WiR

(Week in Review.)

My family owns. Got a letter in the mail from Grandma yesterday (though didn't find it until today, when I made the cold trek to the mailbox) more or less for Valentine's. She is special and leaves literary treasures in my life. Her handwriting is something to be envious of, truly. She signed a card, "I like your new pen – especially when you apply it to my address —"

The week was fairly boring, though long. We got some snow, and real accumulation this time. It required about three hours of shoveling to clean the driveway between Mother and myself. My back was pretty sore for the rest of the week (especially considering that I was undergoing traction at the chirpractor), but has mostly calmed down. But I get ahead of myself.


I hurt my shoulder teaching somehow on Monday. It's nothing terribly serious, but fairly annoying on occasion, as though the rotator cuff is inflamed or the labrum torn. Self-diagnosis isn't so good, so if it's not okay in a few weeks, I'll probably see a doctor. MC's opinion is that it's brought on by the adjustments the back doctors are making.

I got the camera on Tuesday, but I'm still waiting on memory cards. I can't imagine spending the kind of money that they want me to spend on a memory card, so I ordered two one-gig SD cards and a UV filter off Amazon for less than Adorama was asking for one-gig card. (== Ridiculous.) Nonetheless, the sample pictures I've been able to take (but not take off the camera) have been pretty sweet looking. I'm definitely excited by the chance to actually use it, and use it well. Calgary is looking like a real possibility (call from M today helped seal the deal), and from all accounts is a beautiful place. (Not that I am surprised.) Hopefully that trip will materialize in good time. I still have to email the relatives about Nairobi this summer.

It snowed Tuesday mid-morning into Wednesday, and in relatively large quantities. My car was fairly buried after a few hours at work, and I had to brush off some quantities of snow. T had to pick her mom up near the airport that night, which was treacherous driving. She survived, for which everyone is thankful.

Wednesday, I couldn't get my car out because of how much snow was on the driveway, so I worked a bit from home, then helped Mom shovel. It sleeted all morning. It was pretty strange, actually, because it was maybe twenty degrees out (minus-seven deg. C, for our unitally challenged readers); the air up there must've been warmer. The snow was much heavier than I expected, and the labor was tough. But we managed well enough and cleared mostly everything out. This was good, since Mom had to pick up Sis from the airport; she flew in for SAD.

I finished the day working from home because I didn't feel like going to work and really didn't have to. The boss was north because his father had heart surgery (two new valves and a bypass; yuck, but probably better than the alternative) and was under a bit of snow, too. He didn't arrive back until Friday afternoon.

Thursday was a typical day of work and teaching. I was not as productive as I wanted to be, but it happens, and the day is over now. (One of the mercies of being confined to time, I suppose, is that the days pass and they don't come back. But the good parts live on in memory and the bad fade away.) The classes were rather small due to the weather, but they proceeded well, and I think we were able to get a lot done besides. I was able to refresh MC's form in my memory; the handwork is wicked cool. (The first time I saw him do the form in 1999 before State Games—my one and only tournament appearance—I got goosebumps.)

Friday was another rather typical day cleaning up some loose ends at work and teaching in the afternoon, a bit of BS in the evening, complete with a game of Apples to Apples with some folks at church. Not surprisingly, I was able to peg S to the T, and so won a couple adjectives from him. (I got "Virtuous" off of "Reading a book.")

Mother and Sis left for New York to visit relatives sometime in the early afternoon, leaving Dad and I to fend for ourselves.


And that leaves us with today. We tried to make hash browns for breakfast, and it came out more like the Cleveland Browns. We'll try again tomorrow. The bacon was edible (Mom freezes it, and that drives me NUTS; it just tastes bad) and the eggs (which I made; please ignore the shine of my finger nails as I buff them on my manly chest) were decent. The coffee was almost up to par (absolute necessity) and the OJ was the same as usual. So we made out okay.

We'll see how we can do tomorrow and probably hit the late service to accommodate Dad's decreased mobility due to his back. I guess this means I had better clean out the car today.