14 Degrees

That's how cold it was when I was kneeling in the snow and ice yesterday, changing a flat tire.  I'm sure it was a few degrees colder 15 minutes earlier when I was kneeling in the snow and ice at the bottom of my driveway, removing the chains from my tires.  Our driveway was so icy on Tuesday, that we had to use chains to get up and down safely.  The roads on Tuesday evening however, when I took the girls to vocals rehearsal, were mostly dry.  I guess we got more precipitation overnight, because I slid around a corner, off the road, and hit a post on my way to work yesterday.  That's how I got a flat tire, AND a dent in my front fender (luckily nothing worse.)

When I got to work 25 min late, everyone was in the parking lot as the smoke alarms blared continuously.  Power was out in that end of town - rumor had it that someone had hit a telephone pole.  40 minutes later, after the fire department inspected the premises and shut off the alarms, I was sent home and some staff were sent up to the hospital to use their computer system to cancel patients for the day.

J made it to school on Tuesday, and the girls had vocals rehearsals in the evening while I did a zoom meeting in the car in the parking lot.  Wed was a virtual day, and remote learning was scheduled today because of snow (no more snow days, kiddos!)  Perhaps L will finally get a chance to go back to school tomorrow?

In any case, I am extremely grateful that I had a warm home to come back to, unlike many, many folks in Texas (plus JP broke up the ice on the driveway while I was out, and I didn't even need chains to get back up!)  I am also very thankful for the man who stopped to help me change my tire - true, I had already removed the flat, but he finished putting on the spare while I tried to rub feeling back into my fingers.  Thank you, sir!  I'm so relieved that I had an unexpected day off in which to get my tire repaired, and lick my emotional wounds.

Today there will be more shoveling of snow, and I feel that I MUST get this on the record:  I AM SO DONE WITH FEBRUARY!

Tedious

I'm currently working on an extremely tedious project.  Water was accidently spilled on the last puzzle that I put together a couple of weeks ago, and just this week, I realized that a bunch of the pieces were falling apart.  I have been trying to match up 3 separate pieces of over 3 dozen puzzle pieces and glue them back together.  It's awful!

In the meantime, we have had more snow.  The shoveling is becoming tedious as well.  They are calling for more snowfall tomorrow and Tuesday.  Great.

The girls were supposed to return to hybrid learning last week - going to in-person school 2 days/week.  J went on Monday, Tues was virtual due to snow, Wed was virtual for cleaning, Thursday was virtual for snow, and Friday was off for President's Day weekend.  Sheesh.

The birds have been here in droves, despite the snow.  Look at all the prints under the feeders!

My new sewing machine arrived last week.  It took me a couple of tries to figure out the bobbin filling and threading the machine and all that kind of boring stuff, but then I started right in to finishing my half done t-shirt rug. 

It turned out terrible - looks a bit like a caterpillar.  I'm thinking it is a result of the loose tension from my old machine, followed by appropriate tension from the new one.  Regardless, I need to take it completely apart and start over.  It's very disappointing.

We have also been trying a few more recipes.  L made chocolate lava cakes in 2 different styles to determine which was better this weekend and last.  The first one had a ball of chocolate ganache in the center.  The second was baked for a shorter time, resulting in a gooey center.  They were both delicious, and the second version was definitely easier and less time consuming, so...we have a winner!!

I also made Rosa Parks' featherlite peanut butter pancakes in heart shapes in honor of Black History Month and Valentine's Day.

We tried a bit of veterinary surgery yesterday, and removed a large skin lesion from Stella's neck.  It was a joint effort between JP, L and myself:  JP removed it, I stitched her up, L held the patient, and dissected the lesion afterwards.

The poor puppy seems to be doing fine today.  We are using an ACE wrap to hold her bandage on and keep her from scratching her stitches.

We will keep on trying to make it through February day by day - loooooong, dark month!