2.28.2003

I just walked down to the mailbox and back (about a mile), and I happened to take our digital camera with me to take some snow pictures and whatnot. And then I heard this tap-tap-tap...

It's Woody Woodpecker! That is the biggest woodpecker I've ever seen! Pretty cool. I dig the "no hunting" sign, too. LOL.

Yes, I'm snowed in again. Heh.

pixie.dust sprinkled at 12:58:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

2.20.2003

I hired a guy to plow our driveway. He brought one of those little Bobcat things and just went to town. Woo hoooo! Total cost — $225. And so worth it! It had to be done, and there's no way James and Darryl (one of our neighbors) could do it themselves (although they gave it a shot!).

As it is, we're going to have snow on the ground here until Spring, I'm sure. Our property is pretty shaded.

I'm so relieved to have this done — I was really worried that James would have some kind of diabetic emergency, and that I wouldn't be able to get him out of here, or get an ambulance to us. We have a glucagon emergency injection kit which would probably work for low blood sugar, but if he started running high and heading toward ketoacidosis, there's little I could do for him. All we can do in the field is start an IV of normal saline to help dilute them a bit and rush them to the hospital. I don't even have IV supplies here, so we'd really be in trouble! Whew.

At least we've gotten to know our neighbors — they're really great people, and they'll dig snow all day if you feed them. LOL.

More pictures...

The little Caterpillar plow...

Just to give you an idea of how long our driveway is ...

That picture is about 50 feet from the end of our driveway, facing our house. That's our house up and to the left, behind the trees. Now you know why I think I was insane to even dream of shoveling all that stuff. LOL!

The guy tried to talk us into paving our driveway ... he said, "Won't cost you much ... about $4,000." Uhhhhhh ... $4,000 is "much" in my book (or checkbook, at any rate). Ha!

pixie.dust sprinkled at 8:17:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

2.19.2003

Our power has been out since an hour after my last update — that's about 42 hours without lights, heat, or water. Although the power did come on at about 2 a.m. for five minutes, which was enough for us to be able to draw up a bath and get clean. Yay!

It's been back on for about 45 minutes, so I'm hopeful it'll *stay* on. Sheesh.

Our angelfish didn't make it. :( Eeyore, our plecostomus (algae eater), is apparently of hardier stock. :) The kitties are fine — they were just as grateful for our fireplace as we were!

My keyboard is freezing cold. LOL.

Now I have to go shovel. Lovely. James is with our neighbor, Lenny, trying to get into town to pick up some supplies. James had to hike up our back hill (still snow-covered, of course) to get to Lenny's house. James was starting to run out of a few meds and whatnot, so it was important for him to get off this mountain today. And I *might* be able to get to work tomorrow. We'll see.

pixie.dust sprinkled at 12:05:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

2.17.2003

Between the dryness in the air and my copious amounts of hair, I build up a lot of static electricity. If I walk away from my computer, when I come back and touch my mouse, I shock it so bad I have to unplug it and plug it back in (USB) to get it to work again. If I touch a light switch, I get a shock. (It's really cool in the dark — you can really see it.) I'm basically a walking electrical charge.

So this morning I touched my new-ish Palm m130 and shocked it, not really thinking much of it. Then it wouldn't turn on anymore. LOL. I had to do a hard reset — I completely killed it! Good thing I had hot-synced it just a couple of days ago, or I would have lost everything. Good grief.

And now for more snow pictures! Because I still can't believe all this snow. Heh.

The deck, totally buried!

The table on the deck...

A picture from the garage...

Me, nearly up to my butt in snow!

Me, falling over. Ha ha!

Buried statuary.

More buried statuary.

So there you have it! We're not going anywhere for a couple of days, at least.

pixie.dust sprinkled at 4:13:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

2.16.2003

We already got our taxes deposited from Virginia. Woo hooo!

And yes, we are very snowed in!

So I open up the garage door and see:

It's up to my knees. LOL. Granted, I am short. But still!

So I slog my way about 30 feet and take a picture of our driveway:

Our driveway is very long ... not really something anyone could shovel. LOL.

So I walk back to the garage. You can see one forlorn snow shovel in the garage.
And I doubt even my Land Rover will get out of this before Wednesday!

It's really quite pretty, though. :) We have at least 17 inches now, and it's still snowing like mad! We're probably going to end up with 36" of snow when it's all over. Yikes!

pixie.dust sprinkled at 7:39:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

2.09.2003

Did our taxes yesterday — we're getting a nice refund! Yay!! Yeah, I know I overpay my taxes during the year. My ex-father-in-law used to rant at me about letting Uncle Sam use my money interest-free during the year, but hey — it's an easy way for us to get money into our savings at the end of the year!

I urge everyone to try the electronic filing through the IRS site this year. They don't actually allow you to file through their site, but they have several providers who will do it for free if you quality. I qualified for a free return through TaxACT — they'll do it for free if you use a 1040EZ or if your adjusted gross income is over $50,0000 (as ours was). And if you file in Virginia, it's always free (and really freakin' easy!) to file through the Department of Taxation site. :)

pixie.dust sprinkled at 1:13:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

2.05.2003

Our company has been acquired by Perot Systems — the Government Services division. The press release is here. Should be interesting! I actually voted for Perot back when he ran for President. Heh. :)

pixie.dust sprinkled at 11:09:00 AM • 0 witty remark(s)

2.03.2003

Congratulations to all my NOVA classmates that took the National Registry EMT-P exam yesterday!! They all did very well. As soon as I finish my internship, it'll be my turn! I can't wait!!

pixie.dust sprinkled at 10:07:00 AM • 0 witty remark(s)