Domestic Geek

I really don't get what is up with the road crews in a certain portion of Wyoming. They make traveling through there in the winter a pain in the butt.

It's always that stretch starting at Lusk and going North to the rest area at Mule Creek Junction and then the 10 miles over to the WY/SD state line. It's like whatever county is supposed to be maintaining that doesn't care or something. I know it's not entirely the weather's fault as the road is perfectly clear the moment you cross over into South Dakota. I seriously doubt the storm was that bad on one side of the state line and not bad on the other.

The roads were great the whole rest of the trip. In fact, I could even keep a good 75 mph on I-25 most of the time (there are always some icky, icy spots around Chugwater and Wheatland due to wind blowing across the highway). No, from Lusk to the state line - icy and snowpacked and parts where you can't even see the road.

If someone know why this is, I'd really like to know.

OK, since it gets a little chilly in these parts and hopefully I'll be living up here soon, I splurged and bought a dual-control heated mattress pad at Bed, Bath and Beyond for the bed up here at Homestead North. I get cold easily and Marcus doesn't, so it needed the dual controls. Just got it set up and turned on. Hopefully this, combined with my awesome flannel sheets and fake sheepskin comforter, will keep me toasty warm at night so that I can sleep without wasting too danged much propane.

BRRRR! Little bit chilly around these parts for a November morning. We're fully engulfed in the "Polar Vortex," as the news stations like to call it.

Man, I really need to dust my dashboard - that's disgusting.

Did you make a wish?

Man, I had 2 major panic attacks today.

First, I stopped at Whole Foods on the way to work and my debit card was declined. I had checked the balance this morning to see what purchases I had made with the PayPal card had cleared and there was money in my account. I got to work and logged into the bank website to see the card number was different and not active. Um, Ok...there was no message in my inbox, just notifications about bank statements ready to be downloaded. I started to call the bank, but figured I had better check through the big pile of crap on my desk first. Sure enough, there was a new card mixed in with political crap. Whew.

The 2nd one happened after I called tech support to find a solution to an issue I was having with our mail sorting software. The guy told me to make sure I copied this one file so that if things went wrong, I could put it back. The main problem is that we run our software on a remote server, not individual installations like they want you to do. Me trying to work with this file while everybody else was working corrupted it and I couldn't get it back in. I had a major panic attack and had visions of being fired, not to mention crippling the mailing department. Good thing Marcus has a cooler head than I and managed to get it fixed. Whew.

The Polar Vortex sank into the United States today and Marcus is having a panic attack of his own. The guy that Marcus hired to install the heater for our water tank/pump hasn't showed up to install it and he's panicking about all of our stuff freezing up like last year. He claims he'll be there tomorrow - I hope it is not too late.