Holy SNOW, Batman

So, I'll admit that a foot of snow in 24 hours and then 8 or 10 inches in the next 24 hours (apparently the weatherfolks are sure it wasn't 9 inches...reminds me of David Sedaris' story 6-to-8 Blackmen) .
STILL...the plowing in Spokane is SHAMEFUL! I'm not blaming the drivers. They are apparently following policy and would likely be fired if they took matters into their own hands.

I drove down to Plummer today (El Kid is with his mom for the holiday week so I'm in Plummer) and about 10 to 15 miles south of Spokane, the amount of snow drops to a total closer to about 15 inches or so. BUT, the plowing in Washington remains CRAP. I go over the state line and there is an ACTUAL LINE on the road where one goes from the Washington method of allowing a lot of snow to build up on the road and be packed down onto the road. (The depth on the side street next to our apartment is about a foot...that's PACKED a foot deep. The ruts are amazing and dangerous). The country highway I was on had several inches of packed snow on it. No sand. No gravel. No traction. One car in the ditch (my question was "why just one?").
At the Idaho line, amazingly, the road is pretty well scraped. There are some chunks of packed snow on the road, but you can see pavement and there is SAND and GRAVEL on the snow/ice/pavement. In Washington, the "plowing" (down to the packed snow) covered only one lane each way. No shoulder and no second lane even when I know there is on on the pavement. In Idaho, except for the ramp going from one highway to the next, the WHOLE ROAD is plowed.
It's not perfect and given the fear of salt in the greater Northwest, it isn't as good as I remember the midwest, but it's not bad. I drove 35 to 45 miles per hour the whole way and was OK.

But why is Idaho better plowed? There are fewer tax payers total. Fewer tax payers per mile of road. Fewer pieces of equipment (they are maintaining the local roads with a road grader as the plows are on the main highway) and fewer equipment drivers per piece of equipment.
So what gives?
What do Washingtonians have against the plow?

Anyway, it is what it is. And what it is, is crap road maintenance. Hopefully I can keep the commuting to a minimum.

Being trapped in Spokane was not pleasant. I don't like city life. I appreciate the store across the street. But I'd rather be on the rez. This week I plan to be here until Friday afternoon spending a blissful quiet week in the trailer baking and cooking when I'm not at the office catching up on missed work.

And can I say that while in Spokane they routinely plow a burm across the side streets (they don't plow side streets), here in Plummer, they avoided even plowing in my driveway and they know full well I'm rarely there. They did dump a HUGE load of snow in the yard, but didn't burm the drive. That is manners. As a result, it only took me an hour or less to dig out a parkign spot and a path to the trailer. In Spokane, I dug the 2 feet of snow (we only have a foot or so in Plummer, maybe less) away from the car, only to be faced with a burm at the end of the street. Thank god that guy was wandering around with a snow blower yesterday. I paid him to snow blow a clear area around my car and the neighbor's car. He wasn't asking for cash, but he was clearly spending a bit on gas to run that blower for hours and hours. He even snow-blew the alley so a few more people could get out. Really nice guy.

Anyway, trying to let the road crap go....breathe....

So, I brought Hammy to the rez in his little travel kennel. It's a bit wee. He was not comfortable but I thought, "if I go in the ditch, I can't leave Hammy in the car to freeze and he won't stay in a pocket. " And I was not going to carry his large rubber tub home (open roof for air) around in the snow. He'd freeze that way too. So, I brought him in the little kennel which I could stuff in my coat if we got stranded. Now he's living temporarily in the recycling bin (re-purposed ...may I say "recycled"... for his convenience). I put a piece of cardboard in the bottom so his hamster tinkle wouldn't go out on the carpet, but, being the big boned hamster that he is, he quickly levered it up and was apparently trying to put in a lower level. I had to put him back on top of the card board and wedge it down tighter. I gave him a few toilet paper tubes to amuse him. It's kind of sad. His head pops out the far end before his butt has disappeared at the other. It's like a fat kid at McDonald's Playland...wanting to have fun, but just getting stuck in the equipment. I'll have to find him a bigger tube to play in. He's got an old food box (pasta or something) for a house. He seems happy enough.

And now, I'm off to watch movies BY MYSELF. Cook BY MYSELF. And have a nice evening BY MYSELF.

Happy Holiday of your choice and I hope everyone travels safe.

Of Blogs and Blind People Canes

OK, I'm behind on blogging because the free internet at the apartment never came back! Those BASTARDS!!
How dare they get us addicted to the interwebs and THEN stop. They are internet pushes. If I had any idea whatsoever who "they" were, I'd write a sternly worded letter.

As it stands, we're sucking it up and I must say, I'm getting more done.
I do more yoga, watch more movies (I'm watching one now while I draft this in notepad), the laundry is caught up and I just made 4 candles (or a mess in the kitchen and ruined 4 jars...we'll see after they cool) from scrap wax left over from the unburned nubbins of real candles that I bought at the thrift store. (Have I just crossed some line...have I become the crazy thrift lady?) (I don't care, I'm just wondering).

ANYWAY, a couple of blog-worthy things have happened.

Let's start with my accidental impersonation of a blind lady. Not any particular blind lady.

Here's how it goes. So about a week ago I'm thrifting on a Saturday morning as is my wont. I see a blind people cane at the great thrift store. I text Jonny (Hi Poodle!)
to see if he wants it for his costumery activities. I don't hear back until I'm long past that thrift store.

Fast forward to Tuesday. I have a meeting to go to in Spokane for work so I just stay in town rather than driving to the rez. After the meeting I have some time and walk home via the thrift store. The cane is still there. I buy it. Turns out it is there not only due to the missing tip, but due to the fact that it no longer breaks down into a manageable size that would fit in a bag.

I have to carry a full length blind people cane home. That's about a mile and a half. I try casually slinging it behind my arm so it won't look like I'm blind. People in cars are slowing down...apparently thinking that the blind lady is not using her cane and could meander into traffic at any minute. I try carrying it in all sorts of positions and nothing works. So I carry it in a way that is vaguely like a blind person would...fewer people stare, or get freaked. At least not until I am at the corner waiting for the walk-light to change and texting on my phone while leaning on my blind people cane.

Right near the apartment is an eye doctor. I wanted to walk in and say, "You know, I've been feelingbetter lately. Could you check my eyes?" Then, when it turns out my eyes are fine, I could scream, "It's a MIRACLE", throw my cane away and run out of the store in mock glee.
Instead, I just laughed to myself, appearing to not only be blind, but nuts too.

I'll send the cane to Jonny as soon as I find a mailing tube big enough for it.

Other funny things: Hammy bit me. OK, not particularly funny, but with a hamster there are only so many activities. He eats, craps, runs on the wheel, and once he escaped. I put him in the big play pen again and he seems happy enough, but how would I really know?

OK, so now I hate Starbucks and will be boycotting them. I went to the Starbucks to use the internet and bought their non-fair-trade coffee and whatnot. THEN I find out that their wifi connection is NOT free. It is for fee. I'm going to try one of the other connections...so far nothing works.

I moved over to the organic free trade FREE WIFI coffee store. No more Starbucks. I'll just come here on the weekend.

Just Some Stuff

I've had some blogging idea buildup/writersblock issues.

I'm going to clear the buildup and blockages with blog-o (blog version of "drain-o")

Firstly, a rant:
PEOPLE>>>>Shut off your goddang cars! I saw someone yesterday IDLING at the Sonic Drive-Thru. It's bad enough they were going to eat that crap, but to sit there in an idling car while ordering, waiting and EATING (despite the idea of "drive-thru", they chose to park and have the roller-girl (on skates) bring their food). Do you know how many miles per hour you get idling? ZERO. You just sit there polluting the air and wasting gas/$. Glad we're sending people overseas to die for oil in an illbegotten war so that you can sit on your fat butt and idle while eating crap food made mostly of highfructose corn syrup. Your carbon footprint is as big as your ignorance.

OK, trying to let that go....


Non-Rant:
Xmas Thrift!
There are TONS of in-the-package new holiday decorations at the thrift. Are they getting these from stores that overstocked or went out of business or from people who bought them, then croaked or never used them?
It's just interesting.
I've seen holiday candles in the package, holiday planters in original packaging, artificial trees still in sealed boxes, and on and on. What gives?
I'm for it. It's cheap. But perhaps we're over producing our holiday kitsch. Just a thought.


And finally...
Hammy is fat. He's too fat to crawl through the holes in the spaghetti box that is his favorite toy. He could crawl through them before. But not now. I'm leaving him in his play pen and put the wheel in there in hopes he'll get more exercise. Is there such a thing as a hamster gym? A tiny weight set? He runs on his wheel and the websites say that a hamster won't overeat, but I wonder...
Did something bad happen during his escape and he's eating to ease the pain?

Do gifts need to be "new"?

So, I've found several used items for solstice/christmas gifts this year. And yet, I know that some people would be insulted by a used item as a gift. For the record, I don't mind at all. I LIKE used cookbooks especially. You know which recipes are good because there are food goobers on those pages and often notes.

Gramma has often given antiques as gifts and aren't those part of the "used" genre of items?
So why not newer used items?

Pam already knows she's getting a silk and gold thread sari I found at a thrift store. I gave another friend an Icelandic wool hoody from the same thrift store (it is the BEST thrift store). Last year that friend got an alpaca hoody from a thrift store...we may be in a rut but that is beside the point.

What do Americans have against used?
When did we decide that new cheap stuff was better than used good stuff?
I could never afford a NEW Icelandic wool hoody, so I gave a used one. That hoody will last a lifetime. A crappy walmart hoody will last a few months and cost the same as the thrift one.

El Kid has a wardrobe of shirts with dragons and whatnot on them, all bought used. They cost about 3$ each so why spend 60$ for a new one that he will wear for a year when the 3$ one will last just as long? I don't get it.

So far I DO call people and ask if they would like the used item before I buy it so that I don't inadvertently offend anyone and I respect that some people have cooty issues with used items especially clothes. But for the record, I'm just as happy with used.

For any relatives afraid of getting used crap: if you didn't get a call checking, then you are not getting used crap.

A friend's blog talks about re-using things for gift wrap. Here's the LINK.
I've re-used wrap many a time. That seems to be OK in our family. And there is one alarmingly hideous piece of "ribbon" that we've been exchanging for years. In deference to Laurie (blog author), I will be endeavoring to use more recycled and re-usable gift containers this year. I love that Laurie notes you can iron wrinkles out of craft paper and reuse it. I haven't done that yet, but now that I know...I certainly will do it.

Just for those who are following the various threads of my life:
2 days without a jail break. Hammy is still in the cage though rearranged his space so that the cocohut was jammed on the wheel. He was not happy when I shook him out of the hut to move it over.
No 'Poo Update: Hair still good. Scalp not nearly as itchy as during my shampoo days. BUT, I still miss a good lather and the scent of herbal shampoo. My hair is quite a bit redder and wavier than when I was using shampoo and conditioner, and easier to comb. But I will never have the Valerie Bertinelli hair I dreamt of during my teens:













(christ! who has enough time to do that to their hair everyday?)

Days Without A Jail Break: 1

Hammy is still in his cage. I had to jostle his cocohut to make him poke his head out so I knew he was in there.
Have I mentioned the cocohut?
95cents at the thrift store and he seems to love it. it's a coconut with the bottom cut off, a door hole, and a fake thatch roof. This apparently rocks the hamster world. You can stuff all of your bedding in it. Stuff it so tight it makes a floor that stays with the cocohut when lifted. you can climb on the roof, chew the thatch...roll it around the cage. Endless fun.

Anyway, he's home and safe and will not be sitting on my nose in the morning.

Now for the REAL excitement of the day.
El Kid had a debate tournament. He had to be there at some ungodly hour so I said I'd drop him on my way to Plummer to winterize the trailer.

I'm headed down the highway thinking "I wish someone would leave styrofoam panels lying around so I could insulate the back door with something other than that stinky old camp sleeping pad that I stole from Fred and Sher years ago and is still impregnated with Nigel-hair."

About 10 minutes later I see that someone HAS left styrofoam panels lying along the road! Sweet.
I go back and check them out. They are dry, clean, and non-stinky. There is adjacent cardboard indicating that these were furniture packaging. Must have fallen off the truck on the way to the dump. Cool. I load the ones in good shape into the subaru and head out.
The back door of the trailer is metal and poorly sealed. it is a serious heatsink. Now it is not. I not only covered it with 2" thick styrofoam, I put shrink film over the whole unit.

Of course, I forgot that I had both vacuums (shop vac and regular vac) up in Spokane to clean up after the fix-it guy who is accessing the attic through my closet. I forgot this until AFTER I had started cutting styrofoam and spread toxic beads all over the trailer, myself, and everywhere else. Fortunately my friend Wanda had a vacuum available for borrowing.

Now I have to decide what to do with the rest of the styrofoam. I would LIKE to bring it up here and insulate the wall between the unheated stairwell and the heated portion of the house. It's just a storage area so I don't care what it looks like. Well, it's also the main entry way but I still pretty much don't care what it looks like.

I would also like to stick some styrofoam to the inside of the front door of the trailer. I know it's tacky, but that door is SO COLD. I don't think double stick tape will do the job since the door is cold and shiny. Also, if the tape sticks, it will take off more paint than is already gouged and peeled off. I'm not sure the landlords would care, but still, one wants to be polite.

Anyway, first I will shrink film some windows up in the Spokane apartment while I decide what else to do with my styrofoam...I could turn ordinary cardboard boxes into coolers...then if I decopaged them with pictures cut from magazines while I wait at the doctor's office....I could give them away for christmas...or not.

If anyone has brilliant ways to recycle styrofoam, let me know. That crap never goes away and is turning up in the guts of many seabirds.