Brain frozen Twit

This is what my commute to work looked like the other day....actually the visibility in this photo is better than it was for me that morning.
I turned off the main drag on to a country road and was being followed by a Big Ass Snow Plow.
The speed limit on the road is 45 mph, but I was only able to do 30 mph with out sliding all over the road.
The road is only 2 lanes and winds around.
THere is a woman that, when the weather is good rides her bicycle in the morning. She must be on her way somewhere as she has a back pack.
And she rides her bike against traffic.
Now that it is snowing, she is walking.
She looks like a penquin as she swings her arms from side to side.
So here I come down the road with the B.A.S.P. behind me and what do I see ahead...is her silhouette in the distance walking towards me.
I slowed down as a car was coming in the opposite direction and I couldn't go around her...and I noticed in the past that even as a car approaches her she doesn't move over....
So I slowed down to a near stop.
I was concerned about the B.A.S.P. behind me being able to see her in the blizzard like conditions.
So I stopped right before driveway, thinking that if it were me, and I was walking down that road in those conditions and I saw a B.A.S.P coming at me, I would duck into the driveway.
But no.
As I crept past her, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw her continue walking.
The Plow had stopped completely.
She walked right along side the plow and stopped ...
The plow driver had to lift his side plow so she could walk by.
WTF!!!
You have got to be kidding me.....this lady is nuts!!! Or maybe her brain is completely frozen.
I'm sure the plow driver was thrilled.

Today my neighbor was riding a bike down the snowy street.
My daughter even said he was nuts.
THis photo is what southerners think of when they imagine snow.
Blue skies and pretty scenery. But in reality, us northerners know better
!
Makes your back hurt just looking at that picture.......

And it's always swell to come out of work to your car buried under a foot of snow....
Keep warm

home

Dad is home from the hospital as of Sunday afternoon.
Mom almost immediately came down with the flu.
I was more worried Monday about Mom than Dad.
Seems that even though you may have gotten a flu shot this season, you can still get the flu as they didn't guess right with the flu vaccine.

Always fun to hold the bucket for someone, when you still feel like you need the bucket to barf in yourself.

Must go out into the wild white wonder and get to work.
Hopefully the snow estimates are as wrong as the flu vaccine...but the way it's snowing...they may have under estimated...

Is it me or has this been an awfully brutal winter weather wise???

Noah today

NOAH TODAY


In the year 2008, the Lord came unto Noah,

who was now living in the United States, and said:
"Once again, the earth has become wicked and over
-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me."

"Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing
along with a few good humans."

He gave Noah the blueprints, saying:
"You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will
start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights."

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah
weeping in his yard - but no Ark.

"Noah!," He roared, "I'm about to start the rain!
Where is the Ark?"

"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed."

"I needed a building permit."









"I've been arguing with the inspector
about the need for a sprinkler system."








"My neighbors claim that I've violated the
neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my
yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to
go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision."








"Then the Department of Transportation demanded a
bond be posted for the future costs of moving power
lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the
passage for the Ark's move to the sea. I told them
that the sea would be coming to us, but they would
hear nothing of it."








"Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban
on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl."

"I tried to convince the environmentalists that I
needed the wood to save the owls - but no go!"








"When I started gathering the animals, an animal
rights group sued me. They insisted that I was
confining wild animals against their will. They
argued the accommodations were too restrictive, and
it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in
a confined space."








"Then the EPA ruled that I couldn't build the Ark
until they'd conducted an environmental impact study
on your proposed flood."








"I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the
Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm
supposed to hire for my building crew."








"Immigration and Naturalization are checking the
green-card status of most of the people who want to work."








"The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They
insist I have to hire only Union workers with
Ark-building experience."








"To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets,
claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally
with endangered species."








"So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10
years for me to finish this Ark."








"Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine,
and a rainbow stretched across the sky."








Noah looked up in wonder and asked,
"You mean you're not going to destroy the world?"

"No," said the Lord.
"The GOVERNMENT beat me to it."

At least it's NOT snowing...

What a beautiful sunny day.
And guess who has the stomach flu...yep, me!
I woke up with it.
At first I thought it was just a migraine, but knew it wasn't when I realized that I usually don't have a fever with a migraine.
The sun light was actually hurting my eyes.

Dad is still in the hospital.
HE was scheduled to be released Friday or today.
But he lost a lot of blood and they finally realized that...gee...maybe he needs a transfusion....on Friday!!!
I was going to go in to visit him today... :-(
But the stomach flu is the last thing he needs right now.

Friday I got my evaluation at work.
If the economy was better I would be definitely looking for a different job.
I will have to be patient for a little while.
I had to argue with her to raise up some of the scores....
which she did... so I'm thinking that she marked me poorly because she didn't think I would protest it.
I asked her if Sparky was complaining about me...as she complains about everyone and anything.
She didn't answer.
So I told her who it was that f---ed up 2 customer's accounts that I had to spend 2 hours correcting....actually I said that it wasn't my handwriting on the order....and I have a copy of it if she would like to see it.
And that I have to fix a lot of her mistakes...but it's not in my personality to run into her everytime some one makes a boo boo....
ARGH!!!!
Don't ya love it when you bend over backwards to help someone and they shit on you.

I'm going back to bed.
The computer screen is starting to bug my eyes.
I'm the only one home as Hubby took my mother in to see my Dad.

Day 2 at the hospital.....
"I have to fart, but I think there is more to it than that"
My daughter said that that was the funniest thing she has heard her grandpa say in a long time.
Our response was, "Maybe you better call the nurse".

All I could see was white

All I could see was white...and I thought I was dead.
These are the words that were uttered by my daughter after driving home last Friday in a bad snow storm.
The route she takes to work, she passes many open fields, so she got to experience whiteouts for the first time as a driver.
She then got stuck twice.....
in our driveway.
So her and her brother shoveled and snow blowed out the driveway so it was nice and clear when Hubby & I got home.
It was very much appreciated!!

Saturday I made a turkey dinner and took it over my parents house.
Sort of a goodbye to my son who left to go back to college on SUnday and as a treat for my Dad before surgery.
I even made his favorite homemade Tapioca pudding.

While my husband was driving my son back to college, i made turkey soup Sunday.
Turkey and Stars soup
I shared that with my parents also

Monday, hubby got up at 3:30 am and started snow blowing.
First he did our driveway then my folks across the street.
He cleared off my dad's van and got it ready.
HE was going to wait till 4 am to start but said that it's lucky that he didn't as the snow was deeper than he thought and took him longer.
We left for the hospital at 5:15 am.
My sister went too and complained that she had to wade through snow to get next door to my parents house.
I felt like telling her that she should have gotten her husband out of bed to clear her a path.
But to keep peace I held my tongue...like always.
Hubby drove to the hospital.
My mother was too nervous to drive as were my sister and I and Dad couldn't drive.
Why the heck they make someone who is having surgery at 7:30 come in at 6 am is a mystery to me.
6:30 maybe...
I'm not a morning person.

The surgery was supposed to take 3 hours.
It took close to 4.
So my mother was a nervous wreck by the time the surgeon came to talk to us.
The surgery was a success as far as saving the nerve in his leg.
But, the neurosurgeon said that he couldn't get all the tumor out and it looked like it was in & on the bones.:-(
So my sister freaks out my mother further and asks what stage cancer was it.
The poor guy, who was about 6'7", looked like he was going to run away as obviously this wasn't his specialty...and his job was to remove the tumor to save the leg.
He did say that the tumor migrated from the prostrate tumor that he had that he was taking drugs for since 3 years ago to shrink.
And that he will have to discuss treatment for this with his urologist and family doctor.
So step one is done.
Now we have to concentrate on getting his leg strengthened back up so he can walk.
When he came out of recovery, he asked if we talked to the surgeon.
No one said any thing after we said yeas..
So before my sister could say anything, I told him that the surgeon said that he was able to get the tumor from the nerve and that the surgery went well and he should be up walking again.
I figured, let him rest with happy thoughts for a while and the Dr. can give him the other news.
He doesn't need to be depressed right away and it could wait a day, as this was a lot for him to handle already.
Besides, I want to be in denial for a little while anyway!!!

Thank you all for your well wishes.
My bulldog supervisor at work has yet to ask me how my father is doing...what a heartless bitch!

Hospital Times

My Dad's back Doctor told him he has a tumor on/in his spine/vertebrates.
It is pressing on his nerve for his left side/leg.
They could shrink it with radiation, but the Dr. fears that by the time they shrink it his nerve will be completely destroyed, and he will lose use of his leg, so they are going in to remove it surgically.
They have to remove those fin like things that stick out from the sides of the discs to get at it and then he will have to have 2 rods put in after they remove the tumor.
His surgery is Monday.
Martin Luther King Day. (note the irony)
I told them I have the day off so I will be going with them...he has to be there at 6 am....arghhhh....he is first under the knife as he is most critical. Hubby is coming too.
Didn't ask if the tumor was cancerous.
Don't want to know...
He said that they told him he will be home in 3-5 days.... unless he needs rehab or something.
Don't want to be there when he tells my sister as she always has a doom & gloom attitude and will probably convince herself of the worst case scenario.
I'd rather not hear it.
I told my dad that at least they can operate and "fix" it.
He has an upbeat attitude...so far....but he hasn't talked to my sister yet!
Not a nice way to spend my day off from work...but at least I don't have to take a sick day....yet.
I offered to take off Tuesday if my mother needed me.
Hopefully the weather will improve.
I hate hospitals.

And we all just keep getting older...

My parents seem to be falling apart lately.
My mom with her knee problems.
My dad with his back.
My dad's back has been bothering him since before X-mas and seems to be getting worse.
It has finally gotten so bad that he gave up snow blowing...which he shouldn't have been doing to begin with, but he's a stubborn old guy.
While walking in the parking lot at the bank last week, his leg/knee gave out and he fell into some lady's car. She was in the car at the time and got out to see if he was alright.
He put a dent in her car, but she told him not to worry about it as it was an old car. He's a big guy, 6'2" before he started shrinking!
A couple of days ago he went for an MRI.
While he was in the waiting room, he had to use the men's room.
On the way back to his seat, just 3 feet from it his leg gave out again and he landed flat on his back.
A couple of people helped him up.
They happened to be black.
So he now realized that not all black people are bad.
When I was growing up he was never a racist, but I think hanging around my BIL (sister's husband), who is a racist/Bigot has rubbed off on him...but that's another whole post...
He said that his leg goes numb.
I asked which leg...thinking that maybe he shouldn't be driving.
He said that it is always his left leg.
Tomorrow he takes his MRI test results and goes to a back Dr.
The Bigot BIL is taking him.

Hallelujah, my niece did my mother's grocery shopping!
So my mother bought her and her sister and her mother (my sister) subs for dinner....um...HEY
Wait a minute!!!!...
All I got was attacked by donuts...no dinner for me!!!
And my sister had the day off from work.
She should have made my parents dinner.

Daughter & son went out in the bitter cold across the street to see how they are today. My son just got back and said that they are watching American Idol...

My daughter wanted to know what was going to happen to grandpa if he keeps falling down. She is worried about her grandparents as I am about my parents.
Seems like I just got my children raised and half out of the nest and now I may have to start taking care of my parents.
But you gotta do what ya gotta do.
I'm just glad that we live close by and can check up on them.
My brother lives out of state and I really should e-mail him what is going on...after all why should my sister and I be the only ones worrying!!

I'm writing this post from my son's computer in his room as my husband is playing Diablo...again on the "family" computer.
I haven't posted in a while because of this reason and that I've been enjoying the x-mas gift from Santa that was for the whole family...a Wii.
I'm getting to be quite the Wii bowler and dart player. My Wii bowling average is a lot higher than my regular bowling average...and it's nice to bowl sitting in one's lounge chair as opposed to a smoke filled loud bowling alley.
My son is getting quite the work out with the Clone Wars game doing great light saber battles...with the light saber attachment that lights up...every Star Wars fan's dream come true to own a light saber....We just can't be near him as we may get whacked with the light saber...which lights up red..

The holidays were interesting.
I enjoyed having the week of Christmas off.
Christmas eve I made a huge Lasagna, with home made meat balls and garlic bread.
My parents and my sister and her family and my niece's boyfriend came over for dinner. We had Cheesecake (regular and Godiva triple chocolate) from the Cheesecake factory for dessert and home made cherry pie....
My sister brought the wine.
My kids and niece and the boyfriend started making their own concoctions with the bottles of booze my daughter won at a fund raiser auction.
I ended up with the niece's boyfriend passed out under the Christmas tree.
I have a photo.
Will post it later when I'm back to my own computer.
He was tired as he worked outside all day...
Luckily we were able to wake him so my niece could drive him back to their apartment and we didn't have an over night guest...passed out under the tree.
I was afraid that he would roll over and knock down the tree and get pelted with glass ornaments. He has enough scars on his face already from the head on snow mobile accident he was in several years ago.....

There has been enough snow around here.
Hubby was out this morning snow blowing out our driveway plus 4 others.
(my parents and sisters plus 2 of the neighbors)
He's a good neighbor.
My dad and brother in law do our driveway too....
but the other neighbors rarely do anything for us...
At least gas is still fairly cheap.

My mother has arthritis very bad in her knees.
Lately the one knee is so bad that she can barely walk.
Last Saturday night I was at my parents house and she asked me what I was doing Sunday morning.
I answered "sleeping"......(pause)......"why?"
"Would you be able to do my grocery shopping for me?" she asked.
Being a smartass, I told her that I could take her and she could ride around in one of those motorized carts they have for the handicapped.
And I thought to myself...hmmm...you have another daughter next door who only works 2 1/2 days a week and doesn't work on Monday...yet you are asking me the one that works full time...hmmmm...why is that? I pondered....
So I said..."Of course I will do your grocery shopping for you. Just make out the list"
Well, she had the list made out already...in tiny handwriting...and gave me money.
I couldn't even read the list.
The handwriting was so small.
I asked her if she could have writen it any smaller...and she said let me see it and decided that yes it was small and offered to rewrite it. I just told her I would have to wear my glasses to see it.

Sunday it was off to the grocery store...oh joy!
I wore my glasses with the bifocal lenses so I could see the list instead of my contacts.
I had a small list of sale stuff so I decided to just do all my shopping first and cash out.
I was done in about 15 minutes, cashed out and put the stuff in the car.
It was still fidgid out so I didn't have to worry about the frozen stuff.
Then I went back in to do my mother's shopping.
A few customers looked at me and my now empty cart kind of funny.
I was doing fine until I came to getting the doughnuts.
The donuts that my father likes were on the top tray in a glass doored display case.
Using my left leg I propped open the heavy galss door while holding the bag in my left hand and reaching up and getting the donuts with my right.
Luckily I'm tall as I can't see how short little old ladies would be able to get these donuts...which may be why there were still some left.
About half of the tray of sourcream frycakes gone already so I was glad to see that there would be enough for my mother as she wanted six.
I reached in and grabbed two.
The tray started sliding towards me.
I pushed the tray back and forth several times before it would stay in place and put the donuts in the bag.
Reaching back into the case, I grabbed two more from the back of the tray and the tray slid backwards like a teeter-totter and hit the tray below, which hit the tray below that and all the way down till I had chocolate covered donuts with sprinkles flying out of the case and hitting me in the groin....and landing on my boots and floor.
Oh shoot!!! (had to keep it clean as there were children around in the store)
Still holding the door open with my leg and the bag in my hand I peered around to see if there was anyone in the bakery.
They would have had to hear that!!
A lady customer came over and started picking donuts off the floor.
Then it was OMG I only have 4 donuts and she wanted 6.
So I reached into the case and found 2 donuts of the kind she wanted on one of the shelves below and grabbed them and put them in the bag. That god they didn't hit the floor!!!!
A bakery worker came over and told the lady customer that she would take care of the donuts on the floor and said that that happens because CUSTOMERS don't get the donuts off the trays correctly.... ummm...could it be that the tray system sucks??
I thanked the lady customer for helping me, said I was sorry to the bakery troll, brushed the sprinkles off the crotch of my jeans and I took my bag of donuts and fled to the dairy section.
Normally I would walk back again by the bakery to get to the checkouts, but went the back way around and avoided the bakery.....
Hopefully they won't recognise me in the future....as I was wearing my glasses.
Two and a half hours later I dropped off the groceries and told my mother about getting attacked by donuts.
She said that she has the same trouble with those trays...but never to that extent.
As they say...No good deed goes unpunished so I should be happy that it was only donuts attacking!