Ice man

Mr. Bettis and his owner slipped on the ice. Not together but with a similar outcome.
He injured his leg and was taken pulling and tugging to the vet on Saturday. Have I ever mentioned how horrible he is at the vet? Well if not take my word, he's AWFUL!
The car ride is a nightmare let alone his antics in the waiting room until....he sees our favorite vet. Dr. B is a Steelers fan so I think he has an admiration of Mr. Bettis beyond the average vet.
He tore a ligament and is on meds and bedrest. Yeah. Right. Try the bedrest thing with Mr. B (eyeroll here). Even Dr. B chuckled over keeping him calm because he made it clear Mr. B is an overactive dog (as if we didn't know that).

Mr. B's owner didn't fare any better and after much ta-do we headed to the dr's office an hour and half away. After cutting a shine at the dr's office, DH was transported by ambulance to the hospital. I can say 'cutting a shine' because my jangled nerves are calm now.
He's on a boatload of meds, a monitor and resting somewhat comfortably.

We didn't get home until midnight (after my parents made the trip to get us) and I'm exhausted.
I must leave with a bit of humor. We have two sons (both married) and two daughters. After the DH was pumped with pain meds, muscle relaxants and who knows what else he became a bit lethargic and proceeded to mumble something about our THREE daughters. Say what???? LOL Caused the nurse and I to have a good laugh.

As if.........

We prattled around here for days, watching it snow, working on puzzles, playing board games and all in all appearing as if we had nothing better to do with our time. Until this morning.
Hubby got up to head off to work and as he entered the living room.......drip.....drip......drip.

Water was dripping from the living room offset. He had to shovel a path to get to the bay window area to take a look at the gutter.
It is packed with ice built up to 4 inches thick above the gutter. Not. Good.



He came inside and cut the drywall from the ceiling. Insulation and drywall are soaked.












What a mess! Looks like he's off for the day to take care of this little problem.









Miss Aurora was fascinated with the snow/water dripping into the bowls. I'm so glad this is amusing someone because it sure isn't amusing to us.

In spite of it all we are counting the blessings. It didn't happen during a torrential rain storm or during hubby's busy work season. So there are things to be grateful for even if we had to look hard for them.

Ya Gotta Love 'em

Do you see this? It is the top of our driveway. Slick and icy.
The DD got up late to go to school. She had 15 minutes to get ready and head out. The DH assured me that she would have NO problem getting out. After all, Mr. "I-have-driven-for-35-years" had NO problem getting out when he left for his 2 hour trek to work.
However, DD has only had her license for 5 months. And this is her first time driving in icy/snow conditions.
Our driveway is a gradual slope. Not good in the winter. One must tromp the gas pedal to the top.
She went to the car and unfortunately drove slow. I was in my sheep pjs yelling from the deck for her "tromp" it. She never heard me. She slid and got stuck. I called the DH who then said, "I didn't have a problem. Tell her to back down in the grass and start over." Obviously he hasn't noticed there IS NO GRASS! It is covered in snow and ice. She backed down and this time she almost hit the apple tree.

I called the DH again. He couldn't understand how that happened. MEN!
I looked outside and there was the DD with her head in her arms against the car, sobbing. When I asked what was wrong she was blubbering in a total meltdown (and no it didn't melt any snow/ice).
"I-I wa-anted to-o throw snow un-nder the t-t-ire for t-t-r-raction. I shut the door and it l-o-ocked me-e OU-U-T!" Loud wailing at this point.
The car was running and she was locked out. Miss "I-never-get-fuel-till-it's-on-empty", only had a 1/4 tank of gas. I anticipated the car running stuck in the driveway until it ran out of fuel.

But wait...........it gets better..........we have a second set of keys. So I called the DH. "where is the second set of keys." Answer? "in my pocket." The DH was at work 2 hours away. So he took another vacation day and came home. He is out of cell service for most of the 2 hour trip so when my dad broke into the car and towed her out, I had no way of reaching the DH.

On top of it all, the DD has a horrible cold and insisted on going to school because, "I don't want to miss my AP literature class." She was late but she finally made to school.

We are getting several keys made for this car and they will be in MY possession instead of the DH's pocket 2 hours away.


.

I grabbed the camera for a rare shot of Mr. Bettis and Gypsy napping together with a cat within slobbering reach.
There's plastic on the bed to keep animal hair off the bedding (not that it really works around here). Aren't they being good?

Ice Man Rant

This is what prompted the DD to do another Happy Dance today. No School!
We received a good 4 inches of the white stuff before it turned to sleet and freezing rain. Not-A-Good-Thing. I love the snow but sleet? and freezing rain? No thank you.
The temps went up to the 30's today which meant it melted a little. The temps are to drop to 17 tonite. Winds have already picked up and the wind chill is to be -5. Oh Yippee! (sarcasm here if you didn't notice:). Which only means packed solid ice/snow. Slick as a whistle.



This is a picture of the front brick stoop. Two steps. There are 5 steps to the back door where you can actually, maybe, get in the house. The DH decided to stay down with a buddy last night. Smart decision. However, we (meaning me and DD) do not have any ice melt/salt for the steps. So I called the DH.
Here's how that scenerio played: (Bear with me, Chan, you've already heard the rant)

I told him to get salt/ice melt for the steps last week. He said (in his infinite wisdom and on a sub zero day) "Oh I don't think we'll get anymore stuff that needs salt." I thought to self, who is rather smart:), "you're not getting ice melt because it's January and it's sub zero out there?" But I managed to keep my mouth shut and so here we are, the steps and banisters are a solid sheet of ice and snow. I called him to tell him, "You need to get salt/ice melt".
"Oh I don't know where I'll get that, you know everyone is probably sold out now. "gggrrrr......

Well then, dear hubby, you'll have to crawl up the steps when you get home. Although I did offer to throw him a rope and let his big lug of a dog pull him up the steps.


However Chan has brought a few things to my attention.


1) The husband did not just move in and this has not been his first winter here so why he didn't stock up on ice melt/salt or anything that would get rid if it, is beyond me.

2) Mr. Bettis (very obviously) has ADD and the chances of the DH keeping his big lug engaged long enough to reach the security of dry land are slim to none...

update: I just heard from the hubby. You're gonna love it. He has stopped at four stores and guess what? There's nothing left to melt the ice! Now who would've thunk that one? MEN!

Picture-less Post

A post without pictures and you'll soon read why.
It's raining here and freezing on contact. There is a lovely shiny glaze on everything. I was unaware of that until I stepped on the porch to go down the steps. My foot went out from under me. I grabbed the rail and slid ever so gracefully (or not) down the steps. Funny how hand knit gloves glide on an iced railing. Mr. Bettis remained on the porch even though the gate was standing wide open. On a normal day he would've sprinted over my crippled and crumbled body completely oblivious to my plight and gone for a nice run. He must've sensed the nasty weather because he just stood there and stared at me not even contemplating a run off. Although he appeared to be having a good chuckle as dogs sometimes do:).
Nothing is broken. Well......I take that back. Nothing is broken but my pride. My bum is a bit tender but otherwise I'm fine. Why is it when I fall the first thing I do is look around to see if anyone saw me? I breathe a sigh of relief when I realize I'm alone. Until I make an attempt to get up, then I'm screaming for someone, anyone to come get me up. Funny how my family NEVER hears me screaming. Selective hearing once again.
I'm off to knit. The candles are ready in case the power goes out.