Shovel, Shovel, Toil and Trouble

The trouble came first when the spring holding the drive cable on my snow thrower broke again. Our neighbor, Rich, had made a quick repair the last time it snowed, but it came apart. I had to turn the darn thing over and make another repair with galvanized wire. It held for today. After that was finished came the task of actually blowing the snow and shoveling. I started about 12:15 and finished up at around 2:30. Anne shoveled the front walk and porch and some other stuff. There are some other places I wanted to do, but I thought I should stop. I had been warned not to overdo it, so I didn't, I think. My shoulders, arms and back most certainly got enough exercise for today. I would guess we had approximately 10 to 12 inches, but it's hard to say because of the drifting.

More trouble presented itself by way of Anne's computer. It stopped recognizing the printer and then wouldn't open Control Panel or My Computer. When you "troubleshoot" you get instructions to do inane things or get sent to menus that don't exist. I don't know why they don't just have a message pop up that says, "No user serviceable stuff inside. Take me to a repair shop." At least that would be honest. We may go out in a day or so to look for a new computer. This one is old enough and has had enough issues that I think it is looking to do what I did, retire. We had a long discussion about what to get with me pushing Apple and maybe even a laptop and Anne pretty sure she would be happy with a PC desktop because she likes the larger screen and because she is content working with it at her desk. A desktop is okay with me because when it's time to replace my laptop, I will almost certainly want another laptop. We would then have a laptop in the family which could be moved around or taken on trips, etc. I like my Apple iBook, but I'm not adverse to considering a PC laptop, so this story will be continued.  

Victoria, Snow and Weights

Yesterday afternoon we saw "Young Victoria" at our local cinema. It was free movie night, of course and guess what? They have installed all new seats in the theater. The old ones were there from the dawn of time and were really starting to fall apart, literally. That had been one of my big objections to that theater; I couldn't get comfortable. The new seats are nice.

So, the movie was about Queen Victoria from the time that her uncle, the King, died until sometime after the birth of her first child. It was really a love story between Victoria and Albert and it was nicely done. I always liked Queen Victoria. I thought she was a good ruler interested in the welfare of her subjects. I'm not quite as impressed with her progeny, but the story was about her, not them. The actors were real people and not generated on a computer. I would like to live in one of those palaces and have servants to wait on me, but my guess is that won't be happening any time soon.

It snowed last night and we got about an inch. I shoveled the walks this morning with the idea that if I did that I wouldn't have to do all of my weight training today. I figured that I would just do the lower half of my body. Well, I got started on my routine and went through the whole thing anyway. So, yeah for me.

I was holding off writing on my blog in the hope that I would have heard from Peter. I emailed him the other day, but haven't heard anything yet. I'm not sure how long it takes emails to get to or from him, but we'll call Roxanne tonight to see if she has heard anything.

Dinner and All

I feel like it's Christmas night. We had been planning for this evening's dinner with some good friends and now that it's over, there's nothing more to plan for the time being. It was a wonderful evening though, with good food and very nice people. It is important to remember how valuable friends are. I don't mean economically valuable, but, I guess what you could call spiritually. Nice friends are good for the soul. Friendships are like plants too. If you neglect them, they will wither and die and that would be sad. I think I will resolve to at least keep in contact with friends. Sometimes it's not possible to get together with friends physically, because of distance or other circumstances, but it ought to be possible, in this day and age, to contact them by email, phone, letter, or by some means. I would not want to lose the friendship of the people that we were with today, or any friends, because of neglect on my part. These people add such a rich dimension to life, it would be foolish to let them slip away. I hope also that I, in some small way, can add to the fabric of their lives.

Friday and Haiti

It's Friday and I did my weight training exercises today. Will I keep this up? I'm doing exercises for muscle endurance, not muscle size. There is a difference and I think endurance is what I want. Especially, I want to be able to get out of my kayak in the warmer weather without looking like a beached whale. I can get in it just fine, but after sitting for an hour or so, uncurling myself to get out has presented some moments in the past. I have always managed to get out, but not always as gracefully as I would have hoped.

Peter is back living in his office from a couple of days of R&R in Santo Domingo. His tour in Haiti ends in August. His Spanish language training starts in January in DC, so in addition to leave time and vacation, he needs to work someplace for a couple of months before he goes to Mexico. He has asked for Miami. I think the government should give that to him after all that he has had to endure in Haiti. He didn't sign on for earthquake duty or to see his neighborhood crumble around him. So, we'll see what happens.

We had a little snow yesterday, but it wasn't real cold. so it melted. I hope we don't get anymore for the weekend because we are having guests for dinner on Sunday and I would rather not have a major snow event to deal with before then. But, if we have a blizzard, I will go outside in the freezing cold and remove every snowflake that could impede anyone's progress to our door. That's just the way it is.

Splitting Wood

I didn't do any weight training today. I'm not slacking off. I'm only supposed to do it Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I did move some dirt around the yard and I split some firewood. On Sundays in the winter I like to get a fire going in the wood stove in the cellar. This Sunday we're having company, so it seems like the perfect time to do it. I now have plenty of wood split. I do wonder about this wood or my splitting technique. These logs have been drying for a year now, but are they ever tough to split. I have employed an axe, an eight pound splitting maul and a sledge hammer and wedge. I have read that the 8lb maul may be too heavy and that it just bounces. I would think that the thing could go through a building once it gets going, but it does bounce a lot. The axe stick in the log, but the head isn't broad enough to act as a wedge. The whole process seems to be more work than it ought to be.

On an older post I mentioned that a spring had broken on a drive mechanism under my snow blower. Our neighbor, Rich, had jury rigged an additional spring to get it to work. Today I turned the thing on its side and ran some galvanized steel wire through the spring he used and through a hole in the drive cam as an extra safeguard against the thing coming out. I hope that I'm ready for any snow that may come on Saturday.

Haiti, the Dentist, Weights

Peter got a couple of days R&R in Santo Domingo from today until Wednesday. His hotel is nice, but it's a half hour from the beach and he has no car. He may try to get there tomorrow. Apparently, no one else from the embassy is there, but he met some people he knows who were providing aid work or something. Wednesday he has to go back to the cot in his office, but at least he's getting a little respite.

I had an appointment at the dentist for cleaning today, but the hygienist was sick so it got postponed until next Monday. We're having a few folks for dinner on Sunday and I wanted to look spiffy. Oh well, I'll have to be unspiffy, or just keep my mouth closed.

I restarted my weight training in ernest today. I had been reacquainting myself with some of the exercises, but today I put them all together for the first time in a while. I was glad I did it, but I discovered muscles I had forgotten existed. I think I'm supposed to do this more than once, even on a regular basis. I have these record sheets that expect you to record your progress several times a week. One curious thing is that my old sheets show that I did certain exercises with 20 lb dumbbells, but I only have 15 and then 25 lb ones. I don't know where the 20 lb ones could be. Curious.

Haiti and Peter

Peter now has a cot in his office with a blanket and pillow. He was also able to get a shower and a meal at the home of a coworker that wasn't damaged. His bodyguard went back to his house to retrieve Pete's laptop and some clothes. While he was in the house, there was an aftershock, so he got out pretty fast. Pete may get a two day break in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, but that probably includes coming and going. Hardly a big break. Why those two places? Apparently. that because that's where the military planes fly. I guess U.S. Military planes don't fly to Miami, or maybe because there is no air marshall to fly along. Think that's far fetched?

When Teddy was on protective detail for the Vice President, he would act as an air marshall whenever he was flying to or from an assignment. He would speak to the pilot ahead of time and the crew would know where he was seated. One time he was returning from Wyoming with about 40 other armed Secret Service agents. They had left their cars at one Washington area airport (maybe it was Reagan, maybe a military base, I forget which), but they weren't allowed to fly into the airport where their cars were parked because there was no air marshall aboard. They landed at the other airport and were bussed back to their cars. That's your government at work folks.

Communications with Peter is still an iffy situation. Sometimes he can get a call through to Roxanne, sometimes not. She has the same problem when trying to call him.