What a week! I woke up to snow on Tuesday morning and it was forecast to be a blizzard by day's end. Just about every school in the area was closed that day but not UNL. I drove in through the snow confident that I wouldn't be working a full day. We got the word relatively early that UNL would be closing at noon, which is the earliest we've been let go in the nearly 12 years I've been here - yee ha! Plus we were all theorizing that we worked the half day Tuesday because it was likely we'd have Wednesday off. I drove back home through the snow (it only took 45 minutes - not bad) with the glee of a child excited for my snow day.
When I got home, I saw that there were ruts in the driveway from my cleaning lady and it was a good thing they were there because I barely made it in my driveway with my car was bottoming out on the nearly 6" of snow. I cleared off my car in the garage, grabbed all my stuff and headed inside. But when I opened the door, I heard the sound of the vacuum. My cleaning lady had just arrived. The ruts were from her dad dropping her off. She asked if I wanted her to reschedule but I said no way. I changed, grabbed some lunch, a book and my scrapbook paper and headed downstairs until she was done. I sorted out all my double sided scraps and started punching circles for a garland I'd seen online (click here for the pic that inspired my project.) It was after 3:00 when she left and I headed upstairs to a squeaky clean house and finished the afternoon watching the snow fall while drinking tea and knitting. I made a small dent in my to do list and was thrilled when I heard at 8:00 that UNL would be closed the next day. By then there was close to a foot of snow on the ground and the wind had picked up so it was blowing everywhere and visibility was nill. I went to bed early, determined to have a productive day on Wednesday.
I woke up to the sound of someone snow blowing just after 6:00 in the morning. Since eastern Nebraska was pretty much closed down, I wondered who was up and about so early. I looked out the window and saw someone across the street at Mr. Meduna's. I took one look at the drifts in my driveway, forced the front door open and yelled across to him. He would do my entire driveway, sidewalk and front path for $25. Sold! Since it would have taken me hours in the cold, I figured it was money well spent because it meant I'd be inside getting stuff done with no down time. So I started my day with pancakes and bacon and then hit my to do list. I interspersed cooking and chores with Christmas stuff and by the end of the day had a weeks worth of meals prepared and had made a huge dent in my Christmas preparations. I'd even chosen, scanned and uploaded the pictures for this year's calendars. What a wonderful day!
Thursday was back to work and the pool. I spent my lunch digging a hole in plowed snow so the cats could get out of the storm drains where they'd taken refuge. Otherwise the day was uneventful until I left campus. I was going to head straight home for dinner and Survivor but remembered at the last minute that I had pictures to pick up at Walgreens. I switched lanes and headed that way. The parking lot was a mess, with huge piles of snow making it a tight fit, and there were lots of cars too. After getting my pics, I looked both ways, saw the coast was clear and started backing up, going slowly because of the ice and snow. Well, I was three quarters out of my space when I heard a crunch. Some idiot had come up behind me while I was backing up and the driver's side corner of my bumper hit the bottom of his driver's side door. My car barely had a scratch on the bumper and his door had a 4" dimple on the bottom. He promptly informed me he'd just had the door replaced and it would cost me $500 for a new door! I gave him my insurance info and drove home, pissed that his idiocy was going to cost me so much. Who drives behind a car that's already backing up in an icy, cramped parking lot? This loser, that's who. Talk about putting a damper on my week! I didn't sleep much that night worrying that he was home with a sledge hammer trashing his car at my expense. But I went to work Friday determined that I would put this behind me and enjoy the weekend.
I woke up Saturday and started making lists. With Christmas less than 2 weeks away and me with packages and gift cards to mail, I had to get stuff done. I headed to town and to Our Corner Cottage, the gift shop in the country west of Wahoo, to fill in the last holes in my stocking baskets. I did great and went home, BK in hand, with a wonderful feeling that my shopping was finally done. I then proceeded to slam through my list. I finished my garland, which was a breeze, and put my inside tree up Saturday night while It's a Wonderful Life was on NBC. On Sunday after waking early from a stress dream, I put the calendars together, shovelled the deck and put up my outside tree and wrapped all Ginny's stocking stuffers so I could mail her package on Monday. I also got all my chores done and went through months of junk mail. I went to bed Sunday feeling great about my progress and filled with Christmas spirit. Despite my fender bender, it was a good week after all and just 9 more days until I fly east.
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