A very belated Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a very late Merry Christmas.

I've been working nonstop. This is the last year I will do this business of working Christmas to give the new people a day with their families. There seems to be a new person every year!

The new people don't last, so every year I work the holiday.

Doesn't even feel like I got a Christmas at all this year. Even Husband RJ isn't listening to the holiday music channel. And we both look a bit ragged.

More later, after I finish working the week.

pb
Little Pond

And the Sun Sets on Another Vacation

I woke up to this sunset Sunday afternoon at 4:30. I did manage to get up at dawn, when the area was drizzling freezing rain on top of a night of gentle snow.

We were snowed in all day. Not a blizzard, but very dangerous conditions, anyway. I had one thing only planned this vacation. I was to get a present for my Secret Santa recipient and it didn't happen, due to the storm. Hope I get them before Tuesday. That is pretty much the drop-deadline on shipping to Massachusetts.

That also means I didn't see my son in law host an evening of punkers at a local bar. Don't Look in the Basement played without me in their audience. MammaDog was worried about the storm and the venue, which was a little rough for an old lady like me.

Sleep, sleep, sleep! Never have I slept so much on a vacation since the first year after my diagnosis.

Hope it's not a new trend...

pb
Little Pond

Ellie Before the Storm

Our HuggaMutt the day before the last dump of snow. Late afternoon on the Chemung's south bank.

It was darned cold and very breezy. My little pal is looking way down into the very cold, very fast river.

Whenever we go southside, the walk is long and arduous, very good preparation for all the shovelling we did the next day. Shovelled once by hand, and the second time we used the "electric shovel." Except for the pain in the butt of hauling around the cord, it was a little easier. Takes longer, though, what with constantly checking and moving the wire.

HuggaMutt was returned to her homestead on Grand Central, while we all await the next snowfall, tonight. Husband RJ doesn't use the wimpy electric shovel. Big, manly, gas-powered multi-stage snow blower for him.

I was exhausted enough with the shovel. But our vacation is nearly done, and I could still rest afterwards. Back to work Monday. Another co-worker is using up his use it or lose it time. I always leave a few days, in case. One year I didn't and lost two weeks to sudden disability caused by the strain of working and making it through the holidays.

We are much wiser now.

pb
Little Pond

Lost in the Sun

Three disappointments: Poor batteries, brand new. Prelit Christmas tree with bands of unlightedness. Lazy dog.

The poor batteries, any cheap brand. Only good batteries for the camera are Duracell and Energizer. All others just can't handle it.

Prelit tree is a few years old. Lost a small section last year, but this year is missing lights in bands. We'll have to add strings of lights.

Lazy dog won't walk. She went up to the water's edge happily enough, but decided it was too cold for the tramp through the wooded areas. And today, I haven't the enthusiasm to push it.

Long, difficult hours at work are sapping me. Not overtime, just overwork. With another person out, we are piling on the extra chores, rushing through the evening's work, and not doing anything really well.

Like others in the advertising industry, well, I just wish Christmas would hurry up and get past.

Then I can try to recover a bit.

Oh, well, next week I hope to take five days to myself. I expect Husband RJ will, too. Let's hope this time he's not working at home. It makes everything suck for both of us.

pb
Little Pond

Breather

Husband RJ spent the entire weekend, including Monday, working at this computer. See, for the Chemung County Planning Department, Advent is simply the season when the County dumps on them all the paperwork that the other departments were too slow or incompetent to complete themselves.

At least that is how it looks to me. RJ is an excellent writer of grants, proposals, voucher requests, etc. They turn to him in the absolute drop-dead situations.

Because he can do it, get it done, and deliver on time. So every Advent is totally destroyed for him, year after year. He gnaws at himself until he squeezes out what they want.

And they know it, the jerks.

As for me, well, my breather comes for a different reason.

MSG poisoning. I stupidly ate high protein snack bars, instead of my beloved chocolate. Almost anything high protein, especially goosed-up high protein, contains isolates and hydrolyzed or autolyzed proteins, and lets not forget the caseinates. Some pretty high falutin names for what is essentially MSG.

The results: headache, nausea, cramps and some deadly--and not silent--episodes of bodily indiscretion. Finally, it is all followed by a few cleansing hours close to the porcelain facility.

All better today, except for a touch of nausea, and a little soreness all through the alimentary canal and its environs, if you catch my drift. (If you were around Sunday night you certainly would have caught it...)

So I still need to stay close to home. So let's terrorized the pets with the vacuum, broom and dustmop.

pb
Little Pond

Wow!

Can't believe there are so many snow-phobic people out there. The stuff is all gone now, and the sun has graced my morning of T-day preps.

More photoblogging tomorrow.

pb
Little Pond

First Real Snow 2007-8

View from the bedroom window onto Guinnup Avenue, Elmira, New York