First snow

Big Creek in winter
Originally uploaded by junogle.

A photomerged image of the creek that runs by my property. First snow of the winter, about 2-3 inches. Wanted to get a shot of pristine snow before Buster and I went for a romp in it! Maybe more pix to come tomorrow.

Welcome to the 21st century

I bought a cell phone. My very first one. I've resisted until now because I'm just not a phone person. Never was. I just can't sit with some thing on my ear for hours, yakking away. I'd rather be face to face talking. E-mail is great for long distances, even though it's not the same as speaking to someone.

But, having a cell phone would make some things easier, especially where I live in a different town from where I work. And also where my parents live in the town I live in. They can always use e-mail to get ahold of me at work and they're at home, but once in awhile, one of us wasn't near e-mail and we couldn't necessarily get hold of each other right away when needed. So at least now that will be easier.

And it will be easier to deal with problems when I need to arrange some service person to get out to the house or make some other kind of appointment that I really don't want to use a work phone for.

And it would have come in handy on a day like today, where we had a guy come look at the furnace. I could have talked to him myself instead of having to relay messages through Mom or Dad via e-mail and her cell phone. Then I could have gotten the bad news myself. Turns out the heat exchange needs to be replaced. The repair guy said not to use it because it was puting out some carbone monoxide. And the WHUMPing sound it's been making was GAS EXPLODING! Kind of makes me mad at the guy we had check that late last winter and said he couldn't find anything wrong. I think we were pretty damn lucky, really.

Hopefully, the furnace is still under warranty. Then I'll just have to pay parts & labor. Otherwise, time to shell out some big bucks.

Last tase of summer?

I think it might be so. Right now, we've got sunny blue skies and about 70 degrees. Tomorrow, it dips back down into the 50s for the rest of the week, and I would imagine this is probably the last of summer's weather we'll see. So I've gotten my laundry done, including all my sheets, bedspread and duvet to get a last bit of sun-dried freshness in. I planted some daylily bulbs, too. It might be too late for them, but it hasn't really been cold enough for the ground to get too cold yet anyway.

Buster's been having fun hanging out in the backyard most of the day, although he seems to like laying in the shade of my sheets on the line! With all the trees pretty bare now, there's not much other shade. We went to the creek for awhile, and I threw a frisbee for him, at least until it landed halfway across the creek. Buster isn't one for swimming, it would seem, so we'll have to see if the frisbee floats in close enough to the bank to get back this week.

Tonight, I'll do some cooking. Mom's at work til about 6:30, so I thnk I'll make some of my chicken nuggets for dinner, and prepare some extra to freeze and store for busy days. Along with that, I'm going to make some sweet and sour chicken for tomorrow night (I'm working the hotline, and Mom's working til about 7), and then I'm going to bread some chicken breasts to freeze for Friday's dinner, when Mom's working until around 6 or 7 again. It'll be nice to have something easy to make for dinner after a busy day that's not some over-preserved frozen stuff in a bag. Yeah, those are convenient, but they just taste ... preserved. I'd rather have homemade (even if it's just semi-homemade). Or restaurant food. That's always good.

I do have some good news to pass along. I took an online certification course in grant writing from the nearby university, and passed the test with a 94 percent! I haven't studied or taken tests for a long time, so I was a bit nervous about how I'd do. My certificate should be in the mail soon. And I found out through my insurance agent that a mutual friend we had in college (and didn't know was a mutual friend) has a grant-writing biz on the side, so he gave me his contact info to get some tips and advice. Haven't done that yet, but I should. I hope eventually it might help boost my income level a bit, but that's probalby a ways off yet.

Well, I probably better start bringing the laundry in, and Buster needs a walk, so I guess I'll sign off for now.

Still here

Haven't gone anywhere, haven't done much. But I thought it was time to post.

Buster is doing well in his new home, and his personality is really taking shape. His favorite place is the backyard. He likes to stay out there laying in the sun or chasing a ball. We also found he likes chasing a disc, so I've got several cheap ones of those, since he likes to chew on them too! He's not as fond of going on walks as Nipper was, but we go about every day.

Also found out he's scared to death of cows. A farmer keeps some across the creek and up the road from us sometimes, and when we walked by there the other day, Buster did everything he could to not walk past them! He even almost slipped out of his collar. The next day, just smelling them was enough to make him scared. Big trucks still scare himk, too.

He's sleeping on my bed again, now though, so that's good. He curls up at the end of the bed instead of snuggling up next to me, though. But that's OK. It's enough to have him nearby. Except when he lies on top of my feet.