Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined topic chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-second day of the month is "Atmosphere."
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Morning Walk - Hannah lives for the morning.
Snowpocalypse 2022 Update - Snowy and cold.
Grey Days - January is hard.
The Difference in a Day - February is hard.
A Good Old-Fashioned Catch Up - Time change complaints.
A Good Day to Listen - Lecture series. Woot. Woot.
Late May - The best time of the year.
Summer Vibes - The longest day of the year.
Live Music - Music on the river. What could be better?
Late August - Bittersweet end of summer.
Late September - Fall is confusing.
The Gala - Fun event.
Snowpocalypse 2022 Update - Snowy and cold.
Grey Days - January is hard.
The Difference in a Day - February is hard.
A Good Old-Fashioned Catch Up - Time change complaints.
A Good Day to Listen - Lecture series. Woot. Woot.
Late May - The best time of the year.
Summer Vibes - The longest day of the year.
Live Music - Music on the river. What could be better?
Late August - Bittersweet end of summer.
Late September - Fall is confusing.
The Gala - Fun event.
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Hannah count: 7
Zelda count: 1
Community center count: 3
Snow count: 4
Zelda count: 1
Community center count: 3
Snow count: 4
Shadow count: 2
Park by our house count: 1
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When I started doing these recap posts for the different themes, I assumed that there would be recurring topics that I covered each month. For most themes, there was not. For this theme, however, I sure complained about the weather a lot! Winter is brutal. Winter is coming.
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Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends! Happy random Thursday in November to my non-American friends who think we are weird for eating dry turkey (true) and watching the Detroit Lions lose every single year in an American football game (their record on Thanksgiving is 33-44-2, so I am only sort of exaggerating)!
I am currently writing this on WEDNESDAY, though, so I don't want anyone to feel misled by thinking I would have time on actual Thanksgiving to write anything. However, I had to go into work on Wednesday (because I have accrued only three hours of vacation time and my supervisor suggested strongly that I take Friday off, so I'm already going to be five hours in the hole), but no one else came to work on Wednesday (I mean, two of my co-workers are "working from home," but their little dots have NOT been active on Webex today), so I spent the day catching up on blogs and writing posts, which may someday come back and bite me in the butt, but what else was I supposed to do all day? I received zero emails or phone calls all day.
ANYWAY.
I'm acting like Wednesday morning was normal. It was NOT.
Do you remember in January of this year when we smelled something and we thought it was a gas leak, but it turned out that it was actually our just out of warranty newish furnace's something something coil something something wires crossing and we ended up paying hundreds of dollars? Well, after breakfast this morning, I started going up the stairs and I smelled the EXACT SAME THING.
I made Dr. BB go around the house and we smelled it in the upstairs and the basement and we just bypassed calling the energy company and immediately called the HVAC people. Well, Dr. BB had the day off, so I told him he had to deal with it while I went to work. (This is not ideal. Hannah requires handling when there are strangers in the house. If you need to handle Hannah AND talk to workers, things can get dicey.)
I got to work only to realize that I had left my wallet at home (I had switched it into my purse from my work bag when we went to Costco on Tuesday night and failed to put it back in my work bag). Because I need my university ID to access my work area, I had to drive right back home. And then I forgot to grab my lunch.
But no one was here, so no one even noticed that I was a half hour late.
Meanwhile, I get a text from my husband sort of laughing that ha ha, this time it WAS natural gas, but don't worry, the HVAC guy fixed it and didn't charge us because it's the exact same damn thing as in January and we officially are starting to think we have a giant lemon of a furnace that cost us thousands of dollars. Ahem.
I am thankful the furnace was a quick fix. I am thankful to have centralized heating. I am thankful everyone is safe. I am thankful the HVAC company was so quick and responsive. I am thankful for a job to go to.
These two! Zelda sleeps in Hannah's kennel way more often than Hannah sleeps in it.
That picture is PRICELESS. Sometimes, if a child is sick, they climb into bed and sleep with me. We have a king-sized bed. One child is 60 pounds soaking wet. And yet, if they come into bed, I end up with about 2 inches of real estate. How does something so small take up so much space AND SO CONFIDENTLY! This reminds me of that.
ReplyDeleteUgh re the gas leak. Glad it was fixed, glad Dr. BB was home to handle it, and glad you had a very relaxed day at work.
Ha ha ha! The spread issue is one of the many issues the pets are not allowed in our bedroom. I guess you can't ban actual human children from a room!
DeleteI'm so glad it got fixed but what a pain!!
ReplyDeleteYes! I thought we were lucky that my husband had the day off, though. It did make things easier.
DeleteARGH WHAT THE WHAT THAT YOU DON'T GET TG FRIDAY OFF!!!!! Boo! But seriously, I'm glad that you have the "problem" of starting a new job right before the holidays and not having any PTO accrued.
ReplyDeleteZelda is queen of the castle with her faithful guard dog on duty.
Is Friday off standard? It's not in any state or federal or nonprofit job I've ever had. It's always been a day everyone takes off and uses vacation for!
DeleteOh geez! That is so frustrating! Glad that your husband got it taken care of, but so irritating to deal with. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
ReplyDeleteFrustrating, but it was nice that it was an easy fix! And that my husband was home to deal with it.
DeleteWell, kind of annoying that you had to go in to work- but at least it's not far away, you got to read blogs, and you didn't use up any time off. And good thing Dr. BB was home to deal with the gas leak! Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you guys have a fun and relaxing day.
ReplyDeleteYes! Dr. BB being home to handle it was really lucky, I thought. I am not sure who would have had to stay home otherwise.
DeleteHow nice to be paid for Wednesday. Glad you used your time well.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Well, I'm not sure my employer would think I used the time well, but that's how it goes.
DeleteHVAC stuff always scares me. I automatically fear The Worst.
ReplyDeleteAt least your day in the office wasn't totally horrid. And you had your blanket.
Love the photo of Hannah and Zelda wherein Hannah is being a cat.
I had my blanket and a heating warming pad for under my keyboard and that warming pad has really helped with some of the stiffness in my hands. Highly recommend.
DeleteMy goodness, I'm glad that was an easy fix anyway--gas scares me!
ReplyDeleteI was working as a temp once and on the Wednesday afternoon before Tgiving, they went around saying we could go home early! I asked how that worked with me clocking out and thus not getting paid, and they admitted that while I was allowed to leave early, for me it would be unpaid. Uh, no thanks, I have bills. So I ended up being the only one there, with nothing to do. It was weird, but hey, I got paid.
I hate being alone in a workplace! It's so creepy!! I mean, yes, you got paid, but paid for doing nothing. What a waste of your time!
DeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteI had to work Wednesday and again on Friday, but the Husband is taking the kids out of town for an overnight, so things will seem a little calmer, I think.
Does Hannah mind Zelda in her kennel?
Hannah does not seem to care, actually. She could easily roust the cat out of there if she wanted it, but she always just leaves Zelda to nap there in peace. I like to think that Zelda likes to be surrounded by Hannah's smell and Hannah likes that the cat is hanging out in a safe space. But I'm probably reading a lot more into it than is actually there!
DeleteActual honest question... couldn't Hannah just go in her kennel when a stranger is in the house?
ReplyDeleteYou commented recently on my blog about Charlie's crate being his safe space/ den to hang out in, and YES, I totally agree, that is what I want it to be for him, too. So far he does generally well in there and will just nap, etc. However. He does not seem to actually "want" to go in it, ever. Like when he senses it's time to go in (just based on our routines and stuff), I can see him kind of tense up and he will like turn his head away from it, or he will (very amusingly) try to like "melt into the couch so we can't see him" or something. Haha. It's not that he throws a massive fit, either, though depending he will sometimes whine for a few minutes. But sometimes his body language definitely resists it a bit, or he will sometimes actually try to like straighten his paws out and actually physically resist going in. Once he's in, he's fine and will settle down and just nap usually. I feel like when he's awake in there though he seems kind of bored. For a while I was giving him a high value reward treat like a little piece of chicken or something and in those cases he would run in there to wait for the treat. BUT, he seems to have a sensitive stomach, so we've been having to really stick to just his kibble right now while we sort out what he can tolerate or not.
Anyway, just some stuff I've been mulling over. Some people say their dogs will go in their crate willingly, with the door open, but Charlie never does that. He will occasionally stick his head in and pull his blanket out, but he never goes in and lays down with the door open, ever. I wish he would!
We couldn't put H in her kennel because, unfortunately, she would probably hurt herself trying to get out of it to protect us. We put her in her kennel once when a worker was over and she tried to get out and actually hurt her paw before we realized what was going on. We can lock her in the mudroom with the baby gate, which is what my husband did do, but she barked and barked and was clearly unhappy (and, honestly, probably stresses out the workers).
DeleteAlso, we used to put H in her kennel at night (we wanted the cat to be able to use the mudroom because her big cat tree is in there), but Hannah got really sick in her kennel a couple of times overnight before we figured out her food issues and since then she's been a reluctant kennel goer. She'll go in with enough encouragement, but it's clear that she does NOT associate it with safety and treats. There's nothing we could have done to prevent her feelings about the crate, I don't think (we didn't know she was going to get so sick!), but I feel terrible that she doesn't love her kennel as much as she used to.
If Charlie never really takes to his crate, that will be FINE, I promise. Once he's no longer a puppy, you won't have to crate him or have your eyes on him 100% of the time. A grown dog is as different from a puppy as a teenager is from a newborn!
Love the picture of Hannah in the sunshine!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your gas issue was fixed. We had a similar scare a few weeks ago, but we never found a source despite a visit from the fire dept.
When we're home during the day, my husband and I move that mat around for her so she's always in the sun. It's one way that you know our girls are well cared for.
DeleteThat gas smell would've freaked me out. I'm glad it was fixed (for free!).
ReplyDeleteRight? The fact that it was free was definitely something to give thanks for.
DeleteUgh, how can they suggest you take Friday off when you don't have enough PTO? Why don't they just give you Friday off? (But weird as it may be, the government doesn't give us Black Friday off either and we always have to take PTO). Wednesdays before Thanksgiving are always doozies at work too.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry about the natural gas leak. I am always scared when I smell gas even though it often is an easy fix.
I love that picture of Zelda and Hannah. It's so funny that Zelda likes the kennel better than Hannah... cats are weird.
Well, working for the government is working for the government, state or federal, right? I can use PTO I haven't earned yet, so I'll just be in a bit of a hole and then I'll have to figure out how to handle things around Christmas when I know how many hours I'll have.
DeleteSO much to be thankful for. I have to say thought, smelling gas anywhere in my house causes alarm! It's weird you have to go to work if there is nothing happening....but like you said, you have to build up some hours.
ReplyDeleteGood grief. I'm so sorry you had to go through this but also so glad that you just called and that they came quickly and that you weren't sleeping in a house with an active gas leak. Yikes. Just, yikes.
ReplyDeleteGood things to be thankful for. And I am sue the slow day at work is being turned around one day and you will be craving the slow day.
ReplyDelete