Uh-oh.

What a surprise... huge, HUGE snowstorm on it's way. Going deep into the almost real, Great-White-North at this time of the year was clearly not the smartest thing to do.

Well, that's not really true... the blond thing has turned into such a sweetie... I finished three books out of the seven I brought with.. and I've got a fireplace to read next to!

My sweet Jaxie and my soon to be very warm tootsies!

I've bought wood for the fireplace, I've gone to town to make sure I had some things I needed for a emergency (read that... chocolate in the form of cocoa, and M&Ms, shower gel (forgot mine) bread, Doritos and extra tuna. Well, not to have together!!)

I am also happy that all I have to navigate through is one set of door frames. (Yay!) The bad thing? The first morning the Happy Dog had to go out. For a change, I'm not ricocheting off the doorway. Admittedly, it is more pleasant than whacking into doorways... unfortunately... I forgot that the food and water dishes are near the door that the Happy Dog goes outside from.

Jax and his dastardly dishes

Me? I'd much rather have bruises instead of stepping in a water dish, then knocking the food all over the hardwood floor. Oh... and down the stairs... and into the kitchen... and then I stepped on them... and... well, guess where they are now?

Yup, they're safely out of my way now. Jax isn't sure if he likes the new positioning but he's had to get used to it. At least with the ball flinger thing... I'm not getting anymore of those "roll your eyes because you're completely hopeless" looks from him!

Saying good-bye to Baby

Baby

It's time to say goodbye to Baby... it's not easy. When I agreed to care for her for a couple of months, I knew it wouldn't be sweetness and light to return her to her little girl and her little girl's parents.

But with much sadness, I have to honor the bargain... a deal is a deal after all. Tomorrow she leaves me. I am so glad I will be with the Happy Dog. He will help me through this... I am already anticipating his velvet soft ears... knowing that he'll keep me in a good mood. He'll be wiggly and excited, he'll do that dopey full body wag as only sweet Happy Dogs can do.

I will cry. I will miss asking her for kisses... when she'd run up me to bump my chin, then present the top of her head and wait for me to kiss her between her ears.

I'll miss waking up with her sitting on my chest, me struggling to breathe and her annoyed because she was hungry. I learned quickly to make sure there was food in her dish before I went to bed. (Hey... she was acting like a Happy Dog! Go figure!)

I'll miss her going berserk with the laser light. (Payback for the chest sitting thing) I'll miss her contented sighs and purring when she discovered the electric blanket was her own personal nirvana.

I'll miss hundreds of little moments I've shared with her... laughing at her antics, getting mad at her 'cat moments' (Like flipping a turd out of the litter box to let me know she felt it was time to clean the box.)

I think my favorites had to be her trying to slap the snow flakes the first time we got big, fluffy flakes. Standing on the shelf, paws on the glass... looking almost like a little man. Her trying to figure out why she couldn't get them. I like to pretend that in her mind she was saying, "Cripes! These things are worse than that damn red dot!"

Looking at her now... on the pillow on the shelf... sleeping in the bright sunshine...

I will miss her, I wonder how it will be for her... will she miss me? Probably not, she'll be too busy getting back into the rhythm of living with her family once again.

I will survive. But it will be an adjustment that's for sure... thank God for two weeks with the Happy Dog... he'll help me feel better, as only animals can do.

Sweet Dreams Baby

Heading to the almost real "Great-White-North!"

An hour into the snowstorm

The snow fall totaled just shy of 8 inches, it was that thick, heavy wet snow that is back-breaking to shovel. Typical weather here though. Lots of snow-persons invading the neighborhood. It was great, snow-persons making snow. That and they cancelled school.

What a crock. We walked to school in more snow than that! And no... we didn't like it, we weren't happy to have it, and it wasn't uphill both ways.... ;) but still... the roads weren't that bad!

But there are now more stringent 'snow days policy' that came about as a result of, (No one will guess this one...) someone suing the school and the bus company etc. because of snow. Yeah, tell me about it.

It all started when a rural route bus got stuck in drifts that the wind had formed from a snowstorm two days earlier. The bus called for a tow and a transfer bus. The kids had to spend 20 minutes on a fully heated school bus. (When the transfer bus got there that weren't even wearing their coats the bus was so warm!) At any rate, they got on the new bus, they got home, end of story.

Not quite.

Some parent, smelling easy cash, called a lawyer because of the "trauma" her child suffered being "trapped and terrified" during the "ordeal". One led to two and like dominoes... down the lawsuit came.

I have to give many of the parents credit, they were very vocal about how ludicrous the whole lawsuit was, but the school & bus company settled out of court. Hence... very ridiculous & rigid snow day policies.

What I'd like to know is exactly how many of these money grubbing parents bitch about the fact that their vacations are ruined because the kids have to make up all those bogus snow days by staying in school longer in the spring?

Years ago you rarely returned to school after Memorial Day weekend. Now, depending on the number of snow days... these kids are in school until the end of the second week in June! The schools have no choice in the matter. Without *x* number of classroom hours per student... federal funding just slips away. So, kids are forced to go to school weeks longer than they normally would have.

Why does it always seem it's the minority of loudmouth jerks that cause unwanted change that effects the majority in ways we object too?! Holy cats... I'm really on a rant today. Hmm... actually it feels good.

Back to the subject I started with...

Some friends of mine live up north. They're going to the Bahamas, I'm going to their house. Considering it's snowing again, the Bahamas sound tasty... but I'm getting an awesome deal out of it! I get to stay in this beautiful home on a lake, satellite TV, a real fireplace, seven new books to read and a golden lab named Jax.

Yes... some of you may remember Jax. He has graced my page in the past. Yes, I've done it again... I am taking care of a... HAPPY DOG!! I understand that I will come home with many bruises.

Mostly from walking into door frames and such because Happy Dogs are generally conscious way before me. They like to go outside in the middle of the night! I'm shuddering just thinking about it. This dog will want to be outside at 7:00 a.m. or earlier!

Seriously though... who trains their dog to go outside at that time of night?!

I'm looking forward to my reunion with Jax. Mainly because he's older now. (Two-ish I think?) Best of all, I have been informed that there is a special device used to fling a ball really far.

This is a good thing because:

A) I throw like a girl. It's odd... being a female one would think this acceptable. Go figure. I must admit though... having thrown things for Jax in the past, it is kind of embarrassing to throw a toy... then have the dog actually turn his head and look at me with a face that clearly reads, "Seriously! That's it? I can toss it up in the air myself and it goes farther than that!" Yes. Dogs can be cruel.

B) The 'ball fling-er' will also allow me to set in motion my evil plan. A tired Happy Dog is a calmer Happy Dog. Like, laying-at-my-feet-snoring-in-front-of-the- fireplace-while-I-read-a-book-calmer Happy Dog. Yes... I'm anxious to play with the ball fling-er thingy. I'm breaking out the Sorel boots!

I'm actually quite excited to be with the Happy Dog again. He is a favorite and I even liked having him and the Wookie at the same time. Although... the Wookie revs him up and the two of them together hit critical mass more than once when they're together.

So this will be nice. The Lab breeds are among my favorites... although some I've met (be they chocolate or black or gold) often do things that clearly indicates their mothers were Golden Labs (the canine equivalent of a "dumb blond") Jax perpetuates this observation from time to time, but I forgive him because he's blond too. You can't help but love a double-whammy...

I'll add more of my Happy Dog Adventures soon!

The first of February. Cripes.

One of last season's pre-spring avalanche tracks. By my calculations, it's only about six weeks to the actual seriously-deadly avalanche time of year. This picture is deceiving. It doesn't show that this particular "avalanche push" is more than a mile long! Scarier still is that this is just one of the very early ones of the season!

Does that wig anyone else out? I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to be caught up in something such as millions of pounds of hard-as-rocks snow catching you and pounding you down into oblivion. (Insert actual shiver here!) I have to admit I am extremely happy that I live in an area that doesn't have this potential danger hanging over my head!

So... how's your day! Hahaha! See, here's the good news... we don't live by scary amounts of snow that will kill us. Yay!

It's still winter here. At least the sun is shining bright... but there's a wicked wind and no clouds so it's verging on bitter cold with the wind chill. Of course I'm very thankful that the wind chills of -30 & -40 etc. are just wind chills! Not the actual temperature like it is in other states. I can't begin to imagine living through weather like that!

A friend in Alaska was telling me how she had to crawl up a rickety ladder onto her roof, hauling an even rickety-er step ladder so she could reach the top of her chimney that had iced up and wasn't letting smoke out.

She had no choice. The actual temperature was -50 or less with wind chills down to triple digits! But it was either get the stove pipe cleared or die. It was too cold to start the truck which, is parked a quarter of a mile from the cabin she lives in. No wood stove, no truck to run, at least 12 miles to the nearest neighbor... it shows in stark terms why many people died in areas like that throughout the history of weather such as that. She has my greatest respect and admiration.

With my lungs, It'd be a miracle not to get pneumonia. Not to mention my inability to do something as simple as swing an axe or hold a chainsaw safely... I would literally die. She's really something else!

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. I'll be going off to my friend's house. Normally I wouldn't be all that interested in the game itself. (I have taped it in the past to watch the commercials!) But I do like the Steelers (and clearly dating myself here... I loved cheering for them in high school! Anybody remember Mean Joe Green?) Cripes.

But it will be fun to watch it on the HD, surround-sound big screen!

GO STEELERS!!!!!

For me, it's back to the Y on Monday for water aerobics and water walking. With the bitter cold winds I've not been able to go out. Monday's forecast is for temps in the 30's to 40's so it'll feel good to go back.

My trainer wants me to start on some other Nautilus machines. It is really great to be able to use a machine that will not cause damage to my chest but will still be beneficial. The stair climber didn't work as well as we'd hoped. My knees are too bad to handle it without causing a lot of discomfort.

But, I'll still be doing the treadmill and will try it again as I gather more core strength and tone. The weight loss is helping too. I hope to be able to tolerate it by summer.

Well... off to spend the day staring at the big screen! Good thing I'm going to the Y Monday! I'll have to work off all the veggies and dip!