First Day Of Winter
Today is the first day of winter. Surprisingly, today has been warmer than the last couple of days. Yesterday, the temperature dropped to seven degrees and it never got higher than twenty degrees. Today it is nearly forty. It is a bit weird to see snow on the ground for a day, then nothing, and then snow again. I wish the snow would be a bit more consistent; I rather enjoy shoveling it (yes, I’m serious about the shoveling). The dogs love the snow too; I have to keep telling them to not eat the snow (especially the yellow snow).
Of course, as much as the dogs and I enjoy the snow, the cold weather can be treacherous at times. On Sunday, Rachel had to brave the ice-covered roads to go to work. Unfortunately, she did not fare to well. When entering the freeway, she hit a patch of ice. She came within inches of hitting a guardrail. After traveling on the freeway for a while unable to see the lines on the road, she decided it was best to turn around. On the way back to the house, Rachel hit another patch of ice and ended up on the side of the road facing the wrong way. Fortunately, neither her nor the truck was damaged. She made it home without further incident. A few hours later, after the snowplows had done their thing, Rachel was able to go back to work.
As it is almost Christmas, Rachel and I sent some presents to our family members who live out of state. Well, at least we thought they were sent. We went to Mail Boxes Etc. last Saturday to have the presents packaged and shipped. Yesterday, they called me to say that they had some problems. Apparently, they mixed up the presents. I hope that everything was straightened out and that everyone will receive what we intend them to receive.
Last week, after waiting for our timer to turn of our Christmas decoration, I found that the timer does not work at all. Apparently, “outdoor” does not include cold weather. Anyway, I was still able to use the timer box as a switch to turn the decorations on and off. Unfortunately, the timer eventually ceased to function altogether. Now, I am using a handy remote that allows me to turn the decorations on and off from inside the house.
We finally got our fence finished last week. We now have a six-foot tall wood fence that goes down the west side of our property. We no longer have annoying neighbors (actually, we haven’t had neighbors on the west side for several months), but now it will be harder for future neighbors to bother us. We also had our wire fence replaced with chain link fencing. Now, I feel more comfortable letting the dogs out to play.
Last Saturday was the last of my English class (Basic Composition Skills). I am happy to announce that I received an “A”. Unfortunately, this class was a non-credit class. I needed to take a few non-credit classes to account for some of the differences between my last school and St. Leo. Anyway, this is my last non-credit class, so every class after this point will count towards my degree (and my GPA). My next class is a Math class (Algebra and Functions). I am good with Algebra, so I expect to do well in the class. At the current rate, I should receive my Bachelor’s degree in the beginning of 2008.
Since my next class does not start until January 3, I have been trying to catch up on some reading. Lately, I have been reading books from the Xanth series at the rate of one per day. Hopefully, I will be finished with all of the books on my current reading list by February.
Last night, Rachel saw a mouse by the furnace. We were trying to figure out where the mouse was living, as we had not seen any droppings. We eventually figured out that it was living in one of my old shoes. After some further investigation, we think that it came inside via a hole by our gas line. So, we set out a couple of mousetraps and we plugged the hole with some steel wool until we can get something more permanent.
Tagline for today: Whoever coined the phrase “Quiet as a mouse” has never stepped on one.