February 12, 2019

The Story So Far.

In Minnesota, they have a saying... "there's only three good uses for ice: fishing, hockey, and whiskey."  They know better than to go out in a ice storm, which we had a few days ago, or when it's -35 at noon, which we had a few days ago, or the other ice storm, which I came home early to avoid driving during "rush hour."


And then as a personal "Screw You Wonderduck", I got to work the next day... and it began raining.  DELUGE-level raining.  Well, that's unfortunate, but nothing to worry about.  After all, the temps aren't supposed to begin falling until after midnight or so.  Lo and behold, the weather nabobs had gotten it wrong again.  I left work wearing just the zippered fleece sweatshirt... and it had probably gone down 20 degrees in a couple of hours, AND the wind was gusting around 30 - 40 mph.  I make it to my car despite the little frozen waves on the parking lot surface.  I unlocked the car, pulled on the door handle, and...

....nothing.  Frozen dead shut.  I tried another one, frozen shut and the door handle came off in my hand.  A few of my coworkers stopped to help, ended up losing two more door handles in the process.  I called a taxi.  That's why I didn't get home until well after 11pm, it took quite a while for the taxi to arrive... as you can imagine.  Took a taxi in the next morning, when it was like 5 degrees above zero, and the driver actually helped me get into the SUV.  Because canes and ice don't mix, boys and girls.  At work, my car was sitting in the parking lot, absorbing whatever radiant heat was coming from Our Pal The Sun  ("There is only one God, He is the Sun God. Ra!  Ra!  Ra!") and hopefully melting whatever ice was holding the doors shut.  Around 3pm, I checked, and it opened right up!  Yay.

Finished up my work around 9pm or so, gathered up my stuff, trudged in the "How fscking cold is it" temperature, unlocked me car, and the door was frozen shut.  I trudged back to the office, sat down in the break room, got another taxi from that place I used earlier in the day, they showed up around 11pm.  And then, once we make it to Pond Central, the driver gets out of the van and helps me out (big ice patch).  "Do you want help the rest of the way sir?"  "Sure.  Or you can get back inside the van where it's warm and watch me... that way, I won't die alone."  He laughed, and got me through the Khumbu Icefall.  Yeah, these guys are getting my business from now on.

I chat with Ph.Duck, he'll come out and pick me up for a run to get the unlocked car Saturday morning... at which time I wake up and discover that I am feverish, headachy, very very tired, etc.  So he got it taken care of for me, while I stayed sick Sunday and Monday... and, really, today too.  I didn't get in until 1130am, fever is gone, but now there's signs of a cough building.

It's been one thing after another after another after another for weeks now, and I'm quite stressed.  I'm still functioning, which impresses the hell out of me, because I think I should be hiding under my bed.  Tomorrow is another day.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:15 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 581 words, total size 3 kb.

1 We had a year like that. Actually, almost two years, from about November 2015 through Harvey (August 2017), which coincided with our younger son's last (knock on wood) really bad stomach bug. One (rough) pregnancy and subsequent birth, five surgeries, three or four hospitalizations (including one that landed our infant in the PCU for nearly a week), I don't remember how many ER visits (a couple dozen at least, ranging from what turned out to be "just" an ear infection to a daycare-induced fractured femur that got CPS called on us), and between the four of us, we were seeing probably twenty specialists. Add in the usual colds and other bugs that little kids and their caretakers get, and we literally did not go one week without someone in the family being sick or injured (Will kicked things off with a severe back injury) for nearly two years. Some weeks, we didn't even go one day without a medical appointment of some kind, planned or unplanned. Plus, our oldest was really struggling (did you know that parents of autistic children report higher stress levels than even parents of children with a terminal diagnosis?), and we had to make significant changes in his intervention and schooling. It was not fun dealing with all that while also fighting depression and getting almost every bug the kids were getting. As soon as I'd picked myself up from one setback, the next came - and sometimes the next didn't wait for the current one to finish. I felt I could never catch my breath. Joshua 1:9 was on my lips continually. ("Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.")

But it did pass. And this too will pass. Eventually. Best wishes, and let us know if there's something we can do for you, even if it's just sending you a show you want to watch through Amazon or whatever. 

Posted by: Kathryn at February 13, 2019 06:19 AM (rWZ8Y)

2 Merciful heavens, this winter's had it out for you. Hoping the worst is well behind you now!

Posted by: GreyDuck at February 13, 2019 08:43 AM (rKFiU)

3 Oh.  It's not your job that's cruel and unusual, it's your lifeYeah. As the rednecks in my family would say, dayum.

Posted by: Ubu at February 13, 2019 10:04 AM (SlLGE)

4 Y'know, in retrospect, perhaps that blood transfusion from Brickmuppet was a bad idea...

-j

Posted by: J Greely at February 13, 2019 01:52 PM (tgyIO)

5 I had a case of the frozen doorlocks myself last week. Unfortunately none of my fixes would be applicable in your situation.
Equally bad though was being damn near out of gas and having the gas cap door frozen shut while at the gas station.

Posted by: Mauser at February 13, 2019 07:11 PM (Ix1l6)

6 Hope things improve soon, health, weather, work, and everything else-wise.  That doesn't sound fun.

Two thirds of my cow-orkers are heading off from Sydney summer to New York winter to attend a conference next week.  The weather there isn't anything like in the Midwest, but I'm still glad I elected to stay behind and look after things.  It basically never freezes here in Sydney and I like it that way.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at February 14, 2019 10:31 PM (2yngH)

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