The week started with another day off, using up more February vacation time. I met Rene in Lincoln at 9:00 and we headed to Hastings, which is 100 miles west of Lincoln and has a cute downtown with a yarn shop. The yarn shop was Rene's request but I enjoyed it too. We took I-80 to Hastings and our first stop was Plum Nelly - said yarn shop. We had fun shopping for yarn and then meandered down the main drag. We both bought shoes and then split a burger for lunch before heading to Special Scoops for ice cream. After driving through the lovely campus of Hastings College, we headed back towards home but on Route 6. We went through every small town along the route to check them out, reading every historic marker we found. My favorite was the cool abandoned high school in Grafton. It was a fun day and we have more of them planned since I'm at max vacation and have to take 2 days/month and Rene's retired so has all the time in the world.
I was only gone one day but it took me most of the morning on Tuesday to catch up and then I taught a reporting class after lunch and had a meeting after that. That day was toast! The best part was Wednesday was cancelled for on campus working because there was more weather coming, which it did. It just looked gloomy out but the mist was freezing and you couldn't even see it until your feet were slipping and sliding. I was happy to be safe at home but a contentious meeting that afternoon left me tense and shaking. I had a Ripples zoom at 6:00 though, which improved my mood. My back was twinging at this point (stress related maybe?) but I made some chocolate bread pudding with dried cherries and settled in for an evening of knitting.
We had 1/2" of snow overnight, which provided some traction, and Thursday was brutally cold - 14 degrees but the wind chill was below zero. Luckily I had a retirement seminar all morning which ran over so I only had a 5 minute break before a zoom at 1:00. I did so much knitting between the night before and the morning seminar that my hands were hurting along with my back. What a mess! I tried to get a prescription for muscle relaxants on Friday morning but they wanted me to come in but had no appointments. Sheesh! I think it may have been too much sitting because as soon as noon hit on Friday and I got out of my chair, my back started to ease up.
I took Friday afternoon off and was heading to Waverly to pick up the potting bench I'd had made for my backyard by a little old man I found on Facebook Marketplace. Cindy had picked it up for me and in exchange for paying the final amount owed, I bought her a bunch of bacon at the Wahoo Locker and picked up Chinese food for lunch. We had a lovely chat, loaded up the table and then I hit every thrift shop in Lincoln before getting to Anne's at 4:30. We were doing another fire and movie night - this time with fish fry from the Catholic cathedral in Anne's neighborhood. With my hands still sore, I spent the evening ripping out projects and untangling some yarn I'd found at Goodwill while watching Sharper on Apple TV, which was good. We need to do a few more of these fire and movie nights after Anne gets back from Africa and before the weather warms up.
With my social fun done on Friday, I was home all weekend, which is always a joy. I spent Saturday morning knitting in the sun and chatting with friends then puttered all afternoon, getting most of my inside chores done. I got my butt in gear Sunday and before lunch had gone to the farm store for birdseed, dropped donations in a drop box and taken my Christmas trees to the city burn pile. After BK for lunch, I spent an hour vacuuming every nook and cranny in my car, which I've never done. With the weather still holding, I put up an Easter flag and got out my hot glue gun and decorated an Easter wreath for the front door. The temp dropped just as I was finishing outside. Perfect.
So nice week, right? I had used my February vacation time well and had lots of fun with friends. I got plenty of stuff done and by Saturday morning, my back was fine. Here's hoping the exploring to use vacation time keeps being as fun. Spring is coming!
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