Put Away Your Thermals
2008-01-08, 4:39 p.m.

Day 1234

Ya know, it was only a week ago I looked out the kitchen window and noticed that except for the falls, our little puddle of a pond was completely frozen over. It was all of 6 degrees. Two weeks ago I was up on the roof shoveling snow and busting up ice dams so the satellite guy could install a dish. It was in the 20’s.

This morning, while I was not so patiently waiting for that first pot of coffee to brew, (not Care Bear coffee, but I did end up using a little hazelnut creamer), I looked out at the back yard in amazement. Where I could previously see tracks deer left in the snow as they were searching for my missing arborvitae (hah!! Foiled the little buggers – AND I’m eating their cousin!!) I saw nothing but leaves. Leaves all over the yard that I thought I had raked a final time the first week of December. Oops.

It was 62 degrees last night at 5pm as I was leaving Bon Ton at the mall. I picked up some flannel pj pants for Cindy. The girls got some for Christmas and she was really eying them with that wistful kinda look. Got them for something crazy like 70% off. 70% off the price, not 70% off the body. Yet. It’s cool showingup at home with something someone wants but isn’t expecting. I’m just saying.

Anyhow. Warm. January thaw. 62 yesterday, 68 today. Thinking of taking the afternoon off and talking Eric into golfing. Kidding, really. It is a goal of mine to golf in every month of the year locally (Only have January & February to go!), but a Tuesday afternoon would be tough. There’s time still. (Although I hear the guys in the cubicles behind me talking about getting out today, hmmmm . . .) Tomorrow? High of 48. By Saturday we’ll be back to freezing. By this time next week we’ll probably be back to normal. That would be 20-ish degrees with a foot of snow on the ground and more in the air. This little blast of sub-tropic warmth is just a teaser. Heck, we’ve only had 40 inches of snow so far this winter. Still have another 60 go just to hit average.

What else, what else. Starting to catch up on who all was let go here at the zoo yesterday. In all, 8 people were laid off and one more announced he was leaving for another company. I know one for sure was happy to be let go, one was very disappointed, one was 3 months from retiring. The separation benefits more than make up for what he lost by retiring 3 months early, so he’s not feeling too badly. Some were surprises, some not. I’m just glad to be done with it for now. I’m also going to try and do more about expanding my skill set. That and the fact that I’m in the electronics field is what made the difference yesterday. It was mechanical and QA that really got pounded.

Just heard that Wegmans will be closing the store closest to my house. It’s less than half a mile away (maybe even a quarter) but is suffering ‘flat sales’. Truth be told, it’s suffering from a shift in the neighborhood. There are also two other, bigger, full service Wegmans stores within 4 miles of this one. The store soon to be closed is older, smaller and quite frankly not as nice as it’s neighbors. Doesn’t help that the Evil Empire moved in across the street several years ago with one of their super stores. It also doesn’t help that this whole area is less than 2 miles from the city line. Whole different demographic there. Where Wegmans is expanding into other states (Pa, Va, NJ, Md, and 1 other I can’t recall), they are aiming for the hoity-toity neighborhoods. The soon to be closed Wegmans? Not hoity OR toity.

When we do our semi weekly shopping, we tend to go to one of the larger stores. They offer wider varieties and better selections – especially in fresh produce. If we are making a quick trip to get a missing ingredient we use the closer store. Now? It’s going to be a 3.5 mile drive. (Mostly because I refuse to go to the Evil Empire. They NEVER have enough registers open and the place is a mess.)

Having the kidlets over for dinner tonight. Think I’m doing Chicken Parmesan. Then it’s off to my first Al Anon meeting in about 3 weeks. Holidays being on Tuesdays really put a hamper on meetings the last couple of weeks. It’ll be good to se all my gals again.

Better run. Stay warm, wouldja?

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