43 and Still Falling…

As an update to my previous post, a part had to be ordered for my furnace therefore it couldn’t be repaired today. Go figure. Two days ago it was about 43 outside, this morning temperatures dipped into negative double digits.

Since we didn’t want to leave home we’ve plugged in space heaters on the second story and are just heating the bedrooms.  Too bad the bathroom on the second story is smaller than a broom closet, I suppose it beats the frosty toilet on the main floor.

My biggest concern is the pipes freezing, so I’ve left the kitchen sink drizzling warm water hoping to avoid any futher issues. I hope it works.

On a brighter note I stayed warm earlier today by mopping, dusting, vacuuming. Then I went to the mall and went shopping.

Freezing in Minnesota.

55 and Falling

My son woke me up this morning as he was getting ready to leave for school. He attends Central Lakes Community College and usually gets up around 7ish. He woke me because our furnace tanked during the night and the house was 57 degrees. Since my outdoor thermometer read 20 below zero  I wasted little time calling Lee’s Heating and air conditioning. 45 minutes later they arrived and said the problem wasn’t as simple as some of the other issued we’ve had and that they’d have to go back to their office and locate the needed part. They promised to be back asap.

Its only been 15 minutes since the repair person left but I’m freezing and frustrated with the furnace. I rent the house I am living in and the furnace has required repair work 3 times since November. I’m just glad that with such cold temperatures that Lee’s Heating has been so responsive and that there isn’t a back log of customers waiting in line for servicing. Its just too cold to be with out heat!

Somewhere in the house there is a pair of fingerless heated gloves that draw heat from the USB port on your computer..I wish I knew where I packed them.

Repealing Murphy’s Law Part II

The treadmill lives! My mother suggested I spray the treadmill with a silicone spray and it worked. I’m back on track and walked 2 miles. No more shrimp fettuccine….at least for a while..

Repealing Murphy’s Law

I’m having a less than stellar week and Murphy’s Law has announced its arrival with authority.

It began with my flash drive loosing 100 to 150 KB of data when the casing slid off after a mere 4 weeks of use. Thank you for that ineffective spot of glue Corsair. In my universe you’re taking up permanent residence in the doghouse, maybe the pig pen, strike that I’m kicking your ass to the curb.

But it didn’t stop there because the treadmill I purchased croaked after just 5 miles, now I have to track down the seller and sort the issue out. Naturally this happened after I made Fettuccine with shrimp Alfredo sauce, justifying the butter and whipping creme by telling myself I’d walk it off after dinner. It was divine, but my treadmill wouldn’t budge.

After that came the hair cut incident, vain as it is I can survive anything if my hair’s cute. Since I have a wedding to attend this weekend I purposely over grew my hair cut so when I had the very ends taken off it would be the prefect length. I explained this in detail to the stylist at Fantastic Sam’s, she had nice hair so I felt remotely confident even though she had never cut my hair before. As she began cutting I got the distinct feeling she was one of those nervous sorts who, in their constant state of anxiety, leak data like a defective bladder. She’d stare blankly and every so often I thought I saw a bubble above her head captioning the words…”now what was I supposed to be doing?” 

She sheared an good inch leaving me with about a half inch of hair.  The worst part was when she asked if I wanted my bangs short or long…I deliberated and she snapped, “you have to decide.” I said long, since my deliberating irked her. She cut them to the middle of my forehead which made me to wonder just where they would have ended up if I would’ve told her to cut them short. I’m thinking the answer would have been, the waste basket.

Now I’m in such a bad mood that I’d like to go back and ruin her perfectly groomed tress just to be hateful.

Saving My Work

During my blogging absences I’ve recently completed a full 7 chapters of my novel. As my work gradually formed an actual book I became nervous about loosing information should something happen to my computer. I started emailing a copy to myself but later decided to buy a flash drive so I could not only work from any computer but in the event of a fire I could easily grab the small drive and take it with me.

In late December I purchased a Corsair flash drive and began toting my book from computer to computer working on it where ever I could. I backed up my files just about every week saving a copy to my laptop.

As of yesterday, I owned the flash drive for about 30 days. After saving my work to it the casing on the flash drive pulled off as I went to remove it from the USB port. It appeared to only be held together by a dot of glue. Once the case became detached it lost my entire novel.

Since I was due to back up my files that day I lost approximately 6 days of editing or 100KB of data. I really thought I was going to throw up. My worst fear brought to life by the item I purchased to prevent such an event.

Do I want a replacement flash drive? Hell no! I want my 100KB of editing back.

4 Miles and Counting

I’ve now owned my treadmill for a full 24 hours and I have logged a total of 4 slightly uphill miles on my new machine. I feel better already, mainly because I’m no longer settling for good enough. I’d like to be healthy and fit as my 50’s close in on me.

Beyond New Years

I have 2 goals for 2008, one is to finish my novel The Eyes to See Grace which in my blogging absences I have been working on feverishly, The other is to loose 10 lbs.

I’ve justified my lack of exercise by telling myself that all my clothes are 4’s and 5’s, surely at 46 those sizes are acceptable.  Except I used to wear a size 0 and ate whatever I wanted but I was too thin. When I turned 40 and quit smoking I moved into 2’s and 3’s. My shape had never looked better except I kept gaining and added 2 more sizes to my whispy 5 foot frame. Now when I look in the mirror I see a figure that reminds me of a cocktail weenie and I hate it. 

It’s a vast waste of a perfectly good body and there just isn’t any excuse for it. My gene’s were such that I carried 3 babies and didn’t register so much a stretch mark and my skin firmed up on its own. Whenever I switched doctors’ they’d ask what happened to my pregnancies because I didn’t look like I ever gave birth. I attribute this to ballet lessons and being fit prior to pregnancy but who knows. Either way, the telltale marks of child birth eluded me and with a modest amount of effort I could not only improve my health but I could quit looking like a weenie and quit dressing around my trouble spots…I could even go back to stealing my daughter’s jeans.

Since one of the obstacles to getting exercise has been winter weather, I consulted Craigslist and found a reasonably priced treadmill then drove to Nisswa to pick it up. When I came home I turned on my audiobook, The Thirteenth Tales and I walked for 2.5 miles.

The only one who objected was our Yorkshire Terrier, Jack. Jack recognizes my walking shoes and sat at attention next to the treadmill for a while. When I finished my walk and slipped my shoes off he laid next to them and whined. I considered walking him a short distance outside knowing full well he would be shivering within minutes even with his sweater on but I just couldn’t muster the stamina just to prove a point to a dog.