Brown grass and blue skies....

It seems like we have had a cold snap going on since shortly after Christmas.  The temperatures have been in the 20's several nights and we once had some rain that turned into these tiny little snow flurries.  We aren't nearly as put upon as the folks in the states to our north.  They have been buried under feet  of snow.  Cousins who live in Atlanta posted some pictures of their back deck which were just lovely; snow crisp and covering the landscape.  It looked so lovely.  Made me feel the silence.

Until it melts.  Then it would  seem that a person living with the melting snow would  most likely start complaining about  mud. As in, "Wipe your shoes off and don't dare track all that mud through the house!"  Or, until another freeze turns all that snow melt into slick ice.  Then you have to be careful of foot placements and falling.  T. and I watched a video taken from an overhead helicopter - it showed a chase of a fleeing man who was coming from a bank he had just robbed.  He had a hostage in front of him and together they side-stepped along the sidewalk, heading for the corner.  The alleged bank robber turned to cross the street, all the while keeping his hostage in front of him.  The police had to hold their fire.  The robber stepped across a berm of snow that had been scraped up by the snowplow.  He began to back into the street while pulling the hostage.  Oops!  His foot slid out and he crashed down.  The road was iced and when he fell, the female hostage ran to the police.   Shots were fired.  I leave the rest to your imagination. 

We don't have that kind of problem, for the most part.  Around our house, if you leave a sprinkler running overnight - you may get icicles on the fence.   Freezing water will coat a plant, frosting leaves in a sheet of ice.  The water in the trough for the horses may have a skin on the surface.  Our cars will have frost on the windshield that requires running the defroster for 20 minutes before driving off.  Or, you can drive off if you're willing to hunch over so you can see out the bottom of the glass under the rime of ice.  Your husband may have written the word cold on the windshield.  Of course, it looks like  D L O C because he didn't write it backwards.  And the grass is mostly brown and crunchy underfoot, except for the areas that are weed filled.   Weeds show their green much longer that the ornamental grass.  There may be a life lesson in there, somewhere.

People are counting the days until Spring brings leaf bud and flowers. 



Leaf encased in ice - 2010

 I love the look of  Winter with the brown grass spreading out under a stand of pecan trees.  Their bare branches allow the golden light of sunset to show through and you can see farther than you normally can while driving through the landscape.  There are neighbor houses that are visible now - and only in the Winter.  So, while some are wishing for the cold to end and the earth to green, others settle down in the landscape and look around content with the brown grass and blue skies of winter. 

On the couch.....

I woke up Monday - which was a holiday and felt a little sore throat and some sinus pressure.  I rested a lot of the day.  Tuesday, I realized I couldn't go to work with symptoms that were making me feel so bad and then I started running a temperature.  The highest degree I reached was 101.5 on Wednesday night.  I called out of work for all days of the week, aiming for Friday when I had an appointment with my doctor.  I was supposed to have gone to the lab for a blood draw but just felt too bad to try that.  I made the doctor's office and waited to be called and shown to a room.  They have a television (wall mounted) in the waiting room but I didn't even feel like watching the news.  Finally the doctor was able to process me into the examining room and after a wait of a few minutes - He came in.  Asked  how I was doing and boy did I unload on him!  Feeling awful, terrible - can't stop coughing and fever and misery and moans and whines.  He questioned me on symptoms and listen to my chest.  He then told me I had Bronchitis and he gave me an antibiotic to take twice a day for ten days.  Cough pills to bring up the congestion.  Said to also take Mucinex to help.  I left his office with an appointment in 2 weeks (when I had better attend to the lab work)  and a handful of prescriptions. 

Four pills later, I developed another problem, related to the antibiotics.  I started taking Yoplait.  And continued to cough.  Which is a scary prospect when you have problems that need yogurt for relief of symptoms.  Time wears on.  Still coughing but the fever is gone.  So I'm making progress of a sort.  And I kind of favor the strawberry flavor yogurt. 

I will  probably call out Monday from work which will make an even five days of sick leave.  But you know, I refuse to walk those hallways where I may get the urge to cough, have to bend at the waist and then make a sound like a bugler sounding charge. 

Sometimes I wish we could telecommute.  I'll have so much work backed up that my job security will be assured for at least the next full week. 

I'm going to go take some yogurt and lie down for a short nap.

Sign of the times at Athens Baptist

Seen on the lighted sign in front of the church: 

Many people want to serve God.

Unfortunately, most of them want to serve in an advisory capacity.

Changes. Everything changes. Eventually.

We are ramping up a new CAD system at work.  Some parts of the agency have been online for a  while, putting information into the system.  Others of us have been waiting.  And waiting.  And... well just waiting. 

We have been able to get information about what's going on in the  closed-off parts even though we don't have direct access.  The agency website delivers public information and we can  tap into  those files and get pictures and descriptions of - uh, "clients".  I'm trying to be a little genteel, here and not call them anything that might identify where I actually work.  I just feel it's not something that needs to be shared around.  My immediate family knows and I just don't think I can say right out loud - Hey, I work for ... who I work for.  The leader holds an elected office and a lot of our files don't become public record right away.  The less said, the mo' better!  Anyway - when I ever retire, I plan to blog about the place and write a tell-all book and do all kinds of things that will  let whoever reads these musings figure out my career choice. 

Just last Friday, I went into the part of my computer that shows daily activity and Calls For Service that come in on a 24/7 basis.  I was looking in the late afternoon and to my great surprise there had only been one CFS.  My first thought was that something was very wrong.  We have calls being logged in nearly by the minute.  My second thought was that the system was down.  My third thought was that the call center had been switched  to the new CAD system without providing an alternate way for us to access the information coming in.  My third guess was correct.  The supervisor and 2 girls next door knew about the switch and were supposed to be getting a way to give access to those of us who need it.  Sometime.  Or, other.

By the time I got all that information, it was getting on toward 5:00PM which is going-home time in my part of the world.  So, that's what I did.  This is a three day weekend and I don't have to  worry my brain about the access, or lack thereof until Tuesday.  I'm sure someone will have figured out something for Tuesday.  Or not.  We do start training in 2 weeks for the new system.  Maybe by then, we will have figured out some of it by looking around on our own. 

Or, alternately - I can take a 2 week vacation.  I have 300 plus hours annual leave.  If I were an ostrich my head would be shoulder deep into the sand by now.  But I might look around under all that sand and be able to see the IT Tech looking back.  It has to be stressful for him, don't you agree?

Note to self, buy antacid tablets... wonder what brand the IT Tech uses.

Behind the Blogger

I rarely look at Blogger behind the scenes in  Dashboard, beyond posting new items and reading the blogs I'm following and am fondest of.  But, that being said - there is a tab on Dashboard called Blogs of Note.  I have started clicking on the tab and delving into what others are posting and blogging a bout.  There is an artist who works in graphite and his drawings are amazing.  There is a person who posts lots of pictures of cats.  The New Year post for that weblog consisted of cats wearing Happy New Year tiaras and other headgear and posing in lots of ways to suggest celebrating the incoming year.  The picture that won my heart was a cat wearing a kitty sized lampshade, complete with fringe. ( http://kittystampede.blogspot.com/ )

Tonight I found a blog I had to put in my blog list.  The lady seems to have lost a computer and a great deal of input crashed.  She has just started posting again and I was immediately impressed by her writing ability. She  put up a story about a play that had me from the first word. The weblog is called The View From This End.  The writer is from "across the pond" as the English say.  She had about 236 regular readers - not as many perhaps as Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman - or as Melanie Feehan - The Coupon Goddess.  I follow both those weblogs, thanks to seeing them on Ranger's page.  I even have them delivered to my Blackberry.   But The View From This End weblog put me in mind of sitting down with a good book on a rainy night.  I just knew I was going to enjoy it.  Take a look and see what you think.

Bulletin --- Everything old is New again! --- Bulleting

For those of you who blog and follow Sarah in your Reading List or Blog Roll - she had to change the URL.  You can locate her new weblog by entering  www.natmatmama.typepad.com .  The new Blog name is Adventures in Lake City.  It took me a while to figure out how to change my own reading list (things are never simple, are they) but once I managed it, the new weblog became available - in the list to the left.  Click there for her post and then be sure to add her new URL to your own weblog.  Welcome  back, Sarah!

2011

Rang in the new year after waking on the couch to the strains of Auld Lang Syne playing from the ball-drop in Times Square.  Quickly turned the television through several stations, hoping to find one that thought it was still a second or two before midnight.  Alas, all the talking-heads were pretty sure that it was a minute or two after and already into the new year. 

Still, tradition is a good thing, so  I will continue a personal one of long standing and will write in the new year on the date line in the rest of my checkbook before I toddle off to bed.

And I will wish friends and family a safe and very Happy New Year.

2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011