Neighbors, don't we just love them. They always make life so easy right? Well right now, Jesus' words of loving your neighbors has been something I have to chant to myself. I just don't understand why we can't be curteous anymore? I can get over my upstairs neighbors holding gymnastics classes that sound like they are going to summersult right through the ceiling. I can deal with the weird attitudes about parking spaces. I mean you take another person's "spot" because your "spot" was taken, you totally deserve to have them park right on your bumper so pulling out the next day will be next to impossible. Should have known better.
However, there is one offense I can't stand. If you have a dog, pick up after it when it craps on my lawn! I don't want to walk out to my car in the morning and step in your dog's poop. If I am headed to work, I usually don't have the time to go change my shoes because I stepped in a wretchedly horrible pile of poo. When I get a dog I will clean up after it, but it's your dog, it's not my responsibility to clean up after it.
Maybe you think I am being a bit over the top, but I am not talking about one pile, as I was bringing in my groceries the other day, I realized there were at least 6 different mounds in my yard. I felt like I was training for special opps to avoid landmines as I was darting and weaving around my lawn. It's occurring to me that the sign I saw posted in another neighborhood on someone's lawn, about cleaning up after your pet if it happens to choose my lawn, is completely neccesary.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Surviving an Ice Storm
Wow, so Missouri weather has hit us two little Californians hard this year. I know many of the people we now know from places like Michigan or Ohio might think we're soft, and they'd be right, but we're slowly getting the hang of this crazy weather.
So last week, as some of you may have heard, Armageddon was proclaimed for the Mid-West and a huge chunk of the country in the form of an ice storm and then blizzard like conditions. I found myself wondering, what does an ice storm really look like? I mean obviously there is ice, but does it rain and then freeze and that creates an ice storm. To be honest, a part of me had this mental image of sheets of ice that looked like glass in a window falling from the sky. Now that would be a storm!
In actuality, for those who don't know like me, it's basically what we called sleet in Idaho. It's frozen rain. (Some of you may be saying Duh right now, but hey we all learn a little differently.) Now here in St Louis, the issue is that it is still wet enough to bind and then freeze. So the weather was a mess last Tuesday. Expecting to die on Wednesday, I awoke to the pleasant surprise of just snow, and to be honest, it wasn't even that hard. It was a nice little flurry, nothing to get upset about.
However, my problems came on Thursday. I was so cold on Wednesday, that I decided to not go out and brush off my car. HUGE MISTAKE!! In more than one way. First, our house has a screened in porch. The porch door had not been open, so it was completely frozen shut, there was no way to actually open the door. I had to walk around the house, however, as I went out our shared back door, I saw the salt our landlord had left us and decided once I got in to my car I would salt by our front door, so that when I came back from class I could get in the house. You see we only have one key to the back door, and since Mark parks in the driveway off that door, he has the only key. If I couldn't get the front porch open, and the neighbors locked that door, well I was SOL as some say.
Second, there was frozen snow, plus a 1/4" thick casing of ice, wrapped around my entire car. I had to use my key to break the ice that surrounded my door, and then spent 10 minutes pulling, breaking more ice, and pulling. At one point I did think that I might rip off my plastic handle and then be screwed because the passenger side lock is broken and I wouldn't be able to get in my car.
Finally, I pryed my door open with all my might. I inserted my key and just prayed the engine would turn over, and it actually did. I blasted the defroster and raced to the back of the house to get the salt mentioned earlier. I put the salt out on our steps as well, because they looked pretty icy, and I really don't want to kill the mail man. After having completed the salting, I went straight to work on my car.
It was quite a process to get the snow and ice off my car. I had a method to my madness though. I started at my driver side door, and continued on the side, to the back, around the other side, then to the front. Now I had to do a thorough job on the front because I forgot to lift up my wiperblades, and they were somewhere below all the layers, frozen to my car.
I dusted snow, I hacked at ice, continuing around the car. After about a half our, I noticed some of my neighbors just staring at me as they drove by. For now, I looked like the White Witch of Narnia. Completely cloacked in snow and ice, my hair wild and frozen, with ice scrapper in hand, attacking vigorously at my windows, shouting words and phrases not commonly heard. And finally, when all hope seemed lost, I managed to find my car. I looked at my phone clock and realized that I emerged victorious after an hour and a half of intense (and cold) battle. It was now 9:15-9:20, and I thought I might still be able to make it to my class. I hoped in my toasty car, engaged the clutch, put my foot on the gas and then listened to my wheels spin.
At this point I thought I'll try reverse and see if that works any better. This time with my head turned around I got a better view of the smoke coming from my tires and the exhaust making its way towards heaven. I thought perhaps I can use our neighbors shovel to help dig myself out. I ran to the back door, but alas, the neighbor had locked it. Determined to not fight my front porch door I decided to give it one more go. I got behind the wheel and gave it the gas, and finally, after lurching and studdering (and not from the clutch) my car was finally released from its icy cage.
Of course at this point, I would never make it to class on time, so I decided to head to Barnes and Nobles and buy a book. When I returned home, the long term battle began. That is the battle with my front stairs. There are two sets, one that leads up to the house in general, and then both my neighbor and I have a set that leads into our perspective portions of the house. The stairs were, and are so icy, that I can't actually just walk up them. I mostly rock climb up them, holding the bannister for dear life as I manuever around them. We are currently out of salt, and so now I do fear for the mail man.
So last week, as some of you may have heard, Armageddon was proclaimed for the Mid-West and a huge chunk of the country in the form of an ice storm and then blizzard like conditions. I found myself wondering, what does an ice storm really look like? I mean obviously there is ice, but does it rain and then freeze and that creates an ice storm. To be honest, a part of me had this mental image of sheets of ice that looked like glass in a window falling from the sky. Now that would be a storm!
In actuality, for those who don't know like me, it's basically what we called sleet in Idaho. It's frozen rain. (Some of you may be saying Duh right now, but hey we all learn a little differently.) Now here in St Louis, the issue is that it is still wet enough to bind and then freeze. So the weather was a mess last Tuesday. Expecting to die on Wednesday, I awoke to the pleasant surprise of just snow, and to be honest, it wasn't even that hard. It was a nice little flurry, nothing to get upset about.
However, my problems came on Thursday. I was so cold on Wednesday, that I decided to not go out and brush off my car. HUGE MISTAKE!! In more than one way. First, our house has a screened in porch. The porch door had not been open, so it was completely frozen shut, there was no way to actually open the door. I had to walk around the house, however, as I went out our shared back door, I saw the salt our landlord had left us and decided once I got in to my car I would salt by our front door, so that when I came back from class I could get in the house. You see we only have one key to the back door, and since Mark parks in the driveway off that door, he has the only key. If I couldn't get the front porch open, and the neighbors locked that door, well I was SOL as some say.
Second, there was frozen snow, plus a 1/4" thick casing of ice, wrapped around my entire car. I had to use my key to break the ice that surrounded my door, and then spent 10 minutes pulling, breaking more ice, and pulling. At one point I did think that I might rip off my plastic handle and then be screwed because the passenger side lock is broken and I wouldn't be able to get in my car.
Finally, I pryed my door open with all my might. I inserted my key and just prayed the engine would turn over, and it actually did. I blasted the defroster and raced to the back of the house to get the salt mentioned earlier. I put the salt out on our steps as well, because they looked pretty icy, and I really don't want to kill the mail man. After having completed the salting, I went straight to work on my car.
It was quite a process to get the snow and ice off my car. I had a method to my madness though. I started at my driver side door, and continued on the side, to the back, around the other side, then to the front. Now I had to do a thorough job on the front because I forgot to lift up my wiperblades, and they were somewhere below all the layers, frozen to my car.
I dusted snow, I hacked at ice, continuing around the car. After about a half our, I noticed some of my neighbors just staring at me as they drove by. For now, I looked like the White Witch of Narnia. Completely cloacked in snow and ice, my hair wild and frozen, with ice scrapper in hand, attacking vigorously at my windows, shouting words and phrases not commonly heard. And finally, when all hope seemed lost, I managed to find my car. I looked at my phone clock and realized that I emerged victorious after an hour and a half of intense (and cold) battle. It was now 9:15-9:20, and I thought I might still be able to make it to my class. I hoped in my toasty car, engaged the clutch, put my foot on the gas and then listened to my wheels spin.
At this point I thought I'll try reverse and see if that works any better. This time with my head turned around I got a better view of the smoke coming from my tires and the exhaust making its way towards heaven. I thought perhaps I can use our neighbors shovel to help dig myself out. I ran to the back door, but alas, the neighbor had locked it. Determined to not fight my front porch door I decided to give it one more go. I got behind the wheel and gave it the gas, and finally, after lurching and studdering (and not from the clutch) my car was finally released from its icy cage.
Of course at this point, I would never make it to class on time, so I decided to head to Barnes and Nobles and buy a book. When I returned home, the long term battle began. That is the battle with my front stairs. There are two sets, one that leads up to the house in general, and then both my neighbor and I have a set that leads into our perspective portions of the house. The stairs were, and are so icy, that I can't actually just walk up them. I mostly rock climb up them, holding the bannister for dear life as I manuever around them. We are currently out of salt, and so now I do fear for the mail man.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
This is my time to shop...
Right now we are dealing with what could quite possible the worst storm the country has seen in decades! Well I got the first news of its coming on Sunday, when a sweet elderly couple we just met warned us there was a blizzard warning and lots of ice expected. It concerned me a tad, but I guess I just let it pass from my mind.
So Monday I woke up and went about my usual routine, had my coffee and fruit smoothie, watched a little tv, and then headed to the store by 9 o'clock. So to save money these days, I shop at both Wal-Mart for all dry, boxed, canned, basically anything I don't worry about quality, and then I head to Schnuck's for all things I want fresh and as good as I can possibly get it. When I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot, it was pretty busy. My usual front parking was taken and I had to park midway. Usually I go at 9am on Monday because it is a sleepy time. I can meander the aisles and shop with ease, and the store is practically mine. It still hadn't occured to me what was going on. I mean Wal-Mart wasn't crazy busy, but still this was more people than normal.
I got the supplies I needed and headed to self check out. Now here we'll tangent off for a second so I can vent. I am ringing myself up, something I do every Monday, and the weigher isn't picking up one of my items. I took maybe five seconds and finally got the item to register. Well at this point the help lady is sitting at her station and says with as much attitude as possible, "Maam, you need to push it back." I turned and politely said, "I got it, it's working now." Then with even more attitude (didn't know that it was possible), "She said maam if you just push it back it can weigh correctly." I turned to her and did something I seldom do, I gave her some attitude right back. I said, "Umm actually it's working now and I am just fine thank you." Then I gave her my look of got it? Oh she got it, she suddenly went quiet and left me alone. If she isn't going to come over and actually see if she can help me, then she can sit there quietly. I don't need her rudeness when I am just trying to check out.
Okay, so back on point. So after loading my car I headed to Schnuck's. Now when I pulled into Schnuck's parking lot, it was a mad house. Everyone and their brother was shopping. And of course, I got stuck behind the slowest driver while trying to find a space. At one point, she had four other vehicles behind her. It took sometime to get out from behind middle aged woman driving like a granny, but I did eventually park.
I get into the store and all of my "portion control" carts are taken. These are smaller and easier to manuever. People are just swarming everywhere. This is generally my time to relax and carefully choose products that best go with the week's meals. Not this time. Everyone was acting like I was so rude. They would block an aisle and then get upset with me when I was trying to get around them. It was complete chaos. Then I get to the check out and there are 8 lines plus the self checkout, and all of them are so busy the lines are going up the aisles. I waited for probably 45 minutes, with people still glaring when they didn't like that my cart was blocking the fancy feast. Where was I supposed to go? And then it dawned on me, all these people were stocking up for the big storm. At this point I was a little peeved with all of them being peeved with me. This is my time to shop. I am not in their way, they are in my way! I do this every Monday and 99% of them are not there shopping with me. Again, it's why I chose that time. It's peaceful and I don't have to fight my way through the aisles like a ravage beast on the hunt.
Finally, after enough time for my very green bananas to start ripening ( I am serious about this one, I think they turned a bit more yellow while I stood in line) I got out of the store, and managed to make my way home. Just another St Louis, weather related adventure.
So Monday I woke up and went about my usual routine, had my coffee and fruit smoothie, watched a little tv, and then headed to the store by 9 o'clock. So to save money these days, I shop at both Wal-Mart for all dry, boxed, canned, basically anything I don't worry about quality, and then I head to Schnuck's for all things I want fresh and as good as I can possibly get it. When I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot, it was pretty busy. My usual front parking was taken and I had to park midway. Usually I go at 9am on Monday because it is a sleepy time. I can meander the aisles and shop with ease, and the store is practically mine. It still hadn't occured to me what was going on. I mean Wal-Mart wasn't crazy busy, but still this was more people than normal.
I got the supplies I needed and headed to self check out. Now here we'll tangent off for a second so I can vent. I am ringing myself up, something I do every Monday, and the weigher isn't picking up one of my items. I took maybe five seconds and finally got the item to register. Well at this point the help lady is sitting at her station and says with as much attitude as possible, "Maam, you need to push it back." I turned and politely said, "I got it, it's working now." Then with even more attitude (didn't know that it was possible), "She said maam if you just push it back it can weigh correctly." I turned to her and did something I seldom do, I gave her some attitude right back. I said, "Umm actually it's working now and I am just fine thank you." Then I gave her my look of got it? Oh she got it, she suddenly went quiet and left me alone. If she isn't going to come over and actually see if she can help me, then she can sit there quietly. I don't need her rudeness when I am just trying to check out.
Okay, so back on point. So after loading my car I headed to Schnuck's. Now when I pulled into Schnuck's parking lot, it was a mad house. Everyone and their brother was shopping. And of course, I got stuck behind the slowest driver while trying to find a space. At one point, she had four other vehicles behind her. It took sometime to get out from behind middle aged woman driving like a granny, but I did eventually park.
I get into the store and all of my "portion control" carts are taken. These are smaller and easier to manuever. People are just swarming everywhere. This is generally my time to relax and carefully choose products that best go with the week's meals. Not this time. Everyone was acting like I was so rude. They would block an aisle and then get upset with me when I was trying to get around them. It was complete chaos. Then I get to the check out and there are 8 lines plus the self checkout, and all of them are so busy the lines are going up the aisles. I waited for probably 45 minutes, with people still glaring when they didn't like that my cart was blocking the fancy feast. Where was I supposed to go? And then it dawned on me, all these people were stocking up for the big storm. At this point I was a little peeved with all of them being peeved with me. This is my time to shop. I am not in their way, they are in my way! I do this every Monday and 99% of them are not there shopping with me. Again, it's why I chose that time. It's peaceful and I don't have to fight my way through the aisles like a ravage beast on the hunt.
Finally, after enough time for my very green bananas to start ripening ( I am serious about this one, I think they turned a bit more yellow while I stood in line) I got out of the store, and managed to make my way home. Just another St Louis, weather related adventure.
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