and getting Scout and taking her to his office. Evidently  she's been helping him with his grief.  Nothing like a little warm wriggly puppy!! 

 

 

Scout asleep in the car on the way to work.....

a week of warmer

 We were so glad to say "goodby" to the really cold temps. One day it even got into the 60's... though it has settled into the 40's now.

All the snow has melted!!  Even the piles that Bob made when shoveling the driveway!!

So now it's just wait to hear about the vaccine ,,, and to watch a worker put siding on the house behind us. He is working all by himself and the house looks good.  Goodbye board and batten and hello vertical clapboard looking vinyl (?) siding.

Our teacher/daughter is back in her school building several days a week. Since she is a pullout teacher ( gifted program)  she doesn't have students physically but still virtual. Confusing... as the area covid rating goes to green... then she will start having students bused to her classroom from various elementary schools.

Daughter #2 stopped by on her way home the other day with her sister and her new rescue puppy. Now named Scout to go with dog #1 Harper Lee !! 

Scout is tiny  .... about 10 weeks old from a large hoarder rescue....

This is several days later. Scout now has a "playpen" and a bed. She needs a place to get away from Harper Lee who is ALOT bigger. They get very rambunctious at times but they seem to be getting on well!  Harper Lee needed a companion... though I would have waited until Spring !  Puppy pads are helping with housebreaking Scout!!  My daughter was told that Scout was part lab... maybe... but I don't think she will grow to the 50 lbs the rescue people said.  She has a small frame and small feet!! But is super cute and always hungry!!

getting warmer

 Every day the high temp is a little bit higher. Our snow total was about 5 inches of fluffy stuff and with the warmer temps we are getting some no snow anymore spots. We are above freezing !

We have been feeding the birds several times a day and they come and eat eat eat..... sparrows,  juncoes, titmouses, blue jays, woodpeckers and cardinals!! Tigger sits on the kitchen table by the window and watches!!

I went into the doctor's office to talk with my nurse practitioner ...  he took the opportunity to do an annual wellness checkup. I wanted to find out about the covid vaccine and my being allergic to the flu one and some other things. My daughter's reaction to the vaccine made me even more nervous.

He didn't think I would have a problem but said he would look into it and call me... which he did. We decided that I would carry my own epi pen... just in case. So after being "tutored" by my teacher/daughter ( the teachers are instructed every year in case they have to use one) I picked up mine at the pharmacy. Remember a few years ago when the new owner of the epi pen company raised the prices and people were really really upset??? I was expecting it to cost an arm and a leg... nope $47.00 copay.

Yes... I know the vaccine sites have their own epi pens.... they have you wait 15 minutes to see if you have a reaction. But what if the reaction is later?

Now Bob and I wait... we still are very careful.

snow shoveling and Minus 7 degrees

 

Here he is... braving the minus 7 degrees ... shoveling snow. Actually minus 7 is warmer than yesterday! At 7 am we lost our electricity due to the rolling outages the energy company is having  to cope with the extra usage. The company says the outage would only last 30 to 60 minutes. And true to its word , after 45 minutes the electricity came back one. I assume another area would have its turn. 

My daughter, teaching virtually, will have students in and out due to  her students not having electricity.

My grandson, in a different school distract than his mother, has no school today. The school district is having a traditional "snow day" ... no school for anyone not even virtually.

The daily high temps are supposed to rise each day... reaching 30 or so by Saturday. That will feel balmy after the lows we have been having!!

BTW... we have been following the energy company's guidelines... lowering the thermostat... only used lights on... curtains closed... no washer, dryer or dishwashers on till late at night .. and so on.

 Happy Valentine's Day to all!!

By the way it has been snowing here ever since I went out to get the newspaper at the end of our driveway!! It is about 0 degrees F.... not much accumulation since the flakes are super tiny!!

zero

 This morning the thermometer read zero..  yes, 0 degrees F. Tomorrow it is supposed to be lower.  Monday even lower and the rest of the week? Who knows.

Luckily I only had one errand... a trip to Costco on my hearing aid's behalf .... when that was done home I went. 

Our car can be turned on and gotten warm. The doors are locked. The engine is on for 10 minutes and then off one can go. Nice and warm. In this weather that is really "the bomb". 

I left home about 10am... lots of traffic.  Lots of cars at Costco.  Lots of people with full to overflowing carts at Costco. I was glad we didn't need anything and wouldn't have to be one of those in those long check out lines!!   Hearing aid issue was solved and home I went. Pot of coffee awaited me!

HOME SWEET HOME!!

worsening temps

 Someone local posted the next four days of temps on Facebook... came from one of the TV stations weatherpersons. By Monday the morning temperatures will have gotten steadily worse so that it will be 

-18F . Yuck... super yuck.

We have been running two small humidifiers upstairs during the day and a large pot of water on the stove downstairs which has to be refilled several times a day.

That means we are warmer and the house is less dry... definitely an improvement.

The Kansas City Star ( newspaper) printed recipes today. One was for a maple walnut pie. I had all the ingredients except for the walnuts but I did have pecans. So another house warmer was baking the pie! It was good... different from the traditional pecan pie and nowhere near as sweet ... a good thing. The only sweetner was maple syrup ( the real stuff).

The birds are glad we are keeping up with the bird food... they come and go all day. We get titmouses to blue jays.... and squirrels.  The cats watch from the kitchen window.

More snow is predicted. BTW our small city doesn't plow residential streets until 2 inches of snow has fallen...

robins

 some people write on their blogs as if robins leave for the winter... they watch for them in the spring. Our robins never seem to leave... I saw a flock of them walking through the snow all plumped up to keep warm today.... and it was only 11F out...

cold and snowing

 When I got up this morning ( Sunday) it was 7F outside... cold cold cold !! I didn't even want to go out and fetch the paper from the end of our driveway. So I made a pot of coffee and started reading from my Kindle!!

 1.30 pm ... it's a little warmer ( 10 F) and it has started snowing. Little tiny flakes. Bob made sure that the feeders had seed and we put out a pie pan of seed on the deck railing. We've had woodpeckers, tufted titmice, juncos , sparrows... and a Blue Jay...

Monday... Bob had to leave the house by 7.30 !! Jack the cat is due for a tooth cleaning and the vet wants to start early. Jack will be kept almost all day since tooth cleaning means anesthesia and the vet wants to make sure he is ok.  ( had to have some teeth pulled and we will have to administer painkillers.)

This morning is cold too... 7 F plus wind so it feels a lot colder.  The roads are slick and slippery so Bob's trip to the vet's office was a slow one.

Due to the cold schools that are open for classes have shifted to virtual learning ( no snow days any longer) ..... 

Kansas City has set up a huge place for the homeless to get out of the cold... the regular shelters were full

waiting for snow

 I made an early run to the Post Office this morning to mail my bears from the Winter Stars online show. One is going to Australia so instead of putting the boxes into my mailbox I had to have that one accepted at the PO... the rest went into the PO's drum package thingy !

The PO had a long line ... very unusual... all of us masked and standing 6 feet apart.

When I returned home my daughter texted me that the grocery stores were mobbed...

What's up I thought. The PO first and then the grocery stores ? Turns out snow is supposed to start around noon and everyone is "preparing"!

It's past noon and so far ... nothing.  Tempting fate we have ordered a curbside dinner pickup for 5 pm. There's time enough for the 2 to 4 inches the weather people predict... we'll see if we are sorry...LOL. So far... nothing but gray sky..

Well... it did snow. When we headed out for our curbside pickup there was about 1.5 inches of snow ... fluffy easy to move. But it was slick and Bob drove slowly. A car spun out doing a 360 degree spin right behind us. No damage but the driver just stayed put for awhile. I would have too!  Then  we passed another car that had done the same thing ( on the right said of the road)... you could see from the tracks. He was also sitting put !

On our way home we could see lots of flashing lights and backup traffic going the direction we had just gone. We just missed it all!!

Our pickup dinner was worth all the "going slow" ... being careful etc.!

Keeping busy

 Today was a baking day... just to keep myself busy I guess.  First I made a soda bread from a recipe my husband found.. No raisins in this one - cheddar cheese and green onions. It was a very sticky dough ( too sticky to get a nice smooth top ) and baked in our Dutch oven. But the end result had great texture and flavor!!  As you can see , we both tried it for lunch. YUM!

Next was one of Joann's blueberry crostatas !!   That one is waiting for dessert this evening!

In the midst of baking , it started to snow. Lots of tiny flakes. The end result looked like everything had been covered with a solid coating of confectionery sugar.  Now it's ALL gone.

We are due for two more snow events by Monday...we'll see!

Tax refunds... what to do?

 Our grand daughter called yesterday to ask her Grandpa what she should do with her first ever tax refund?

This "child" is sharing a house with friends and working two jobs... and taking a gap year before starting college next fall.

She lucky, in a way, because she likes her jobs and is making enough to cover her expenses. One is as a server for Applebee's. The other is as a preschool reading tutor ( currently online but that may change shortly) for Americorps. I wasn't sure she'd like the latter but loves her kids and is enjoying finding ways to encourage them especially the ones that have already mastered the required material. It helps that her Mother is a teacher in the elementary level gifted program and knows how to find useful material!!

BTW... Grandpa told her to put her refund in a savings account ( not that there will be any worthwhile interest) but she needs to put away money for emergencies !! And there are always emergencies and the need to get at the money easily. Wonder whether she will take his advice?

The big snow storm has completely missed us. We have had nothing but gray skies since the big rain day!!

I'm not complaining.... snowfalls measuring in feet not inches is not on my bucket list!!

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day.... what will be Punxsutawney  (sp?) Phil's prediction be??