salting all day in anticipation so the snow melted as it landed.
I made it home okay, but Tim is now driving
through Pittsburgh on the Parkway to get home and he had a rough time
of it. It was pretty late when he finally got home.
March 2
Snowy, windy and bitter cold today. Many
of the secondary roads were nearly drifted shut and there was a lot of
ice. Nearly all the schools in the area were closed or at least
delayed. Not Derry. We were out there right on time.
My boss is tired of getting up in the middle of the night to drive the
roads only to have his recommendations ignored by the school
district's transportation director. What we figure is that he is
getting a lot of pressure not to have any cancellations because we
have a 6 day break at Easter. A lot of teachers probably have
vacation plans.
I went to Weight Watchers with Deb tonight.
I knew I'd been bad....and I was right. I'm back to where I
started. That was discouraging for a bit, but the meeting was
very inspirational tonight and a lot of fun. Deb was also back
to her starting weight so we set a goal for ourselves to lose 25 lb.
by Memorial Day. That's just over 2 lb. a week. Surely we
can do that.
March 3
Very cold again today, but at least there was
no new snow and we did see a tiny bit of sunshine this afternoon!
Tim worked later today so didn't get home
until 8:00. The volleyball season is getting started so Matt got
home about the same time. Megan and I enjoyed a quiet evening
together making dinner (ravioli, salad and Italian bread), eating
together, doing chores and working on her homework. She is
having a lot of trouble with school and has a lot of work to make up.
She simply didn't do it when it was due, but her teachers are
giving her the chance to do it for half credit so she will at least
not fail.
All anyone is talking about today is a big
local news story. It's so terribly sad. A 19 yr. old
single mother has apparently killed her 2 month old baby. Rumor
says she was high on heroin at the time. She says the baby was
crying because she wasn't feeding it and she alternately choked and
beat it to shut it up. She actually killed the baby
yesterday and didn't call her mother until today. Rumor also
says the mother's stepfather (in his 40's) was the baby's father.
What a terrible situation. In a small community, something like
this really hits home. Matt knew the mother from school.
She was a senior last year, but dropped out. He said she was
know to have a problem with drugs. I sort of know the
stepfather. He has a little girl that's 9 or 10 who rides my
bus. Megan knows that girl. I had seen the mother when she
was pregnant at the bus stop and I saw the stepfather at the hospital
in January when the baby was born. If the drug rumors are true,
it makes it doubly sad and frightening. Our mostly rural
township is reported to have the biggest heroin problem in the county.
I'm beginning to believe it as it seems to be involved in a majority
of the crimes you hear about any more.
March 5
It was sunny and mild today with temperatures
in the 40's. Tim and I sat down over breakfast and looked
through the bills and wrote out the checks for the ones that needed
paid. He dropped them at the post office and went to pay a few
in person. It sure seemed like he was gone an awfully long time.
Turned out he stopped at the Hyundai dealership in Greensburg and
looked at a Sonata (my dream car). We are really getting to
where we have to have a new car and we're pretty sure it would take
quite a bit to squeak the one we have through inspection in May.
We've discussed buying used, but we put a lot of miles on a car and
the Hyundai's have a 10 yr./100, 000 mile warranty on the engine and
drive train and a 5 yr./50, 000 mile warranty that covers everything
but brakes and tires. Anyway, Tim test drove the car and sat and
went through everything to find out if we could get a loan and what
the payments would be. Now he has to call our attorney and find
out if the bankruptcy administrators will allow the loan. I hope
it works out. It sure would be nice to drive a car that you
didn't have to worry about making it to where you were going.
While Tim was gone the kids helped me get the
whole house cleaned and do some laundry. I wasn't feeling all
that well. Every once in a while I can tell my blood pressure is
up. I just feel odd, headachy, very stressed and very irritable.
With the kids helping, I could take it kind of easy and by
midafternoon I was feeling better.
We went to the church at 4:00 for a surprise
50th birthday party for a friend of ours. One of his sisters did
it for him. Boy, was he surprised! They requested no
gifts, just to come prepared to share stories about the birthday boy.
Clyde is blind and a real character to boot so there were some pretty
good stories told. What a fun time! We had to hurry when
the party was over to stop at the store for some chips and pop and get
home before some other friends of ours arrived. We'd invited
them over to play games, eat pizza and just hang out. We played
Texas Hold'em with the set Matt got for Christmas. Tim started
out doing pretty good, but Dave ended up with all the chips. I'm
pretty sure he lets the rest of us win for a while to let the game go
on, because once he started winning he just kept going. No one
is that lucky!
March 6
It is nice to have the Sunday paper delivered
right to the back door, but this morning I could have gleefully
strangled the carrier. Dave and Helen didn't leave until a
little after 12:00 last night so by the time we cleaned things up and
got ready for bed it was quite late. The paper arrived with a
loud whump! at 6:00 that woke Scooby up and
started him to barking. No one else woke up, but I couldn't get
back to sleep after that so sat and read the paper.
Everyone managed to get up and get ready for
church and we were even a little bit early today. Not at all
normal for us! Pastor had a really good sermon about being good
stewards of what we are given. It was very practical advice.
We went to Walmart after church. I
wanted to pick up lunch meat to make sandwiches for lunch and Tim
needed to look at something for work. Megan is really getting
into scrapbooking and bought herself some stickers for that. The
sandwiches really hit the spot with everyone with fresh lettuce and
tomatoes and big potato rolls. We all took a nap after clearing
the table.
Tim and Matt went out to work on Tim's
workshop and my shed later on. Tim sold off a bunch of stuff he
had brought home and stored in his shop. Since it's on the back
of Mom's garage, he is afraid of what she's going to decide to do
about her house. If she sells it or rents it, he doesn't want to
be caught with a whole lot of stuff to get rid of. As they've
been emptying out the shop of extra stuff, they've been moving things
stored in my shed up there. Today they got the workbench in mine
totally cleared off so I can have it for a potting bench.
I spent a good bit of time tonight on the
Internet researching home party sales. I'm trying to find a way
to make some extra money part-time. It isn't that we need it
now, but with Matt starting college in July, I'm afraid the time is
coming when we will need it. I saw a couple of plans that
interested me. I've got to look at them some more tomorrow.
One sells house plants that come in kits with containers and
synthetic soil. One sells Lillian Vernon merchandise and the
third, teaches principles of organization and sells organizing
materials.
March 7
Spring fever is really taking hold this
morning. It is 62 degrees on the thermometer outside the kitchen
window, the sun is shining brilliantly and the birds are making quite
a racket with their joyful singing! Hard to believe in just a
few short hours rain is going to move in and the temperature will drop
rapidly bringing more snow. Tomorrow's high is only supposed to
be in the low to mid 20's. Brrrrrr. March has certainly
come in like a lion this year. I sure hope it goes out like the
gentlest of lambs.
I stayed after work this morning for a
"remedial" knitting lesson with one of the older ladies.
Everyone at work has taken up knitting in the last month or so.
I've been trying but just can't seem to get the hang of it. This
morning seemed to help a good bit, which is a relief. I was just
about to give up for good. Now maybe I'll actually be able to
get a scarf done.
