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Happy nu year.
Jan. 4th, 2018 11:59 pmSo it's 2018. 2017 was not fun, I hope 2018 is better.
Here we have had two weeks of well below normal temperatures, and a couple inches of snow just before christmas. Today we had a winter noreaster. 14-20 inches of snow around the house plus temps in the 20s and serious wind. Work closed, so slept in and stayed home all day. Venturing out around 6pm when most of the snow had fallen, and spent a couple hours driving the snowblower around clearing the driveway, walk, and out on the street, the fireplug and the street drain.
It was so deep and bitterly cold that I saw several field mice out foraging for food while I was snowblowing. They were unable to get away from the big noisy machine, and I tried to avoid catching any in the auger. something I failed to do when my nice glove fell out of my coat pocket unoticed until I heard the noise it made going through the machine. I was able to retrieve it from the snow and it appeared undamaged before I shoved it back into my coat pocket and zipped it closed. I hope it is undamaged, I only bought them about two weeks ago. The new pair of fleece lined rubber gloves I got at harbor freight last week are way better for snowblowing. My hands were warm and dry the whole time I was outside, unlike all the cloth gloves I've used for years before. Best $6.99 I ever spent.
Going back inside, the smell of the beef barley stew I had put on before I went out filled the house with a wonderful aroma. I quickly shed my coat and wet shoes and dished up a bowl to eat. Then I recalled those poor mice out hunting for food in the snow-covered landscape. So I went and dumped the bowl of stew alongside the front path where I had seen a couple mice partway into the snowbank. Went back inside, turned off the lights and looked out. It wasn't even a minute before I saw a mouse venturing out and feeding on the still warm stew. So one of gods creatures got a warm filling meal on a bitter cold night. I have no doubt that the rest of it will be polished off by the crows in the morning, along with a mouse if they can catch it.
work is opening late tomorrow, so I'll have a slightly lazy morning, run the snowblower some more to clear any drifts and the piles right around the cars once they are cleared off and moved out of the way, plus the barrier that the street plow put up across the driveway.
Bringing mom home from the nursing home tomorrow also. She has healed up from the cracked pelvis and the physical therapy folks there say she isn't improving anymore. They say she needs someone with her all the time due to fall risk. So hiring a home health aide starting monday to be with mom weekdays when I'm at work. My brother is flying in saturday from seattle for a couple weeks also. I wish I'd known before I signed the contract for the health aide, could have saved a week or so of that cost. I'm hoping that mom will continue to improve and be able to stay home days by herself, or only need help for an hour or two around lunch or something like that.
The finances are getting stretched a bit with that. I'm told that mass health can cover those expenses, but we have to get mom enrolled in that. That enrollment process can take months, so need to get started on that asap. The same person also told me that since I'm a family member living in the house as a caregiver for the past ten plus years, that takes the house out of consideration as an asset in the medicare financials, making mom much more likely to be covered for nursing home expenses and so on. I'm still procrastinating on the insurance claim closeout stuff. Need to do that asap.
Where's my global warming? Its been well below normal temperatures for weeks. I'm now done with winter suckage.
Here we have had two weeks of well below normal temperatures, and a couple inches of snow just before christmas. Today we had a winter noreaster. 14-20 inches of snow around the house plus temps in the 20s and serious wind. Work closed, so slept in and stayed home all day. Venturing out around 6pm when most of the snow had fallen, and spent a couple hours driving the snowblower around clearing the driveway, walk, and out on the street, the fireplug and the street drain.
It was so deep and bitterly cold that I saw several field mice out foraging for food while I was snowblowing. They were unable to get away from the big noisy machine, and I tried to avoid catching any in the auger. something I failed to do when my nice glove fell out of my coat pocket unoticed until I heard the noise it made going through the machine. I was able to retrieve it from the snow and it appeared undamaged before I shoved it back into my coat pocket and zipped it closed. I hope it is undamaged, I only bought them about two weeks ago. The new pair of fleece lined rubber gloves I got at harbor freight last week are way better for snowblowing. My hands were warm and dry the whole time I was outside, unlike all the cloth gloves I've used for years before. Best $6.99 I ever spent.
Going back inside, the smell of the beef barley stew I had put on before I went out filled the house with a wonderful aroma. I quickly shed my coat and wet shoes and dished up a bowl to eat. Then I recalled those poor mice out hunting for food in the snow-covered landscape. So I went and dumped the bowl of stew alongside the front path where I had seen a couple mice partway into the snowbank. Went back inside, turned off the lights and looked out. It wasn't even a minute before I saw a mouse venturing out and feeding on the still warm stew. So one of gods creatures got a warm filling meal on a bitter cold night. I have no doubt that the rest of it will be polished off by the crows in the morning, along with a mouse if they can catch it.
work is opening late tomorrow, so I'll have a slightly lazy morning, run the snowblower some more to clear any drifts and the piles right around the cars once they are cleared off and moved out of the way, plus the barrier that the street plow put up across the driveway.
Bringing mom home from the nursing home tomorrow also. She has healed up from the cracked pelvis and the physical therapy folks there say she isn't improving anymore. They say she needs someone with her all the time due to fall risk. So hiring a home health aide starting monday to be with mom weekdays when I'm at work. My brother is flying in saturday from seattle for a couple weeks also. I wish I'd known before I signed the contract for the health aide, could have saved a week or so of that cost. I'm hoping that mom will continue to improve and be able to stay home days by herself, or only need help for an hour or two around lunch or something like that.
The finances are getting stretched a bit with that. I'm told that mass health can cover those expenses, but we have to get mom enrolled in that. That enrollment process can take months, so need to get started on that asap. The same person also told me that since I'm a family member living in the house as a caregiver for the past ten plus years, that takes the house out of consideration as an asset in the medicare financials, making mom much more likely to be covered for nursing home expenses and so on. I'm still procrastinating on the insurance claim closeout stuff. Need to do that asap.
Where's my global warming? Its been well below normal temperatures for weeks. I'm now done with winter suckage.
