Freezing @ MindSay

Dixie currently feels:

Stressed

 

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It's quarter past eleven.

I'm sat in a room with no heat, in a wet towel, with wet hair and shoulders - staring at my English coursework, having to type slowly because my mother is in bed in the next room.

 

This coursework is like, 6 months overdue and tomorrow is the final deadline for it.

I've wrote two pages, size 11, in an hour and a half. I'm about half way done.

But I'm ready to bite someone.

 

 

...Oh, the sheer stress.

."I really think you should rethink your resolutions," Rachel tells me at dinner.

.I needed to go to the bank, you see. I didn't think the bank was very far away. Maybe a mile. It's probably about a mile and a half, actually. But that's apparently too far to walk when it's 29 degrees outside (I can't find a degree sign to copy from Microsoft Word and this frustrates me).

.I wore my expensive new black wool coat. It always makes me feel cool when I'm wearing it. The colar pops up and reminds me of a spy who might sulk in the corner of a Moroccan bar waiting for a special package. I turned on my iPod, started up the Starlight Mints,  and began walking down the sidewalk of one of the busiest streets in Oxford (there aren't too many major roads, so it's easy for it to get busy). I probably looked more like a French model whose forehead broke out so he went crazy and began walking through the snow in a random direction wearing the clothes the designer told him to try on. I say this because I feel like I looked very nice today... despite the fact that my forehead broke out a little. Unfortunately, there was no snow to add to my eccentricities. It was just very cold. The cars whizzed past and added to the strong wind.

.The bank was closed when I got there. It had been for about a half-hour. My inner-self, who does a vast number of debaucheries on a regular basis, immediately says he needs a drink. Instead, I called Rachel and asked if she would pick me up at a nearby restaurant. When I took out the earbuds for my iPod inside the restaurant, I felt like my ears might bleed. My eardrums were cold and stiff. The sound of the Starlight Mints attempted to force them to vibrate. This did not go over very well. And thus, that is why my ears were in so much pain when I removed the buds. I ordered french fries with my food. They weren't too hot, but upon touching them my hands felt scalded. The temperature difference was too great for them.

."I think you should put a limit on your giving up driving," Rachel tells me. "For instance, not walking long distances when the temperature is below 40 degrees outside." I think this is a reasonable idea in my mind, but verbally I disagree. Rachel just shakes her head at me. I get this a lot.

When I got home from house cleaning yesterday Dave asked me to grab the camera and go for a ride with him.  He took me down the road aways turned left and headed towards the hills.  Next thing I know he's telling me to get the camera ready.  So I did.  The pictures that follow are a result of a water line that has cracked in various places due to freezing.  A lot of the ranchers here will run their sprinklers all winter long as well to help their pasture lines from freezing.  Makes for some interesting sights.  I also made these pic's black and white.  Liked the affect much better.  Dave took the majority of these.  Don't believe I liked any that I took. Anyway here they are:















Hope all is well and warm where you are.  I'd say I'd try to get caught up on my reading today, but so far every time I do .... it doesn't pan out.  So maybe if I do a reverse psychology thinking on myself .... I'll actually get some catching up done.

Peace.  J.

I finally got my crown last Fri.  It's a lovely thing in yellow gold.  Why can't we have crowns in white gold?  I look better in white metal ;)  I guess I like seeing the dentist...  I've found a broken filling.  I don't know how old this filling is, but I think I have a bit of a cavity underneath.  Bummed.

It's been so damn cold here in the So Cal area (especially the High Desert) that they've lost something like 70% of the citrus crop.  Pipes are freezing all over the High Desert.  Even the other office we use had a burst pipe this weekend.  I guess the water was pouring out for at least 3 hrs.  Right in the middle of the treatment area.  The ceiling has come down in the waiting area and the treatment area.  I haven't seen the damage personally, but descriptions aren't good.  There are waiting lists for every plumber in the area.  They must be raking in the cash right now.

I did get a better raise this year than last.  Last year was $0.50/hr and this year was $1.00/hr.  That makes me happy! :)  Happy and surprised! 

Soooo tired this week.  I just want to sit and sleep most times.  I haven't done anything to be so tired about. 

So I was bored yesterday.    That boredom was interupted abruptly. 

I was in and out between the house and the shop yesterday.  Coming in once in awhile to check Mindsay and emails.  No ..... I don't have a life .... LOL !!  But the cold walk between the two was probably the only thing keeping me awake yesterday.  I believe our high was 23 degrees.

Dave had followed me into the house to make a sandwich around 2:30 and I headed to the bathroom.  While taking care of business I heard water running.  At first I didn't think anything of it figuring that Dave was washing his hands out in the kitchen.  As I left the bathroom the sound of water running was still there.  I walked out into the kitchen and saw Dave in the middle of making his sandwich.  So I figured it had been the toilet flushing.  After a few minutes this whole water running thing was bugging me so I went back into the bathroom to see if I could still hear it.  And yes ..... there was definitely water running somewhere.  So I asked Dave if he had water on somewhere ..... no.  Asked mom .... you doing something with water somewhere? ...... no.  Then I walked into the living room part of the house and looked up ..... water was dripping through the ceiling.  Wall to wall.  And sagging.

When my parents bought this house it was about 700 sq. ft.  My dad added on the living room, made the second bedroom bigger and added a bathroom.  And for some bizzare reason the contractor put the hot water heater for this part of the house in the attic.  Well the attic hot water heater took a major crap this summer and Dave re-routed everything so that all the hot water was put through the normal water heater in the regular part of the house.  He just forgot one thing.  And that one thing caused some true excitment yesterday.

For the next 5 hours I was pulling out soaking wet blown-in insulation and mopping up icy water off of sheetrock in a very very cold attic.  After about 3 hours Dave literally started vomiting from breathing in all this crap.  We finally stopped and both put on masks.  It was ugly.  Really ugly.  When we finished up we were both tired and sore from having to squat or stand bent over for so long.  I think I actually checked in once here between grabbing more rags and buckets to say hi to someone .... can't even remember who now.   But then was off ..... we both slept really well last night and later today when Dave gets home from wood cutting we will need to go up and double check the damage.  We kept the wood stove hot and stocked last night to hopefully dry some of the ceiling up.  We were very lucky that we didn't end up with water and ceiling in our living room.

I'm tired today but have a lot to do between laundry and overall cleanup of yesterdays ordeal.  There are bags of insulation all over my front yard that I need to gather and pile somewhere.  At least it was 12 degrees this morning.  Warming up!

So my intentions today are to get caught up on posts and respond to those who responded to me yesterday.  Swear I'm not ignoring you all!!!

Peace.  J.