Snow More of This!

The weather report promised us 40F. The weather couldn't even offer up 30F. Right now, we're sitting at 27.8F with clear sunshine. *sigh* The snow is at the crusty phase - you step on it and *crunch*. I feel like Nanook of the North - longjohns, thick pants, sweaters, jacket, hats and thick gloves, then my blue pony galoshes!

I'm overfeeding everyone here. Just filling up the feeders and letting them go to town. I couldn't possibly calculate their caloric needs in this cold, so I'm letting the animals choose what they need and I just keep pouring. The large fowl chickens came out to peck at the ground, they don't seem particularly enthused about it. Especially when Flash decided to groom the rooster's butt. Now that's a Kodak Moment, folks. I have no idea why Big Blue puts up with this sort of indignity, but I'm thankful he does.

Libby is sleeping all day, then staying inside at night. This alteration in her habits means she's tearing around the house chasing fairies (or something). Driving us all bonkers, poor Gracie keeps leaping out of bed and herding her to the wall. You can almost hear the "keep it down, kid!" retort. At one point, likely around 3am or so, I woke up to Libby sitting on the bed tagging Doodle's whiskers as he snored. She's that bored.

A few of the hens are laying, thankfully. And most of the ducks are, as well. Gathering the chicken eggs is not a problem, but finding duck eggs in the snow is nearly impossible. The eggs are often frozen to the ground, but thankfully I've only found a few eggs frozen through which splits the egg shell.

I've got a bit of a dry cough, but staying warm and cozy.

Please to strangle

Joshua's attorney is driving me bonkers. I wanted a barracuda. Josh hired a gopher. Things the lawyer does that piss me off:

I call, I identify myself as Mrs. Cook. He then asks *twice* if I'm Josh's wife. Why, yes, yes I am. I am his wife. He and I have met. Josh introduced us. *headdesk*

Then he asks twice if I'm sure I have Power of Attorney. Yes, I'm sure I have PoA. I'm a military wife. This is what we do. Finally, I offer to fax him a copy so he can be certain.

He continually interrupts me. I'm not sure if this is a lawyer thing, a man thing or a jackass thing. Either way, I started to make a gentle reprove and he INTERRUPTED ME AGAIN so he heard none of it.

He asks for the name and number on the settlement offer. I spell the man's name - the lawyer interrupts. I recite the phone number - the lawyer interrupts. Then he tells me there's not enough numbers, I repeat it again. He interrupts me, again!

I'm going to fax the settlement letter to him. I have absolutely no idea if he managed to even hear what I was reporting about the letter, given how many times he interrupted me.

TGIF *slump*

Ice and snow storms really take it out of me. The extra work is my choice, as I chose to have animals and be responsible for their well being. And well being takes a work. Lots of it. And resources. Can't forget those. Its tiring and I will whine about it, but I am grateful to be able to do it. I won't always.

I have somehow stupidly managed to get sunburned. In February. During a snow storm. I will be treating the sunburn and wearing sunscreen until the snow is gone.

Kevin texted me around 3pm today and asked me to drive him to Mount Vernon, on the mainland. Which basically translates to "Drive me to the Harley". So I popped in the shower, scrambled to get around and then ran around taking care of the outdoor critters. Which took longer than I thought. But we made it to the mainland in plenty of time, handed the dealership the check and walked out with the owners paperwork for his new bike.

Given that I'm absolutely not ready for that kind of ride (1 hour, highways, ice on the road, darkness when riding home) and that Kevin does not yet have his endorsement (I have smacked him up the proverbial head for not yet signing himself up for his FREE class), we're having the bike delivered to his home Thursday afternoon. At this point, I'm just praying the ice and snow is gone so he can start zooming around and getting accustomed to the bike. Unfortunately, he lives in absolutely the wrong neighborhood for this. Lots of blind hills, blind curves, kids, dogs, no sidewalks and irregular roads.

As I write this, its 22F. I need to do another round of waterings before bed. The dogs are ready to go to bed and I'm soon to follow.