Friday, January 29, 2010

A Day Full of Perks



We awoke this morning to a beautiful snow that was still coming down. I think the final number was eight inches, but this morning it was just gorgeous. On snowy days I really miss having a window in my office. I do so love snow. And this was a beautiful snow.

Of course, that's a lovely perk in the day - to wake up to a beautiful snowy landscape, with big fluffly white flakes still coming down. But, I hadn't even left my house when I saw the next perk in my day. My sidewalk had been cleared.



I'm certain it was my next door neighbor, Bob. I heard his snowblower earlier this morning and it was so kind of him to clear more. In fact, he cleared the entire block. He is a fabulous neighbor. As we often joke, I won the "neighbor lottery" with Bob and Ruth. Such nice folks in general and then they're extra generous with things like this.

When I got home from work the walk up to my house and the steps had been cleared. I'm guessing Sharon did that. She's so very kind to do that. Shoveling snow is not a possibility for me for some time to come. Yet another perk in the day.

But that wasn't all the perks in the day.

I went to the doctor today for some antibiotics for this little cold I picked up somewhere, despite my obsessive handwashing and extensive germ-x use. When I checked in, the woman taking my information said, "I know who you are," and went on to talk about my cooking column in Kansas Country Living. It was so nice to meet Juna. She made my day much brighter. I love to have a chance to meet readers and visit with them. She also mentioned she loves my brownie recipe I put in the magazine a few months ago, which is one of my favorites. It was lovely to meet her.

When I left the doctor's office I went to get the prescription filled and did some shopping I needed to do for work while I was there. I bumped into Carlota and we had what can only be described as an enlightening conversation near the Honey Mustard Salad Dressing in Walmart. Part of our conversation was how much we both like the jobs we're in now. It was really nice to see her and I hope we can get together soon.

Otherwise in the day there was some good work news, some projects moving along, a nice conversation with someone at NASA, and the day wrapped up with a visit from Deb, who I met during the blogger tour last year. She was in Hutchinson with her parents and they visited the museum today.

All in all a nice day with lots of pleasantries.

The Day


It's a winter wonderland here. I snapped this by opening the front door and pointing the camera outside. Needless to say, it's not my best photographic work, but I do love the snow when no one has left footprints in it yet.

As of tonight, I've given in to the fact that I'm sick. I have had a sniffy nose since Monday night, but haven't felt bad at all. So I thought it was just allergies. But, late this afternoon I started feeling pretty rough. I came home and slept four hours - so of course I'm up now. I feel a bit better, but this congestion has moved into my chest so I'll be seeing my doctor tomorrow for some good, old-fashioned western medicine of drugs.

I was in Wichita today to work a conference. It was supposed to go until 2, but everyone started packing up about noon because of the impending weather and the fact that there was no traffic from the attendees. So, I got back to the office and did a few things and a little before 4 I came home. Considering we left before 6:30 I'd already had a full day of work and I was feeling rough.

I just HATE to be sick. People tease me about my obsessive handwashing and my use of purell/germx/etc., but it's all about preventing being sick. I took the H1N1 flu shot on Monday and this started Monday night. But, I took the shot, which has no live virus in it, so this is just a coincidence. Regardless, hopefully tomorrow the doctor will give me some drugs that will have me feeling better very quickly.

This is not how I wanted to spend this day. It was a year ago tonight I found out that the tumor I'd had removed the day before was benign. I like to mark time and I had hoped to do something fun tonight to commemorate the anniversary. Instead, the time came and went while I was asleep. So, it wasn't meant to be obviously. Oh well, this little cold is a much better kind of sick than being in the hospital. So, I'll just deal with it. Hopefully I'll feel good enough to have some fun this weekend.

Of course, lately "fun" has been working on my house. It is really out of control. I'm not a very good housekeeper to begin with, but not being able to do much for such a long time has left things in a desperate mess. So, I'm trying to reclaim it a little bit at a time.

I've also been getting geared up to work more on the novel. I didn't touch it all last year. I have started rereading it, to pinpoint the changes I need to make. There are some loose ends I need to tie up and some rewriting that needs to be done. Lots to juggle.