I know that you're probably saying 'yes, Dharma, we know there was an ice storm and everything is covered in ice' but indulge me a little here. I've never experienced an ice storm before. Snow, yes. Blizzards, yes. Being snowed in the house and having to dig my way out, yes. Ice storm, no. So, here are some more photos of everything ice-covered - and I have to tell you that getting them this afternoon was really creepy. All the trees were creaking, you see....
When I said there was ice everywhere, this is what I meant: In the less than 3 minutes it took me to get these shots, my face was numb with the cold. Yeah, I'm not going anywhere today....
Having lived in South Dakota for 9 years, I'm used to snow. So when people started running around like headless chickens yesterday at the prospect of a winter storm, I chuckled to myself and went about my business feeling somewhat superior. The winter storm rolled in alright, but we didn't get snow. We got ice. About 1/2 an inch of ice. Covering EVERYTHING. The tree in my front yard couldn't handle the weight of the ice and dropped a bough across the street. Ther...
I've had a sick kid at home for the past 2 days. Jake started coughing Saturday and kept us all awake Sunday and last night with his hacking. He's on a prescription cough medicine that's got codeine in it to supress his cough reflex, but it aint workin'. Tonight I'm giving him (under medical advice, now - don't be thinking that I'm drugging my child up all willy nilly) some diphenhydramine (that's Benadryl, in case you were wondering) so he - and WE - can get some sleep.&n...
I saw him standing in line for the checkouts. At first glance he looked as though he had some kind of genetic defect, some kind of retardation. He looked like one of modern man's ancestors with his sloping brow and thick lips, not to mention his longer-than-average arms and thick, hairy knuckles. He was neatly dressed but his ensemble had a 'too neat' air to them, as if his mother had chosen his clothes for him and he had been given no say in the matter whatsoever. He...
*disclaimer for the dense: 'daft' is a British way of saying 'silly' in a good-natured kind of way. Read on, and you'll see why I'm saying it* My mum is coming to visit us next spring. We're really happy and excited to have her come and visit, it'll be the first time in a decade that we've seen her. She knows that we're excited about it, but she's being very British and very polite about the whole thing First of all, she asked 'do you think it'd be okay if I came to visit...
I've been making candy this week. I made some blackberry flavored hard candy last Friday and some cotton candy flavored yesterday. I made suckers and hexagon shaped candy pieces, and I also used a Jello 'Jello Bean' mold - the candy pieces that came out of that are the perfect size and shape (IMO). I also got a chocolate mold when I was at the cake and confectionery store. It's like a sucker mold, but instead of sucker sticks you put pretzel rods in it and get chocolate p...
I don't use checks much anymore. Most of our bills are paid online; there are only two that need to be paid via paper checks. I only use checks at three stores - the commissary so I can write the check for a few dollar over to tip the bagger, the thrift store because they don't accept Visa, and the BX - we write checks there for cash to avoid the ATM fees (our primary bank account is in South Dakota and we get charged fees at all of the ATM's on base). Consequently, one box o...
There are some people on our street who are moving house. Again. This is the latest in a series of moves for them, and that's just at this base. I don't know exactly how many times they moved at their last duty assignments, but I know that the moves were pretty frequent. Here, they've moved from on-base housing to off-base civilian housing, then they moved civilian houses twice before applying to come back on base again. Now they're moving to another subdi...
I've been up all night, sitting with a patient. After a hair raising drive along some dark and icy roads I got home and to bed after 5 am, but I didn't really sleep. I dozed, thinking about how I have to go to the store, clean the house, do laundry and run a bunch of general errands today. I didn't get enough sleep the night before last either, so I'm literally running on fumes today. Dave knows that and is being gentle with me...hopefully that'll last until...
A couple of years ago, I made Christmas gifts for my family in England. They went over so well that I've decided to do the same thing again this year. For my mum: I've knitted her a cabled scarf using a vintage pattern. I've also made her a pair of earrings and a matching pendant using some gorgeous turquoise crackled-glass beads. The kids have made her Christmas angels to hang on her tree. For my brother: I hand knit a beanie in his favorite soccer team's colors (Manches...
The Hospice conference I attended yesterday was held on Southern Illinois University's Edwardsville campus in the main conference hall. Driving around campus made me feel old; there were kids wandering around who didn't look too much older than my 14 year old - and in reality, they AREN'T that much older at a mere 18 - 20 years. All of the facilities in and around the conference hall were geared towards the younger generation: fast food places, Starbucks, TV's tuned to MTV instead...
Sometimes during the course of my ordinary, everyday life I come across people who I think are, for want of a better word, angels. It's not their actions that make me think them such, nor is it their appearance or their voices. It's nothing that they've done (or not done) or said (or not said); it's not how they dress or style their hair or even the clothes that they wear. None of those things has any bearing on my thinking them to be celestial, spiritual beings. It's their pre...
The Air Force base that I live on started a Veteran's Day Vigilance walk/run yesterday afternoon. Basically, we've had someone running or walking and carrying the flag ever since 1600 yesterday. Yesterday when it started the weather looked like it was going to be on our side; it was pleasant and unseasonably warm at 65+ degrees. However, that didn't last. At 1800 it started to rain, then we got thunder and lightning followed by a 30 - 40 degree drop in temperature ...
It's official. I'm an Ambassador. I even have a nametag with my new status on it. Training went well and was very informative. I came out of it with a crate full of materials to disperse; pens and wound measures and pill boxes and booklets and brochures and shirts and hats and bumper stickers and all kinds of other stuff. We also found out that each of us was hand-picked. Out of the 100+ volunteers that the hospice has working for them, only four of us we...