Feel Like Complaining

Our city just smashed a snowfall record for the month of December (61.4 inches) which was last set in 1996 (46.2 inches). That's more snow than we usually receive the entire winter season. And I laugh at Bismarck, ND's record of a measly 33.3 inches. We've had roofs collapse on many buildings including a grocery store and church gymnasium. Tonight there is a New Year celebration downtown but several streets will be closed and they had to even cancel a snowboarding event due to......wait for it....... TOO MUCH SNOW! There is too much snow to bring in the equipment to build the ramps. I'm tired of shoveling, there's no where to put it. My girl dog is starting to pee like a boy on the nearest snow bank out the door and I'm praying our patio roof will hold up. We haven't had mail in two days, and garbage won't pick up unless you can get it to the street. We have alley pick up and they want us to drag our cans through 60 inches of snow to the front. We won...

I have seen these DirectBuy commercial hundreds of times but they have been pushing them a lot since Christmas. I sit there and watch the husband and wife with the too-tight-top describe their 'dream home' and brag about how they saved 2k on a dining set, only paying 1500.00. ONLY?? I paid 50.00 for mine used when we bought our furniture. Another couple sits on the couch and talks about how they saved 10k on the kitchen ALONE. That means they must have spent upwards of 50k in order to save 10k. A few years ago I painted my kitchen and bought new curtains. It probably set me back less than 100 bucks and I felt pretty darn proud of myself. Our appliances are still avocado green so you know how long they've been around. And there are more stories of how much money people have saved by being members of DirectBuy. Personally in these times, it is in extremely bad taste to brag about ONLY paying $1500.00 for a dining room table when many people are having trouble putting food on ...

Tensions are running high in our little area of the world. It's Christmas Eve day and the snow continues to fall. Thirty-Seven inches so far with 5-8 inches due tonight and through tomorrow, plus more over the weekend. If we receive only 5 more inches, we will break the now standing record of December snowfalls. I'm sure we will surpass that quickly. Yesterday a 53 year old man was arrested for threatening the life of a snow plow driver. An elderly woman came out of her house yelling at the plow driver for placing a berm in front of her driveway. Then her son came out waving a gun. He went back into the house and called the City department and said that the next plow driver that came down his street would be shot. The call was traced and he was arrested. The gun was loaded and he was charged with felony harassment. An officer summed it up this way; “Remember, when July comes we will all be laughing about those crazy days in December, try not to reflect on those days from your s...

Things are prettier this weekend and makes up a bit for the pain of the snow. But only a little. I couldn't go to work Friday but finally got the chains on my car that afternoon. I decided to try and go around the block, or half of the block. Down our alley hill, to the main road and enter at the other end of the alley. That's where I got stuck and my husband had to take over to get us back in the garage. There I conceded that it's too deep for me to get around. We did get to the store in his car though. It's funny that you can be so grateful just to get to the store! Saturday my daughter and I got outside to take some pictures. Little snowflakes that were falling from the trees looked like crystals in the sun. But I'm not caving on how much I hate it. At times like this you get to know your neighbors better. Those with snow blowers are out in full force helping you dig out your car. We have a small one but it still works pretty good and has been very helpful. We ha...

Winter started late for us this year but I hate it already. For the last week we have had single digit temperatures and now we have more snow than I have seen in a long time. In the last 24 hours we have about as many inches of snow. The city is paralyzed. No school, no city buses, no garbage pick-up, and cars are abandoned all over the city. Yesterday I worked for my mom and the day started out innocent enough. They said snow, but holy crap, this is SNOW! It took me 40 minutes to get home which is usually a 15 minute trip. Then I had to leave again to pick my daughter up from school for a dentist appt. I guess we shouldn't have gone but she had a tooth that needed to be pulled so that took another 40 minutes to get there. My wipers were frozen so I had a tiny space to see out of the windshield if I crouched in my seat. It took us another 40 minutes to get home. Our city has about 4 different areas, downtown, northside, southside and the valley. We live on the northside. Downtown ...

Sometimes I think my town is the only place with stupid people. We have had famous serial murders and rapists and now monkey smugglers. A woman and her mother were convicted today of smuggling a rhesus macaque into the U.S. from Bangkok, Thailand last fall. Apparently the bright mother and daughter duo traveled to Bangkok after making email contacts with a man named Boris. The daughter drugged the little monkey and shoved it under her blouse telling Customs she was pregnant. And they fell for the "I know it looks like a monkey under my blouse, but I'm really pregnant" line. When will these people learn? On the way home the mother emailed a Witches and Pagans Yahoo group and asked “for last-minute energy” to help them safely smuggle the monkey into the United States. Well, I'll be damned, those Witches and Pagans are good; it worked. They got through Customs in L.A. The little family was happy with their new addition but blew it when they went into a store and bragged ...

WARNING-----IF YOU ARE OF THE MALE SPECIES I WANT YOU TO STOP NOW TO AVOID EMBARRASSMENT. THIS POST IS ABOUT GIRLY PARTS AND PROCEDURES DONE ON GIRLY PARTS. This is exactly what I was thinking as I was enduring my second pap in as many months. To back up a great deal I had a partial hysterectomy 6 years ago. I still have my ovaries and cervix. Don't ask me how they pull that one off, I just imagine it floating around in there. Up till now my paps have been normal. Last year my test came back with glandular cells present. I was also having severe menstrual type cramps. I can only say 'type' because it's impossible to have cramps without a uterus, right? But I was in so much pain I had to drop out of my exercise club and spent a lot of time on my bed in the fetal position crying. I swore my uterus had grown back. But after an ultrasound nothing unusual was found. This year same thing; glandular cells found. I see a nurse at my clinic and she wanted me to see a doctor to h...

I'm not sure, maybe both. Yesterday morning I was looking out my window searching for my favorite winter bird. I happened to look at our neighbor's house on the opposite corner. It's the same neighbor that I just wrote about below. I noticed a young man making trips into the house and bringing out things, like a small t.v., computer monitor and tower, backpack full of stuff and a garbage bag full of stuff. All this time he was looking around very nervously. It was apparent nobody else was home so I'm thinking; are they being burglarized? I contemplated calling the police but being a family with a lot of teens living there, something is always going on. People are coming and going all day long, but this looked strange. When I noticed that he was about ready to leave I casually went outside to look around my garden as if that's what every normal person does in the fall-almost-winter. I had a pen and paper with me and wrote down his license number, and make/model of hi...

Every year at Thanksgiving, a neighbor sends her twin girls over to borrow something needed to finish a meal. It's usually something like a teaspoon of baking soda or clove of garlic. No big deal really, and I'm glad to help out. This summer though, this was the particular neighbor that we called the police for underage drinking at their home; twice. As I woke up Thanksgiving morning the first thought that came to me was "I wonder if the girls are going to come over and borrow something today". But as the day became busier I totally forgot about it. The moment right before dinner is ready, and gravy is flying in the kitchen, my dog starts barking and one of my guests said there was a girl coming up to the door. My eyes just about bugged out of my head as I opened the door and there is one of the twins asking for some baking soda. I hand my daughter the box to pour into her container because I couldn't quite trust myself for what I might say. Honestly, if I were ...