The world according to.....ME!

I can describe our weather in two words....cold snow. It has been consistent cold and frequent snow around here lately. The "snowmobilers" and "skiiers" are about the only ones that are enjoying it. On Thursday we had about 8 inches of light fluffy snow. Not hard to shovel, but still it was 8 inches of the junk. Add that to the piles and piles that we have already.....what a mess! They are running out of places to put the extra snow that they get from downtown. They have to suck it up with this huge vacuum cleaner and send it by dumptruck somewhere else. They have about filled the fair grounds and are piling it up out at the end of the airport, but it's getting full too.
Now they say that we are supposed to get another 3-5 inches tomorrow. Great. Oh boy am I excited......not. Of course Will and I are still reading meters this weekend, no matter what the weather. Wonderful man that he is , he read 13 pages worth yesterday by himself while I was at work. Today he will read more until I get home and then we will take off to read the hard ones quick before the snow starts.

The last couple of days at work have been interesting. We are getting ready for an Official Mail Count. That means they are going to count how much mail we deliver on average and figure out the size of our routes. That will decide salaries etc. Of course suddenly mail volume will drop on the day before count starts. Funny how that happens each time. From out of the blue people stop mailing catalogs and magazines. Then a day or two after count we get these huge amounts of catalogs and magazines....Interesting. That is how it has happened in the past, we will see what happens this year. I have been keeping track of the volume of mail that I get for the last couple of months and will continue for the next month. I will be fun to watch and see.

Of course the new boss had to ride with me on the route the other day to count mail boxes and watch my driving etc. Poor woman, there she was riding in the back of the jeep bouncing around. Not being able to see out, she had rely on me to tell her how many boxes I was delivering each time. We worked out a system and things went fine until we had to leave my route and go and deliver part of another route for one of the slower carriers. I felt so sorry for her as we chugged up and down in the country on these hills, dips, corners and large bumps. She was a trooper and just hung on. We made it through that part and then headed back to my route where we proceeded to get stuck 8 boxes from the end. A large ice rock had rolled under the truck as we pulled away from the box and lifted us just enough that the wheels just spun. Thankfully our "go to guy" from the office came out and pulled us out. I don't think she is looking forward to another trip with me. I tried to warn her about "stupid things happening to me", but she didn't believe me. I think she does now.

Jessalyn tried out for a big musical they are doing throughout the school district. She had to go back a second time and has a speaking part. She is very excited. For someone that is shy like her, it is hard for her to get up in front of people, let alone try out. She has practise 3 days a week.

Jacob started small engine class and loves it. He was even excited to go to school last week a couple of the days. What a change on that one. He also was sick for one day so last week was a short one for him with one sick day, one snow day off and one teacher planning day off. He will have to stay after school on Monday again. He does this every Monday because he is trying to get ahead in school instead of always trying to get caught up.

Being a mail carrier, I always have at least one dog "cookie" in my pocket. You never know when you will need one. Well yesterday, I stopped at my sister Dale's and took off my coat and hung it on the chair. Her little Welsh Corgie Lucy smelled that cookie and stuck her head in the pocket. The only problem is that her head would not come out of the pocket. We turned to look at her and there she was stuck in my coat pocket dragging it around the base of the chair. We had to save her and darned if she didn't do it again looking for another cookie, but this time she found something better.....a tissue that had "vicks" in it. She grabbed that thing and when we got her loose she took off like greased lightening with that tissue. Dale had to chase her down. What a hoot that little dog is. Her name is Goosey Lucy and it fits.

Well, I'd better get ready to go to work. I bet Seth and Claire are out plowing snow again. Claire moved here from Australia when she married Seth and we love having her here. For the first winter she really loved the snow and enjoyed all the plowing, shoveling etc. I don't know that she is enjoying it that much this year. When she and I talked about it this last time, there wasn't the same sparkle in her eyes about it. It's great the first month, ok the second month, annoying the third month and downright aggrivating the fourth month. Right now it feels like we are on about our 6th month. I am really, really tired of snow.

I think the only one happy about the snow is our dog Sam. Every time new snow falls he gets excited. He can always tell and has to be out playing...which works out because for some reason I seem to always have to be out shoveling.

Have a great day.
dea