Is the fact that it has been something like five years since I had to drive in any serious snow.
And wow...I remember now how much fun it's NOT. Seriously. I've had fun--it was nothing like that. Not even a major snow, either...barely three inches. *sigh* Gone are the days when I charged merrily through winding country roads covered with ice in my trusty '72 Dodge (great car--in horrible shape by the time she got to me, but a trusty engine and if I had ever gotten into a tangle with a Honda, the Honda was going DOWN!!!), unconcerned with my ability to stay safely on the road.
Granted, I nearly slid off the road into a fifty foot ravine that one time, but I avoided it.
Point is, we have our first serious snowfall and not only does my school district not call off or call a delay (when EVERYONE else in the county was either on a delay or closed altogether I might add), but I'm stuck out in one of the neighborhoods where the main roads are clear, but everything else is treacherous.
I have to drive over a lot of "everything else" to get to school. I think I left permanent finger-tip impressions in the steering wheel.
Driving over icy, snow covered roads? SO not like riding a bicycle, at least for this Elf. Quite the nerve-wracking trip.
Apart from the snow, 'tis been a harrowing few days. My heating sort-of went out (I say sort of, because the heat worked just fine...just the regulator broke. So, I could run the heat full blast until the apartment got to oven-like temperatures and then turn it off until it got too cold, then start the process over again. Not a big deal during the evening, but after I actually went to bed, it was bloody annoying!) and more importantly, my poor Marley had a couple of his seizures.
I've mentioned Marley's bum liver before. Basically, his liver doesn't filter his blood properly and so when he gets large amounts of protein in his diet, toxins build up in his system to the point where he has full-on grand mal seizures that seem to last forever (in actuality, only a minute or two...but damn it scares me). Any road, I'm careful about his diet, but while I was home with my mother and her husband, Mom and I went out to see a movie, leaving Marley and our family dog in the care of my stepfather.
And I say this with all kindness, but my stepfather, although a very nice guy, is not the most observant person in the world. And my Marley is MUCH taller and more limber than our old Golden Retriever and so, while my stepfather was watching the news, Marley snuck into the kitchen and managed to get into the retriever's kibble.
And the cat food.
Which is basically pure protein, you understand.
He felt terrible about it when he heard me come in and start cussing a blue streak andrealized what had happened, and I tried not to be angry over what was an honest mistake...but at the same time, it's not like that stuff just gives Marley the runs. It could KILL him if he got enough of it over a short enough period of time. And I had been going to put Marley in his crate while we were out so stepfather wouldn't have to worry about watching my special-needs dog (which I'll admit, can be quite trying sometimes), but he insisted that he'd rather have Marley out so my baby could run and play with the other animals, and he promised he'd watch Marley extra-close. And he didn't.
So yeah, little pissed about that.
Was even more pissed when the night after, when Marley and I had gone home, I get woken up in the wee small hours of the morning by my 75 pound dog seizing in the bed with me. In a way, I'm DAMN lucky the heat was wonky, 'cause I had turned it off before I went to bed, and the apartment had cooled sufficiently that I had burrowed under my comforter rather than resting my arms on top of it as I usually do. 'Cause Marley's jaw locked and he sank his teeth right into where my arm was. As it is, the comforter was thick enough that I just got a couple of bruises. If he'd gotten flesh, I've no doubt that I'd have at least needed stitches.
Horrible as the seizures are, I've at least gotten used to dealing with them, so I recovered from the surprise of being woken in such a way quickly...but he had a total of three seizures over the course of two hours (the first two being so close together that I didn't have time to move him from the bed, and of course, he loses bowel and bladder control during them. That was fun.).
The third seizure was at about three in the morning, and then I spent the rest of the night snapping to look at him everytime he moved or breathed loudly, so needless to say, I was wrecked when I had to get up for school at six. Marley, though, recovered fairly quickly after the third and was pretty much back to normal by the time I had to leave. He's doing fine now, but I'm switching him abck to his vegetable-based home made diet for a few days just to be sure.
Oy.
So, one would think that after those events, life would just settle down for a bit, yeah?
*falls over laughing*
Oh no, you know how things work for this Elf.
This morning, my door stopped working.
Yes, you read that correctly. My door stopped working.
My door. My front door.
Stopped.
Working.
I wake up, I take Marley out for his morning pee, I take him back in, I check my email. With about ten minutes before I leave, I go to turn the car on to defrost it, turn the knob....
And nothing happens. The door will not open. It's not that the deadbolt is thrown...the door simply will not open. The handle turns, but it will not let me out. And I get this crazy idea that maybe condensation or something has frozen the door shut ('cause it's damn cold outside, and what? Like I know how stuff like that works?!) and so I start pulling in earnest, trying to force the door. And nothing happens.
I'm trapped in my apartment.
Talk about being beside myself with WTF?!?!?!?! Who the hell gets stuck in an apartment because the door breaks?
I do, apparently.
So yeah, I'm standing there contemplating the horror of having to call into work and be like "My door's broken, I can't get out, so I'm gonna be late" when my more sensible side sighs heavily and is all, "You know what you gotta do, right?"
So yeah, long story short, I had to kick out the screen in my bedroom (literally kick it out, 'cause that bastard was bolted to the frame!) and crawl through the window to get to work today.
And maintenance had to crawl through the front window to get in to fix my broken door.
And SERIOUSLY!!!!! Who has stuff like this happen to them?!?!?!
Things this Elf is looking forward to: this upcoming snowstorm, if it gets me off school tomorrow :)
Things currently annoying the crap out of her: take your pick. Still pretty incredulously pissed about the door.
Pretty boy of the moment: Eh, still stuck on Jude Law as Watson...I need to go see that film again.
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