Monday, February 2, 2015

Week 5 - My Snowy Birthday

Well, it was an interesting week full of training, computer problems and snow. I was also in my last week of rotating but had issues after the three 600 calorie days that left me uncomfortable and worried about my colon, which was not cool. It all worked out in the end though. : )

The work week was full of training. I was teaching 2 classes (Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons) and the vendor for the new space software was doing demos of the modules of the new release, which meant I had a morning session Wednesday then all day Thursday. With all that time taken up, the rest of the work week flew. I also took as many breaks as possible because early in the week it was in the high 50’s and even over 60 one day so I was able to take breaks and knit on a bench without even a jacket on. Nice but the payback was coming.

I was having my usual up in the wee hours sleeping problem on Thursday night so got up early on Friday figuring I’d catch up on some TV. Nope. My computer was dead. Lights came one but it wouldn’t boot up. I brought it to work and Allan confirmed that the video card was toast but my data was fine, which was a darn good thing because I had bought a flash drive to back up but had never gotten around to it. Anyway, I needed a new computer NOW so went online to Staples, found an HP Pavilion – the same model as my old laptop – that was in stock and would be right on my way back to campus from HuHot. I was in and out in 5 minutes and Allan configured it that afternoon so I left with my computer good to go. I could not have dealt with a computer free weekend. Allan is the best computer guy ever! I’ll be buying him a case of diet coke as a thank you.

I had planned to stop at the market on the way home Friday but couldn’t wait to get home and try out my new computer so skipped it in favor of making a beeline home to start the weekend. Lori was having a birthday tea for me on Sunday so I had to be productive on Saturday since it was my last weekend before my cruise. Luckily the computer was so similar to my old one that it didn’t feel much different so didn’t suck up much time.

Unfortunately I wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped on Saturday. I did get started on my chores but didn’t make a big enough dent so went to bed Saturday figuring I’d have to be a machine on Sunday morning. It was already snowing but they were predicting 1-3” so I wasn’t even planning on shoveling. Yeah, right. The wind woke me up in the wee hours and the electricity had been off so my alarm clock was blinking. I absolutely had to know what time it was (2:42) and by the time I had reset the clock, I was wide away. It was still snowing and blowing hard. I read for an hour and when I turned the light off, the electricity went on and off five or six times before I fell asleep.

I slept late and when I got up it was even worse. Clearly the weather forecasters had missed and this was more than they’d expected. The snow was coming down hard  and it was blowing and drifting. Lori wisely cancelled the tea and I hunkered down for the day, starting in on the chores I hadn’t gotten done Saturday. I had already decided to end my diet a day early so I could enjoy my tea so had some normal food even though I was having tea alone as the snow flew. It was a nice break from only healthy stuff and I’d lost 15 pounds in 3 weeks so was very happy with my progress. All good, right?

Over the course of the day I talked to a few people and listened to the constant dings as people posted birthday greetings on Facebook. Nice. I spent the afternoon making Funny Bones (my fave Drake’s Cake growing up, which went extinct when Hostess went bankrupt) to take to work for my birthday treat and caramel corn to take to knitting. I'd called Tim to get the name of someone to plow my driveway and 5 minutes with a bobcat and that was taken care of. I only had to spend 15 minutes shoveling the deck and sidewalk. Since it felt like -16 with the windchill, the less time outside the better. I showered when I got in, got right into my nightie and sat down with dinner for a night of PBS – British Baking Show (love it!), Downton Abbey and Grantchester. It’s my new must see TV.

Earlier in the day I had tried to remote into my work computer to run the tables for monthly reports but it wasn’t working on my new computer so I’d emailed Josh to ask him to do it. Just before bed, Josh emailed to say he’d run them but we wouldn’t need them Monday because UNL was closed! Well knock me over with a feather! I was floored because UNL rarely closes, never mind the night before. I hadn’t seen the email because I’d gotten so many birthday notices over the day that I’d been ignoring the dings. What a fabulous birthday present! I don’t think it gets any better. Snow day! And the best part was Wahoo had done their usual fabulous job plowing so I’d already been out to the market so would be perfectly able to go out on Monday. Yay! What a perfect end to my birthday.



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