I am fully recovered from the nasty cold I had last month. Even Carol, who freely accepted the illness so I could recover has recovered. Hopefully, I won't catch another bug and have to do battle once more.

The weather today was very spring like. We snuck up on 70, but did not quite make it there. It likely won't stay quite this nice for long, but I have begun to dream of spring's arrival.

Carol and I have decided to give up on buying a house for the moment. Instead, we are looking at rentals. We came across a nice place today and have put in our applications. It is a bit further from work for C, but the bus stops half a block away so she won't have to walk far in the Texas heat. It has fake hardwood and tile throughout the house (katties can puke all they want!!) and a decent backyard that looks out on a small field that occasionally has hawses gnawing at weeds. It is not far from a medium busy street, but it should be no noisier than what we currently have. As a bonus, it has a dishwasher which will make Cs work load a little lighter. We won't know if we will be able to get it until Friday or so, but we will cross our fingers. It is more expensive than what we currently have, but it is in much better shape.

Work is going well. I have been busy with library instruction as well as my usual duties. I keep hoping for the job to go full time, but so far no luck.

Not much else going on here which is ok. Better quiet than crazy nuts I sez.

This has been a lost week. I came down with a cold last Friday night and have spent the last seven days battling the virus. I went back to work yesterday and had the sick slow start, this is where a 15 minute routine takes 45 minutes. By the time I was finished ironing my clothes (I had been too ill to do it after washing) I was sweating like a hard run horse. Fortunately, I had been wise enough to leave my shower to the nearly end. Carol is now doing battle with the cold, hopefully, she will start feeling better soon.

Back to my regular work schedule, finally. Winter break was long but I still managed to get my full hours in, yeah!

The weather has been a bit crazy here lately with some nice days and some not so nice days. Yesterday was a gorgeous day with a high of 79. It made my trip home slow as everyone was driving at half speed with their windows open. Not so nice for the next few days though. Even have a dense fog warning in effect this morning.

It is with great sadness that I note tomorrow's temperature will be no better here than way up north. Rather depressing, what?

It's been a good week for me. I had a good (glowing?) work review, I did a presentation at a staff retreat, and I actually slept past 5 one morning!! The weather has been semi decent for much of the week with one day reaching 70. I am turning into a broken record though, I keep saying I am tired of the cold and gray. I wish we had some Lenten roses or the other winter flowering shrub (which I can never remember the name of) blooming in our yard.

Still no luck on the house move/search. We saw one nice new duplex that would perhaps work. It is nearly new with the paint smell still lingering. The problems are that it is not necessarily close to C's work (might have trouble getting to work if she must when I am not home) and it has no yard. Deal breakers? I don't know. I would be sad to leave my rosemary behind, but I don't want to be in the current place come summer.

post christmas blog

Christmas was a mix of nice and incomplete. The trip up was nice, sunny and warm. The first night was fine though Carol and I did force the family to eat a hot bowl of Mexican veggie soup (real good if anyone wants the recipe let me know, it does not have to be spicy-hot). The next day Carol, one of her sises (the other was not able to come due to family health concerns), and their mom went shopping. All three of them came home exhausted and grumpy. I stayed at the home we were using and relaxed, a nice little treat for me and, I believe, for Carol's dad. He rarely gets anytime to himself anymore. Christmas morning we all had a great breakfast and enjoyed opening gifts (well they did, I still do not find it my most happy hour). It started to rain early Christmas morning and by the time gifts were done we were getting worried. We went back to the rental home, cleaned, and left. I still feel bad about leaving in a rush like that. But if we had not we would have been stuck there for another 2-3 days.

The drive home was stressful. By the time we made it to Hot Springs, the trees were icing. A fierce rain continued for the next two hours (about Hope AR I believe) before quitting. We then had an hour of no rain before it began again. Around 3:00 PM it began to snow and by 4 we were considering a hotel. But, we persevered and managed to get home after 7. The 6 hour trip took us about 8 so slow, but not as bad as it could have been.

The rest of the holiday was quiet. We both hung out and watched rather dull stuff on Netflix, relaxed, and tried to stay warm. It has been rather cold here lately.

I went back to work last week. Nice to be making money again. My schedule won't get back to normal until after the 21st of this month, but I am still putting in my full hours.

We are thinking about moving this spring or summer so I have not been doing anything with the garden (sounds like a great excuse to me!!) though I have thought about it. I could be planting some things right now if I were more energetic.

I am in the midst of a very long day. I left home at 7:30 and won't get back until 8:30. Worked at work for seven and now at the bookstore for three. Fortunately the bookstore is light duty and I can relax a bit. I will just have to be careful and keep the volume down on my snoring. Don't want to disturb the library patrons!! :)

The weather has been nice the last few days. We even managed a brief shower last week. Carol decided she was not going to rake leaves or pick up acorns this year and called in some outside help. They cleaned things up today and our yard looks great now. Squirrels are probably crying in their little wee houses over the loss of their wealth. Puir critters.

Carol's daughter appears to be doing ok, though no news on whether the cancer has spread. She is back home and appears to be in ok spirits. Carol has a cold sore and took today off after spending the last week grading like a squirrel in a nut patch (busy busy).

Had our annual xmas dinner at work today. I took in a Kale/miso salad that everyone liked and some cowgirl cookies that some people liked.

Don't know if I will get around to doing an update later this week. We are likely heading off to Arkansas come Sunday (limited to no internet) and won't return until the 26th or there-abouts. So, Merry Christmas everyone. I hope your holiday is joyous and relaxing.

Winter has arrived and it has become a wee bit chilly here. Overnight low of 16 F tonight and snow was sneaking around last night though we were fortunate enough that it totally avoided us. It is so cold that even Carol said it was cold, and she hardly ever says that!!

Waiting on word on how Carol's daughter is doing, her surgery is tonight. She is finding it hard to be here and not there, but her daughter asked her to not come. Visitors are tiring, even when they are family (maybe especially family?) when you are ill. At least with friends you can say get lost without hurting feelings, maybe....

Work is going well. I am starting to feel comfortable with the position, though I am still learning a great deal. I am getting accustomed to the commute, though I doubt I will ever like it much. The road is as boring and bland as the road from Cold Lake to Bonnyville. And as everyone knows, it doesn't get much more boring than that. I am rather intrigued by traffic flows, or rather why people drive the way they do.

There is the racing car driver who zips here and there going as fast as they can. There is the late for work/home/church/whatever driver who goes really fast then tailgates for miles without passing or changing lanes. There is the pokey driver who always goes 15 miles an hour slower than the speed limit until they arrive in town when the speed up and go 15 miles an hour faster than everyone else. Then there is the steady traveler who does 50 whether the speed limit is 65 or 40.

All the leaves are now gone. Last nights cold weather killed the few summer plants still outside. It looks bleak and bland and I am going to have to put up with it for months. Meh, I don't like winter much anymore.