Snow is Here

 Winter has finally come for its annual visit. And so it will overstay its welcome for the next five months. 

Flurries and snow showers have been falling for days now, nonstop. The season has gradually snuck up on us and now we've gotten several inches of accumulating snow. I blew out the driveway Tuesday and it'll need to be done again in the very near future. Even as I write this, flurries continue to fall. It doesn't seem so bad while sipping a mug of hot apple cider.

Ava's fall play, "Father of the Bride" opens Friday (tomorrow). She's stressed about that, putting in very long hours over the past week. She was promoted to stage manager for the theater department this year (she was assistant stage manager last year); it's something she really wanted to do and this is a big test to see whether it was a good idea. She's doing well with it to be honest, and it is certainly a learning experience. I know she takes pride in what she's doing after texting me a picture of the set last night:

"Father of the Bride" BHS Theater Dept, 17 Nov 2022 

Since last posting, our upstairs shower is complete. Now we are waiting for someone to sheetrock around the surround and another to install the bathroom flooring. This is all being coordinated by our plumber and the pace is... well, there is no pace. We've come to another standstill. It has been a very frustrating experience. We are now two solid months without a second shower.

I saw my doctor this morning for a check-up. Not surprisingly, he added a new blood pressure medication. In a month he wants me to do bloodwork to make sure my liver and kidneys aren't being pickled. To think, this could all be avoided (probably) if I could get motivated to lose weight like I did in 2012. Actually, I'm not as heavy as I thought I was going to be. I weighed in at 251 pounds today, which is about 14 or 15 pounds less than what I was at my heaviest some ten years ago.

I started reading a book by Jon Meacham called And There Was Light. It is a biography on Abraham Lincoln; I've read multiple biographies/studies on Lincoln and I always find something new and interesting about him. He's one of my favorite historical figures. I read American Lion by Meacham a couple of years ago, a biography on Andrew Jackson. So far, his new book is proving to be just as good as that one.

I suppose that's it for now. Looking forward to absolute darkness at 5:00 PM. Not. My wife and I have come to an agreement that we have to do something in the evenings to keep us occupied. We cannot go to bed at 7:00 PM (even though it feels tempting). Maybe we'll hold a winter-long gin or rummy tournament? Anything is better than staring at the t.v.

Windy Day

 Not really sure what to write this Sunday morning. I lead a most boring life. 

This past Monday was the first Halloween evening shift I worked in 15 or 16 years. I've always had Halloween evening off so I could take the kids trick-or-treating. But that is now part of history. It went by so fast and it sure was fun. Instead of trick or treating, my daughter and a couple of her friends went door to door collecting canned goods for the school's food shelf (part of the high school's Interact Club, I believe), but my son wasn't interested in getting dressed up.

So I worked Halloween night. 

I reviewed my health insurance benefits this morning and submitted that (the annual "benefits review"). I'm not even sure if I am going to be employed at this place in another six months, but obviously my family can't be without health insurance. I hate this feeling of the unknown. Some people fly by the seat of their pants every day. That's not me. 

In other news, we are still waiting for the panel for our upstairs shower, so we are still functioning on a single shower. We're going on two months now. Nice.

Deer hunting opener was yesterday. I woke to the sound of gunfire this morning. There is a slough just to the west of our house and it is a prime hunting location (deer, duck, etc.). It is only about a mile away and for 21 years I've been waiting for a bullet to come flying through my house. Hasn't happened yet, but it always enters my mind this time of year.

The clocks fell back last night. The sun now officially sets at 5:00 PM, and it is only going to get earlier. I absolutely hate this time of year; I can't stand these 13, 14, 15 hour nights. I need one of those happy lights that make you think the sun is still up. 

Several forecasts are suggesting snow on Thursday/Friday. Weather Underground is forecasting 4" of snow, Accuweather is calling for a wintry mix, Apple Weather says an inch or so. The common denominator is a near certainty that it will snow later this coming week. I am on call Thursday, naturally. 

A very windy day today, so something must be brewing...