Growing up in Toowoomba, we always seemed to have at least one window open “to let the house breathe” my mother said. Even in the dead of winter there is one window in my home that is open a little to let the house breathe. Since someone cut the cords for the double hung windows in this apartment, there is no way these windows will stay open – even a little bit, but I discovered that this apartment really does breathe. There is a small space between the window panes where they meet in the middle, and the cold air seeps in. I discovered that when I inspected the windows on our zero degree day and found that ice had formed on the metal catch and so I looked closer and felt the cool air (zero degree air is very cool) seeping into the apartment. I am really glad that the heat comes with the apartment or we would be in the poorhouse trying to keep the place warm enough to live and pay for the heat.
Today the temperature got above freezing and it was raining and that made things very dangerous. The ground is very cold (read that frozen) and when the rain fell, it turned to ice in places and made walking in the parking lot rather tricky. Lucky for me, the young man who lives in the apartment below us was coming out just as I was trying to make it into the apartment and he said “Stop a while. I will throw some sand down for you because it is wicked slippery here”. Wicked slippery was most appropriate. I listened to the quilters from Alaska who said that the most dangerous time of the winter for them was when the snow turned to ice or the snow fall was over ice. I don’t know if I could live in Alaska with all the dark days they were describing for the winter and the endless daylight in the summer. How does your internal clock handle that? My internal clock is having a wild time making sense of the shortness of the day here during the winter. I guess we had just as short days in Prescott, but at least I could get out in the sunshine during the day to go walking and so it was not so noticeable.
We had some excitement at the Archives this morning. We have been getting a pop-up message about the mouse being disconnected and not working and I just clicked on the message and continued working. Well, today the mouse just up and quit working on us. Panic set in. What to do without the mouse working……..so I grabbed my Microsoft Intellimouse and plugged it in and away we went. Our fearless leader had to be contacted about it and his reply was to call Henry in Salt Lake city. So I called Henry and had a long conversation with him. Apparently there has been other people like ourselves whose mouse quit on them this past week. Must be the season for mice to go on strike or something.
I told Henry about the problem we were having with the focusing and the rejected folders. He said that it is ok for us to tweak the focus even though the program says that it is in focus with the green check mark and everything. We fly by the seat of our pants already doing this digitizing, and now he wants us to go without even a safety net? Oy Vey! It might just be easier to step off the earth into outer space than to get a perfect focus. We only have 5 court docket books left to do and then we are d one with the Knox county records. Yay! That is, except for the 6 re-works. They will be fun to do again – except that I just might end up tearing my hair out over them because they will not fit in the cradle because they are too big…..and therefore they have to be on top of the cradle.
On the way home today we stopped by the Big O Tire store and had them look at the tires – we have the warning light on again. After they put more air in the tire, we went to the YMCA to exercise. We then went to Hannafords (grocery) and bought the food for Australia Day celebration at the Archives. I am determined that we will celebrate Australia Day even though it is freezing cold outside with snow and ice up the wazoo, we will eat what I can make out of ingredients found here. Unfortunately there will be no LOBSTAH but we will have shepherds pie, lamingtons and a Pavlova. It will give them a taste of the kind of food I was raised on (probably explain a lot of things as well……………….ha ha ha ) We had a big Australia Day celebration in Prescott last year, but this one here in Augusta will only be a tasting table at best.
Sara called us on Skype today and said that this upcoming weekend is going to be a big one for their family. Ethan has his first Gymnastics meet (he is on the team) on Friday night and on Saturday night they will attend the Pinewood Derby for the boy scouts. David won the event in Johnstown with his wobbly little pathetic car that was weighted by some pennies captured in a gouged out hole and covered by a sea shell to make up the weight. He beat out some very slick looking engineer guided vehicles and there was no forgiveness for him having beaten them out. They even demanded that his car be weighed a couple of times and it was even underweight a little bit. It just wobbled down the track and took first place in each heat it was in. Lyla has dance class on Saturday morning. Sara also said that Oliver had stepped up a grade with the gymnastics and frankly I do not know how Sara manages to keep up with three kids and their activities, her Masters Program has begun again (this isher final semester) and Jacob and all that he is involved with. I think she is in the time of her life when she can actually leap tall buildings in a single bound! I used to do that when David and Sara were young, but now the only leaping I can manage is the walking track at the YMCA where I have to leap out of the way of the Gazelle’s who run the track while I walk.
Sara's pace of life leaves me breathless.
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