Life in Weyers Cave

Faraday is not feeling well. She likes to sit under the warm lamp on my desk. She is losing weight, her third eyelid is closing, and her eyes are getting sunken. It is sad, but she doesn't seem to be suffering. Her purring sounds bubbly, and I won't describe her other symptoms, but they are sad.

I just found out that Blogger is NOT sending me the comments so I have to go to the web page and look them up. This started happening when the new, improved version came out and yes, it is still set up correctly. For a day or two they sent them to the gmail account I had to set up, but now they are just going into hyperspace. As to the feet, look carefully. THEY ARE NOT MY FEET! In the other picture, I am wearing dark jeans, NOT pajama pants. I'm not saying whose feet they are, but they aren't mine. Not that I wouldn't shovel snow in sandals. I just didn't. (But she was only outside for about five minutes.)

I woke up to a beautiful blanket of soft white snow and big flakes coming down to decorate all the tree branches. The roads are covered about an inch. It is quiet and peaceful. David is out of town, and that means that I get to shovel the neighbor's driveways. If it doesn't accumulate much, it will melt off before I can shovel. Let's hope Gail is very, very sick with pneumonia in the hospital. I went to visit her yesterday in the emergency room. She was talking fine. Within an hour the infection had spread to her voice box. It took her four months to fight off the last infection in her knee and I am very worried about her. I have never seen her like this. Allen and Chantell seem to be doing very well. They have new jobs at Mincer's in Charlottesville that sells sports clothes. They start today or tomorrow. Hopefully they will get the overtime they have been promised. Dianna spent the night with a friend from school Friday night. The friend loves horses so t...

I have a new customer who is having loads of problems with her computer. She got it in Dec 03 from Fat Cat (the unethical computer place) with, get this, Windows 2000 on it because it was the "best system out there." Then she got hit with the lightning surge a month ago and they charged her to replace the modem and "clean the dust off the fan." They also put in CA Virus protector even though she had free virus protection from Earthlink. She is far enough out that it will be tough to get her faster internet access than a modem, but we are working on it. Bad stuff keeps happening. Her new modem quit working - every time we tried to access it the computer rebooted. I moved it to the next slot over and that fixed it. I am assuming the surge damaged the slot as well. Her CD player won't write. And last night when she was trying to do payroll (this is a plumbing business) -- the Dreaded Blue Screen of Death! She rebooted. Nothing happened. Rebooted again,...

I spent an hour at Chantell and Allen's place yesterday. It is really looking great. They sanded all the floors and it won't take much to have them gorgeous. Also, they painted a bedroom upstairs. The walls were well prepped and it looks very professional. Then I went to Gail's for several hours in the afternoon. We spent two hours on a crossword puzzle. Who would have thunk "sourdough strikes" would be "ores"? I guess it has something to with the Gold Rush guys being famous for eating sourdough bread. To me, that is quite a stretch. Then I taught her how to use her computer some. But had to leave when "Antiques Road Show" comes on. Unless I would have stayed and watched it with her. Dianna went to a dance last night and almost enjoyed part of it! David is in Belgium for ten days. It is quiet around here!

Yesterday was NOT a good day. I don't know if it was allergies or a coldd, but I was miserable all day. blowing my nose non-stop and sneezing. I had a blood test so had to fast until 10:30. Then my computer broke. I blame Cathryn. Power of suggestion. All of a sudden, it started turning of sporadically. I knew it was hardware because I could hear a little arc of electricity and BOOM it was off without warning. Well, I'm not blowing my nose yet and I found a cord in the power supply this morning (thanks to David suggestion that I check it out) that was poorly seated into the power supply. Keep your fingers crossed. We were supposed to get a massive ice storm this morning. They cancelled schools, but we got NOTHING. Now we are supposed to get sleet and ice tonight. Bring it on! I am ready! Just hope the computer keeps working, but I am still grateful for Gracie, my laptop.

Today primary was WILD. We had a full house and the kids were really keyed up. What was really sweet was the interplay between the various families. Jaden didn't want to say prayer, so Aily tried to get him to go up with her, then said it for him. The Shearmans kept running to the back to snuggle with their Dad. I split them in groups and Vivi wanted to be with her sister. Families are so incredibly important, especially a family that can laugh together. When the kids were home at Christmas and the house was ringing with laughter, it was the greatest time of my life. When Allen and Chantell come over on Fridays and play games and we laugh all night, it gives me a greater high than anything. When Allen was little and filling out one of those books with "favorite color" (red), "favorite movie" (Winnie the Pooh), etc., we came across "favorite place to be." He had been to the top of the tallest building in the world, been to Disney World three tim...

Yup. This morning as I was walking through the house, I notice all this stuff being knocked off the shelf in the mudroom! There was a starling up there. I called the D and opened the door, but she didn't come before he left the house. Now it is time to clean up all the poop randomly deposited around the house and talk David into closing the hole in his ham shack. Birds I can handle, but a skunk could get in and that would NOT be cool.

I invited Allen and Chantell over to dinner tonight. David grilled out steaks which Dianna had pounded down and marinated. She really gets into pounding the steaks. It is a bit scary! Everything was good. Then we were supposed to play a game. Bryan called and we all enjoyed talking to him, but especially Chantell. We set up the Monopoly game and Chantell just kept talking, so we moved for her and bought the properties and just did the stuff you do at the beginning. Half an hour later, she walked in and had a lot of money and a nice set of properties. Bryan had warned her about the "deals" where you trade with immunity. Little stinker. By the end of the game, she had to win because she immunity from everyone except David, and all he had was two little pitiful houses on the yellows. I think we created a monster. Down with immunity! Well, I shouldn't say that, because my deal with her was immunity from everything she had and she was immune from everything I had, ...

Here is the picture of my Valentine's curtains. This morning we had three inches of snow, so school was cancelled and I got to sleep in. David got up early and spent four hours with his snowblower blowing about six driveways. Then he came in and crashed for an hour or two. This is tough on a guy who seldom gets any exercise other than walking around campus. I put my computer on the table and opened it up to install a modem and a 3 1/2 inch floppy drive. I had trouble with power to the drive, but thanks to my wonderful son in Florida, got it fixed up without too much trouble. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right slot for the modem, so will have to try something else if I want to make my machine to send and receive faxes. Bummer. Meanwhile, I had Dianna help me sort through old greeting cards I have collected over the years to send out to others. It was a big job, but she worked hard and everything is well organized now. Plus I have some more free cabinet space. Then ...

The internet was down for an hour yesterday. Horrors! The situation with Gail's bad caregiver remains depressing. Apparently Gail has a B12 defiency because the doctor told her to take B12 and I wasn't there, this lady was, and she thought it wasn't worth following through on. Now Gail has possible permanent nerve damage making it tough for her to stand up. I have been applying for lots of jobs on the internet. Not any good nibbles yet. And I am working on the Ruritan Directory that has to be passed out Thursday. In June the Ruritans are doing a GPS Scavanger Hunt in Weyers Cave. Entrants will get a card with ten points of coordinates. At each point will be a small tent with a person under it and something interesting about the valley. One will have lamas, another restored old cars, a third cows (of course) and a fourth will be dressed in civil war costume. One could be making apple butter or quilts, one for the octagonal house, one at a local industry, and one with ...

Dianna earned the award Rookie of the Year at the Bridgewater Rescue Squad last night. We are really proud of her. They think she can't cook because she insists on cutting towards herself. You would think you would have learned from Cathryn or Allen, each of whom have holes in their faces. Ahem. Yesterday I found out Mama Marge had surgery so I wouldn't have a primary teacher, so I prepared to teach her class. Got to church today and found out the other teacher is ALSO sick but didn't think to let me know. Found out just as church was starting. And one of my counselors didn't show up. So quicky I found a sub for the other class, and then taught my class. But there were only three kids there. There are normally about a dozen. Aily went in the older class. Stephen, who is barely three and doesn't talk yet, was in mine. Jaden decided to have a bad day and stick with his dad. So we colored and watched television and finally took off for the primary room ...