The Last Day On Earth and driving in the Noreaster of 2009

Last night after work, I went to "Last Day On Earth" a.k.a. the grocery store, with both kids (while Steve worked on getting the snowblower started).  Evidence that the grocery was Last Day On Earth was the fact that the ShopRite in Jacksonville had zero parking spaces available and only 3 grocery carts left.  More evidence was found when I picked a number at the deli counter.  I was number 96.  They were serving number 74.  O...M...G.

So I shopped for the other stuff I thought I needed for the weekend... ground beef, chicken, steaks, cereal, a gallon of milk for the kids... not much.  I went back to the deli line, maybe 10-15 minutes later.  They were serving number 80.  O...M...G.  At that rate, I'd be waiting over an hour to be served.  I saw someone walk up to pick a number, and so I decided to give her mine.  She had number 110, so you can just imagine how enormously happy she was to receive mine.  Merry Christmas.  :-)

What I didn't contemplate is how homebound we'd really be.  "Hmmm," I thought, "this could be a good weekend to make cookies."  I had the ingredients to make Thumbprint cookies as I had planned to make those sometime soon.  "Ok, those won't take too long," I figure, "so I can make some chocolate chip cookies, too.  I've got all the ingredients for those..... oh wait."  I only had 1 egg, and I needed 2.

I have to go back to the grocery store, but there was a noreaster dumping snow on us.  Since Steve had already cleaned the driveway once, it would be no problem to get out of the driveway.  But the county had not gotten to our road yet.  Steve said that he'd come dig me out if I got stuck on our road but once I got to the main road, I should be fine.  I concurred, and it was just the incentive I needed.

I love driving in the snow.  It's stressful, but I think it's fun.  It's a lot more fun because my all-wheel drive Subaru WRX!  So I packed my list, and off I went.  The driveway was no problem.  The turn from my driveway onto our road was one big slide, but I had momentum, and cruised up the street.  I got to the main road, and it didn't looked plowed to me.  I really believe the only reason I went any further is because of all-wheel drive.  Without it, I never would have been able to get myself going again from a stop because the snow was deep on both roads.

Getting to the ShopRite was no problem, really.  I passed the snowplows clearing Sweet Air, which is a snow emergency route, and I could see the double yellow lines - but that's it.  I got into the ShopRite parking lot, and it was the exact opposite of the Last Day On Earth.  I wasn't even sure the store was open.  In the process of turning around, I nearly got myself stuck but again, all-wheel drive for the win.

I went to the SuperFresh and parked in the grocery pick up lane because the parking lot wasn't plowed.  The guy trying to keep the main driving lane in front of the SuperFresh clear was having trouble keeping up with it so he didn't have any time to clear the parking spaces.  It was definitely snowing harder at this point.

I went into the baking aisle, and the shelves had been ransacked of cookie-making ingredients.  I was stunned.  Reminents of the Last Day On Earth at the Safeway.  Clearly I had the same idea as everyone else, just a complete day late.  Oops.  The only thing I needed was powdered sugar of which there were still some items left on the shelves.  I picked up eggs and went to get butter - cleared out.  There was zero butter, only margarine, literally. More reminents of the Last Day On Earth!

By the time I got out to the car, it had at least an inch of snow on the windshield.  The roads were back to multiple inches deep, including Sweet Air which had just been plowed less than half an hour before.  I couldn't see the double yellow lines anymore!   While heading home, I had fun slipping and sliding.  Corners were nothing short of four wheel slides, and I had no fears about actually getting to the house. 

But getting up the driveway, that, I realized would be a whole different issue.  I tried to turn the corner, and didn't make it.  Backed up, got a small running start, and got halfway up the hill.  At this point, Steve's outside watching me and laughing.  It really was a sight.  I backed down the hill, got a better running start and got 2/3rds up the hill.  There, I just tried to will it up the rest of the way and miraculously, it did.  Good little car!!!

When I got out of the car, I said to Steve, "Not only do you need to change my brakes (existing request), but now you'll have to change my clutch, too!!!"  Steve laughed a knowing laugh... I'm not nice to clutches.  ;-)

Both thumbprint and chocolate chip cookies are baked, the driveway has been cleaned twice, and now we just wait until tomorrow to do all of the rest.

The Snowblower Saga

They weren't kidding when the forecast called for snow. 

It started about 11:00PM-ish on Friday night, at little earlier than predicted for the area, and it was coming down hard and fast.  By the morning, we had a good half a foot.  If this was going to keep up, and since the newscast had upgraded us from a winter storm warning to a blizzard warning, we figured the snow was going to keep coming down at a ridiculous pace the rest of the day.  That means we'd also have to keep pace with it in clearing it.

Now we have a Craftsman snowblower that we bought the year we moved into the house.  It's massive, and it doesn't get used that often because we don't have that many snowfalls per year.  Of the ones we do have, 99% of the time our Subaru WRXs don't even flinch in getting up and down our driveway.  So we don't bother with the snowblower.  We used it the first year we got it as we had a good foot one snowfall.  Since then, it has sat. 

We tried starting it last winter, just to see if it would start, just in case.  Nope, wouldn't start.  It churns but won't turnover.  We tried starting it this summer, no go.  Then by yesterday afternoon, it was clear we would have no choice but to figure out how to get this thing started else we had a long day of back breaking shoveling ahead of us.  Steve stopped by the autoparts store and picked up a can of carborator cleaner and a can of ether. 

By the time I got home with the kids, Steve was in the garage trying to get the thing to start but was having no luck.  The project was postponed to today.

So this morning, after breakfast, Steve went into the garage to continue where he left off.  He pulled off the caborator and cleaned it.  He drained it of the old gas, put it back together, added the gas we bought last year (so, newer gas than what was in it) and gave it a shot of carborator cleaner.  It almost started.  Steve pulled out the spark plug, cleaned it, put it back together and VROOM!!!  It started!!  Party on, Wayne!

Steve and the infamous snowblower

Steve proceeded to clean the snow off the driveway, but he said it was running rough.  When he was at the bottom of our driveway, it stalled.  Good thing we have a very long extension cord (electric start)! 

When Steve came back in, he was thinking the govenor was wrong and thus why it was running rough.  During the kids' nap, he changed it, and voila!  It worked like a champ.  Halfway up our driveway, it stalled again, and Steve couldn't get it started, despite the extension cord electric start.  "Oh, duh, I ran it out of gas!"  I was outside hoping to get some footage with our new Kodak HD video camera, heard that, and lost it.  Hilarious!! 

The snowblower has been running great since.

Bravo Steve for getting it running!  Saved us a HUGE amount of work....

Tinsel E - December update

Ruining my plan to sleep in to try and start killing my cold was my orthodontist appointment.

I knew from my last appointment that I was going to get a new wire... my last and FINAL wire!!!  Hooray!!!  And, true to his word, I did get my final wire today.  This is one big fat wire, and the technician had trouble threading it through my brackets.  I could feel the difference immediately, before she'd even closed the bracket doors to lock in place, or in her term, engage the wire.

I thought, great, I'm done... time to go home to sleep.  That's when the technician said, "I still have to put on your rubber band and hook."

WHAT.... ?!  Seriously?!

Sure enough, she somehow added another "hook" to one of my top front brackets.  The brackets on my bottom molars already have hooks (I guess permanently) on them.  She then gave me a mirror, showed me a tool that I would be using, and showed me how to hook a rubber band from my bottom teeth to my top teeth on my right side.

WHY?!

"[The orthodontist] believes your bite on the one side could be better adjusted."

Oh.

"You need to change the rubber band 2-3 times per day.  And take it out when you brush your teeth or eat."

"Why 2-3 times per day?"

"Because they lose their elasticity and become less effective."

I will do anything to make this go faster.  In the last month, my braces have really come to annoy me and I can't WAIT until I'm done with them.  I've been thinking about the fact that I've not even had them a year and they're frustrating me.  How in the world do teenagers deal with them for so long?!  I feel for them.  Anyway, to get them off faster, if that means I need to change a stupid rubber band 2-3 times a day, then fine!

Of course, now I feel more like a teenager than ever, and will be self conscious for a while that I don't have a rubber band come flying out of my mouth during a meeting or something... I can just see it now.... nailing someone in the face with it.  Wouldn't that be my luck!

On my way out, I went to see my primary care physician who is in the same building because he also has braces and wanted to commiserate with him.  We traded war stories (speaking of war - it is Pearl Harbor Day today), and got a chuckle from it all.

I came home and wanted to eat some breakfast.  Despite a little trepidation about the rubber band, I took it out, wolfed down my meal and then attempted to get the rubber band back on me.  It took me a couple of tries but it actually wasn't that difficult.  It's just not a flattering sight.  ::sigh::

Bring on the new set of canker sores, one where the new "hook" is and one where the rubber band rubs my check wrong.  Yay.

I got back again mid-January.  They didn't say it would be my final appointment, so I'm guessing I have to go at least into February.  Hopefully the rubber band comes off in January!!