Sticky Snow

As a general rule, I don't care for sticky things. But I do like sticky snow.

It wasn't much fun driving in crazy traffic for hours last night as the rain turned to snow, but when I awoke this morning and looked outside, what I saw was magical. I threw on a jacket and boots and stomped around in my pj's to get some pictures, which, as always, don't begin to do justice. Especially since I can't adjust the exposures or contrast on any of these.....

Do you see his tongue? Could he be a cuter Golden Poodle Doodle? I'm not sure.....

It was bracing, windy and cold in my pj's, but a great way to wake up from the disturbed, frustrating dream from hell that tormented me my last hour of sleep - if I can call it that episode sleep. I bribed my husband to make our daughter's lunch so I could sleep in, because I was tired and achy. I am always tired and achy. But that extra ninety minutes in bed was a bad idea. Stomping around in crunchy snow with an ecstatic dog a much better idea.

In other news, Mr. Tucker's lumps are benign, I guess he's just a lumpy dog. My physical went fine too, and my Dr. gave me a few new prescriptions to try and combat the insomnia and hot flashes, and my chronic low vitamin D. Maybe if I could remember to take my vitamins I could get higher numbers. Bless her heart, she wants to fix me, and I aim to let her try, even if it means taking a drug I tried years ago that made me so tired I couldn't get off the couch. Maybe it'll be different this time. I tried to get her to prescribe HRT but my chart has a big NO written on it. It's funny what a person will be willing to do in the short term, long term be damned. But I'd gamble on long term increased cancer risk later for a few good nights of sleep now. Eleven years is a long time to live in menopause mayhem. One of my volleyball team moms told me last night she is so tired of being cold that she can't wait for hot flashes to start. I couldn't find the right words, so I just said be careful what you wish for, because the sleep deprivation is a bitch.

Speaking of bitching, I hate Microsoft products even more than I thought possible. This computer came with Windows 7, which means all the word processing and media programs are LIVE, which means you get a crappy version that requires internet access to load all the functionality, plus annoying adds to upgrade on a quarter of the page. Whatever.

But my picture and video viewers kept glitching, and for weeks the popup message kept insisting I needed an update, even though I keep current on the neverending stream of important! updates that Windows requires. Well, it quit working and I couldn't even view my pictures so I relented and guess what? The update removed the edit features so I can see my pictures and rotate them, but crop and all the other adjustments that I love to use are gone, gone, gone. I was still mourning the loss of my video editing software when I upgraded to this computer less than 2 years ago and now I'm sad all over again.  I bought some stand alone software to use for editing video clips into little movies, but I'm sad to say I may not be smart enough to learn how to use it. But I am smart enough to be sure my next computer is a Mac. I'm done being a frustrated Windows user.

That is all the bitching for today. In the gratitude department, none of my family has had the gosh-awful stomach virus that's making the rounds. The dog and all the rest of us are fine. And it's Friday. I love, love, love a weekend, mostly because I don't have to get up at 6:15 to make my last baby a sandwich for lunch. Waffles at 10:00, maybe, but that I can handle.

Have a great weekend. And I'm going to make a habit of the thanks for reading all the way down here picture, because, thanks for reading all those words. I am nothing if not overly chatty.

If all goes according to the master plan, I'll be taking new photos of these in about five weeks!

Have a great weekend.