Winter Blunderland

It snowed overnight. There was enough snow on my porch this morning that I decided not to chance heading to Yogawood. I'll do it Wednesday or Friday. After breakfast, I finished putting up the rest of the general Winter decorations - cardboard prints of snowmen doing outdoor sports, two huge crepe-paper snowflakes that were hung off the many random nails in the living room walls, a tin shaped like a bear in a checked winter coat, and the winter doll display on top of the large bookshelf in the bed room.

I was working on my budget (and figuring out how much I spent last month) around 11AM, when I noticed it had started snowing again, this time a little harder. I did need milk, so I decided I'd go out and pick some up before the weather got worse. I'd forgotten to put my key in my pocket, as I usually do first thing in the morning, since I didn't go to Yogawood. Of course, I realized this just as I stepped out of the locked door.

I was able to go to WaWa and get the milk, but not only did I have work at 1:30, I needed to get a snack, change into my work shirt, and eat lunch. I solved the lunch problem by buying a turkey wrap from WaWa. I was hoping my landlady Miss Ellie would be home when I got in. She wasn't. I ate my wrap on her porch, then went next-door to see if my neighbors could help. They didn't have a key, but they knew who did and pointed me in the direction of Miss Ellie's sister and her son, who live a few doors down on Manor Ave. I owe Miss Linda and her son BIG, especially him - he'd hurt his back that morning and was barely moving, and he was still able to get into Miss Ellie's house and find the spare key.

(And I may take Miss Linda's suggestion that we have a second spare key made and leave it with Uncle Ken and Dolores...)

I made it inside with twenty minutes to spare. It was just enough time to grab a banana and a granola bar for a snack, change shirts, pack my snack, my cell phone, and my small jar of pennies, nickles, and dimes into my lunch container, jump on my bike, and head to work. Work was busy when I came in, nearly dead when I left (so much that I spent twenty of my last thirty minutes doing returns).

My coin jar was originally a case for the Japanese Blissey Pokemon toy my then-boyfriend bought me from eBay for my birthday. Even after he dumped me, I retained cute egg-shaped little Blissey and the very useful plastic container. When the container is full, I take it to the green Coinstar coin counting machine at the Acme. I normally get about 5 or 6 dollars out of it, but this year, I started adding more nickles and dimes to the jar in addition to pennies. I had three quarters and another nickel in my pocket that was added to the pile, too. The result? I'm now $10.06 richer.

It had continued to snow on-and-off while I was at work. It had stopped by the time I was on my way home. It's not a lot, probably about three or four inches, and it'll likely be gone by the time I go to work tomorrow, but it's more than the past few snow showers we've had. The main roads were mostly clear. Manor Avenue, a rarely-cleared back road, was the only place I had any trouble.