Ground Hog Day and snow delays

Well Phil the Ground Hog in Punxsutawney PA saw his shadow yesterday morning and the audience heckled it. Do they realize no matter if he saw it or not that it would still be six weeks of winter? Apparently the Connecticut version of Phil also saw his shadow and there is some prairie dog that also can predict the winter and has done it better then these two clowns. You can find out more at the link above.

Yesterday went pretty well. I garnered an invitation to a breakfast meeting with our Executive Director Marianne D-S for this Thursday. It is basically an employee participation meeting with out the big crowds. I don’t have much to tell her but it is rather awkward (and I get the feeling I will be the only one there besides the administration staff.) considering how closed to being in trouble with the mail I was last week (see my entry from last Wednesday).

Mom says that Jim did pretty well with the colonoscopy yesterday. Despite the fact they will have to perform some biopsies. The doctor seemed to be very encouraged. Jim called Mom shortly after the procedure was done and said he was going to go home and rest and take his meds.

As I was getting into the elevator at the garage where I park these two guys got on. One of them who seemed pretty obnoxious before getting on was smoking and as I was getting off at my floor I said something to him. He just looked at me and said aren’t you getting off? I said yeah I should have probably said something before it got started. When I told Gayle today she said it would have been better to grin and bear it.

Today as predicted the snow came and went before I left for work. Unfortunately it caused most of the towns and cities to delay school for up to two hours. Some of the staff came in by 11. By mid afternoon the sun was shining and most of the snow in the city was melted.

Work went well. I got most everything done except for the mail from the lobby. It probably came around 5 o’clock and by then I was already working OT. I was scanning Refund letters. It is pretty much what I have been doing for months.

I am happy to report that My “Momma” Dottie came to me and paid me a compliment about keeping up with the mail from the lobby. They had were expecting letters from Medicare and Medicaid and they were predating the letters and not sending them out until later on the month (hence the reason Admin or is monitoring the mail). What they are doing is checking the posting date in the corner with the actual day they were getting.

Mom met with a contractor who would be refurbishing the Garage doors and his price was twice the amount that our lawn guys offered so we are going with our lawn guys (they also do construction stuff). I will be actively participating in that venture.

When I got home tonight we had stuffed Flank Steak. I thought it was delicious I am not so sure Mom did though. She also had broiled mushrooms, creamed cauliflower, and squash. I love those.
Bob called tonight to invite us to dinner for Mom and Bob’s birthday and for Bob and Ethel’s wedding anniversary on Friday. We will be going to Savin Rock Roasting Company ; I suggested that we invited Liz and Nelson. Mom was concerned about the price (it’s her treat). I told her I would pay for them and myself. I feel it would help things in general.

Well I have another long day ahead of me so I am going to say good night for now. I wish you all good health.

Farewell Paul Newman!

Good Morning everyone! I am just doing some odds and ends right now, emptying out email boxes of old stuff and saving old entries from online. I hope I don’t do anything to the computer for saving from the web.

I am also chatting on line with Emily in PA. I haven’t talked with her in quite some time. So far all I know is she is good and her brother and sister are good. School is good. This conversation is going to be short I can tell. Well as I suspected it was a short conversation.

I was waiting and decided to go and get some breakfast and watch TV. When I came back I IM’d her and asked if she was back. Now she has to study. I don’t know if I should feel offended or what.

Aw nuts. I just got back online and found out that actor Paul Newman has died! He was 83 years old and lived in Westport CT. He died from cancer. He has been living in Westport Connecticut for probably 25 years or more. Here is one article. He was also the bane of my sister’s existence a while back. He was partners with a Volvo car dealership that had been behind her house and they cut down trees and put up lights that would directly go into her house. I don’t remember how it was resolved.

Mom tells me that our friend Barbara L who is running for state office lost her sister this morning to cancer. My heart goes out to her. I don’t know if there will be services here or back in her hometown of Brooklyn Connecticut.

Well the afternoon was a huge success. Mom and I went to 9-West to look at shoes and ended up buying them and then when the shoes were not on sale that we thought we returned them even before leaving the store. They really mislead you on some of that stuff and I don’t think I want to go back there anytime soon.

Our next stop was TJMaxx where I got a beautiful pocket for $26 (marked down to I think $100. It’s beautiful. After that we went to Racebrook Shoe store that was having a sale. We got 4 pairs of shoes for $175. The sad part is the store is closing. They like many other small store owners lost their lease. Once we did that we stopped at some furniture shops to look for chairs for the blue room. So I can sit comfortably to watch TV. We were not successful.

We stopped at Home Depot for some floor wax Mom needed. On our way home we dropped off the clothes at one of the clothes collection bins.

By then I was really anxious to go home. My hand had been hurting a while then and so was my lower back where the kidney is (I am not sure it had anything to do with going to the bathroom but it just hurt). I think muscles were hurting. My leg and the back of my knee were hurting as well it still was until about 6:30. I took another dose of Ibuprofen just about that time...

When we got home from the shopping I hung up clothes, put away the shoes, and watched PBS for a whiel. Then I had dinner and Mom worked on a speech she has to give tomorrow at the Open Doors Auction.

I am going to close out for now. I have my weekly newsletter to write to the lists. After that I want to get rid of more of these papers.