Spring Is Here!

Well not really. But it sure does feel like it today. Wow is it a nice change. When I went to work this morning it was pouring. I even had to take an alternate route due to flooding. I figured another night on the trainer, ick! But as the day went on I noticed it starting to clear. I didn't think much of it until I walked outside and the wind hit me in the face. I braced myself for the shocking cold, only to find a nice warmth instead. mmm This is a nice surprise, I thought it was supposed to be crappy into tomorrow sometime. I checked the temperature when I got to my car. 62 degrees! OK, that's it, the race was on to get home and get on the bike. Luckily I hit very little traffic. I checked out the roads and they looked dry, yeah! I got home, changed super quick and took off. I was determined to soak up as much warmth as I could.
It was amazing. I just kept on riding further and further away from home and didn't even care. It was great. I didn't have to dress like the Michelin man for a change too, so I felt nice and light. It makes such a difference. I did make one mistake. As I got down to Newark I decided to go down Creek Road. Yeah, I should have known better just by the name being Creek Road that it might still be wet. Well wet is actually an understatement. It had streams running across the road. Where everywhere else was sunny and dry. Here it was soaking wet, dark with heavy shade, and then I hit the ice. ICE! I didn't see any all day and here was a giant patch across the road. I figured I'd ride it since it had to be slushy. ha ha ha Yeah right. It wasn't. I caught myself just a moment before falling into the rushing swollen creek that the road runs beside. The next ice patch I was smarter. I got off and walked. After getting off that road I was back out in the sun and warmth of the day. I ended up riding a little too hard and a little too long for what I had planned, but it was awesome and just what I needed. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Old Phil said it'd be an early Spring. Just not sure how early that is though. I doubt today, but it was nice anyway.

Danger!

All is right with the world. Ahhh... I think I just needed a shower. Sunday I got a shower after my ride. Monday morning as it was freezing when I woke up due to the lack of heat neither Marc nor I took one, we just got dressed and went on our way. No problem right. Just one day. Then came Tuesday morning.
I get up and turn the shower on to heat up and brush my teeth then I check the shower and it's still cold. mmmm So I do something else, and check again, still cold. At this point I'm running out of time, so I quickly wash my hair and tell Marc there's no hot water and I leave for work. A couple hours later I get a call from Marc. Turns out when we ran out of propane our pilot went out on the hot water heater. Great.
So last night I come home and I ride, thinking I'll get a shower shortly when Marc gets home to light the pilot. Then I had to go to guitar. Yeah I was funky. But hey, what ya gonna do. I had to ride. So I piled on deodorant and changed into fresh clothes and headed off. When I get home Marc is in the basement reading the instructions. Turns out they're not real easy to follow and there's only about a billion warnings you could kill yourself. So we get more and more nervous. After numerous phone calls trying to get a hold of someone that could give us some kind of guidance, Marc reaches Tom. Yeah! So Tom walked us through it. Finally we got it lit and it started working. Unfortunately water doesn't heat up immediately, so off to bed we went.
This morning it was great. I got up and turned on the hot water and there it was. I filled the bathroom with steam, ahhhh so refreshing. I've been in a better mood all day.

Cold and Tired

Sunday 8pm - go to bed early because I don't feel good and want to be well rested.
12:45am- fire alarm goes off. Takes another 15min to track down which one, replace the battery and then another half hour to get back to sleep. So much for a good nights rest.
4am- alarm goes off to get up and go to work. Notice it's unusually cold. Check the thermostat and notice it's only 58 degrees. Crap, no heat!
4:15am- go in the basement to see if pilot is still lit. However, I don't know what that looks like. mmmm
4:20am- decide it's not the pilot, maybe we're out of propane?
4:25am- out in the backyard with a flashlight digging up the propane tank so I can check the gauge, which I shortly found to read zero!
4:30am- finally leave for work, while Marc calls for emergency fill up.
4:45am- receive call from Marc, the gas company is not doing emergency runs due to weather and call back after 8am. So basically screw you.
7:00am- Marc calls and tells me that the house smells of gas, so he's taking the dogs to his parents. Great, the dogs will be ok, but maybe no house when we get home.
8:15am- Marc calls and says they're coming out sometime today, but didn't ask why they didn't fill it last week when they were in the neighborhood. Also, that they said they'd fill it today, but they're going to turn the gas off and we'll have to turn it back on and he didn't get instructions on how to do this.
9am- I call myself, woman tells me the guy was supposed to come Friday, but just didn't. They don't know why, so he'll be around some time today. Nice. She did give me instructions on how to turn the gas back on though.
2:15pm- I get home and check the tank and it's full and gas is turned off. I turn it back on, go in the house and turn on the heater and nothing! Oh no! I wait a few minutes and finally, WE HAVE HEAT!!!!
I'm hoping to get a better nights sleep tonight.

I couldn't help but think of Buddy.

The Burp

I was talking to my sister on the phone and I could hear my nephew's running around in the background. We were talking about Justin almost turning 2 years old and I was asking how much he's been talking. So she called him over and said "say hi Aunt Di". Then I hear Justin heavy breathing in the phone and then clear as day he says, "hi Aunt Daaaauuuiiii". He had burped my name. We both cracked up and Jen says, "well how many 2 year olds do you know that can burp your name?"

Innocent Until Proven Guilty

When I came home the other night I saw this as I went to enter my bedroom. mmmm?








I followed it around, into the bedroom, around the dresser, and then I realized it was a roll of toilet paper. It just kept going....





Finally at the other end I found the remainder of the roll in the bathroom.









I quickly turned around and called for Riley and Layla to see who was the culprit. Riley was there in a snap. Meanwhile I had to go looking for Layla. I found her hovering at the bottom of the stairs and she wouldn't look at me.

Hummm, who do you think did it???

I Heart Climbing

I have had a rough week or so. I already hate winter. So nothing much going on. It's cold and blah and I don't get out as much as I'd like because it's so miserably cold outside. Then I got sick a week ago. It came on kinda slow, thought I'd be ok, but alas, I succumbed to a week of snot, sore throat and low grade fever. Lack of sleep also accompanies these symptoms, which seems to make a week last forever. So anyway as of yesterday and several boxes of tissues I am better.
I thought ah, what a nice day to finally be feeling better. Right? Well turned out to be the day from hell. I was so mad and upset by yesterday evening that I hated all people. That is until last night when we met up with Marc, Christian, Wes and his friend Genia and we went bouldering. All my worries of the day just melted away. It was so awesome! I love climbing. We had done a little bit of climbing years ago when visiting a friend who had lived up near the Philly Rock Gym. But it was a haul and he no longer lived up there, so we stopped going. That is until last week when we met up Wes, a couple of his friends and Rob at a new gym not too far from home.
This time no ropes. We've been strictly bouldering. It's been so much fun. Last week I was sick, but I went anyway. I had a lot of fun, but paid for it the rest of the week as I ached and think it took my cold for a turn for the worst. This week was better. Felt a little more comfortable. Though I still panic when I get too high, or just think I'm high. I fell once and held on for dear life dangling around, tore up my knuckle, skinned my forearm, bruised my butt and drug my back down the wall as I finally released, and it turned out I was only about 3 feet off the ground. Yeah, I'm a chicken. After that little incident Wes's friend Genia showed me how to fall correctly. Genia is great. She is so nice. Wes has some of the nicest friends. She is so friendly and helpful. She was giving me tips on how I could do things and move to make things easier. She was great.
I would like to say that the euphoria of climbing held over until today, but it did not. As I drove home my stress slowly crept back in. As I tried to sleep last night my mind raced with the problems I had to deal with today. But at least I found a little reprieve and I guess I don't hate all people.