A Winter Break

The cold has left us for a few days and more seasonal temperatures have returned. It's still cold, but not so numb chilling cold. We can at least walk the furry kids and not dread the entire experience and yell at them to hurry up because it's COLD.

It has been a fairly quiet week. Having Monday off was a nice treat. I spent most of the day catching up on my rowing club treasurer duties. I have to send out tax forms to our coaches. I completed those, but I didn't have the right size envelopes to mail them. I also renewed our club membership with US Rowing and paid the club's insurance bill. Not very exciting, but the IRS gets picky when you don't meet deadlines.

The saga of The Son's mailbox continues. The lock was changed out and lasted all of one day before the lock broke. The management company hasn't been back out to fix it yet. The post office won't leave his mail with the broken lock so they're holding his mail for him. Trouble is he can't be bothered to drive to the post office to pick it up. There is always something more important to do. Wait until he misses a bill or two. Maybe that will motivate him a bit more.

Speaking of his condo management company, they did call him to let him know that the owner of the unit under his had called about a leak that appears to be coming from The Son's shower. A plumber is suppose to be dropping by to see if we can figure out exactly where and what is leaking. The Son is really enjoying being a home owner. Luckily he has a home owners warranty that should save him from any big bills.


I had an appointment with my Doctor on Weds. I've run out of refills on all my meds and needed to get more. Normally I get my prescriptions during my yearly physical, but I was unable to get an appointment for that until April. So they had me come in and I met with the Doctor for about 30 minutes while he wrote them all out. Ann mailed them out for me, but it will be another week or so before I receive them. I should survive until then. When I went to pay the co-pay for my visit I reached in my back pocket for my checkbook and lo no checkbook. I checked my other pockets and my jacket. No checkbook. I checked the exam room and waiting areas and still no checkbook. I paid using a check card and left. Once I got to my car I searched it and the ground around the car. No checkbook. I drove home wondering if it had fallen outside the car and someone had picked it up. When I got home I searched the house. Still no checkbook. I looked in the garage and our front walkway. No checkbook. I finally called the Credit Union and put stop payments on the nine checks that were still in my checkbook. After that I walked outside to get the mail. There on the front lawn was my checkbook. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I took the dogs out right before leaving for my appointment. I'm out $10 for the stop payment, but now at least I know I have the checkbook and not some thief. Tomorrow Ann and I are off to see our Dermatologist. I think I'll let her carry the checkbook.

The pictures are of a sunset during our cold snap. The first is of the full moon rising around 5:30 or so looking northeast from our house. The next two are taken from the back of our house looking southwest. They just look wintery to me. I was hoping to get more of the sun in the second two, but it sank out of sight before I could get the camera.