I almost died last night

Roc, Dax, Teddy and I almost died last night.

I woke about 3 a.m. to the smell of something nasty.

I'm a restless sleeper and must have thrown my pillow onto the shelf by my bed, where a makeup mirror has been for umpteen decades. This time, it turned on. The pillow covered it. I don't know for how long. I do know that we must have been mere moments from combustion. I am so lucky to be here, healthy, with my cherished dogs.

So I'm asking everybody out there - look at what's around your bed, especially if it's been there forever, and think of the worst case scenario. I was lucky and I want you to be, too. - Hope

Clean, dry Teddy

Teddy loves warmth. He seeks it out. Yesterday we were cooking up a storm, which naturally led to multiple dishwasher loads - including emptying while still warm to refill. I turned around after putting away some glasses and saw this. - Hope

RV adventure - Part VI

Monday morning, bright and early, (ok, early, chilly and wet) I started on the last leg of the journey - the Land Cookie was going home!
And, of course, it was the only time in the whole trek I got lost. I have a pretty good sense of direction - once I've been somewhere, I can generally get there again. This time, for whatever lunatic reason, I decided to follow the signs instead of just going back the way I'd come. Mistake. I've never encountered it before, but apparently in Ohio you have to go east to go west. Silly me, I thought going northwest on one road would eventually get me to the west-bound road I needed. So I lost about 45 minutes, lost in the driving rain.
The rest of the road trip was actually kind of nice. The weather eventually cleared, I had sunny skies by the time I hit Indiana. There were no mountains, so the Land Cookie was actually able to keep the speed limit. I'm not usually quite as law-abiding, especially on my home turf, but the circumstances were unusual. I was driving a vehicle close to the size of a semi-truck, for the first time, without any license plates. Ironically, New Hampshire won't give temporary license plates to non-residents, and Illinois won't give temporary license plates without a title. Nice little Catch-22, wasn't it? I'm still rather amazed that over three days and seven states, I wasn't stopped for not having plates. I wouldn't recommend it, it made me a bit paranoid, but as a one-time thing - I'm still glad it's over. The Land Cookie is legal now - I visiting the Dept. of Motor Vehicles the day after I got home.
When I planned the trip back, I thought it would be a good idea, when I got close to home, to take the toll road that circles Chicago rather than take the Land Cookie straight through the heart of downtown. By the time I got close I was too darn tired to add the 25 minutes to my trip. The Land Cookie and I braved the Dan Ryan, the Kennedy, and the Edens Expressways at about 3 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. Heart of the city in the middle of rush hour.
I'm glad I did. Now I'm not afraid to drive that behemoth anywhere. Cause you want to know a secret? It was fun! - Hope

We had a visitor!

Fran spotted this gorgeous creature sitting on the phone wires in back of the house as she left for work. She came back to let me know about him/her and I grabbed the camera. The day is obviously overcast and gloomy - but spotting this beautiful bird cheered us up. We don't see many birds of prey - we're part of the (sub)urban jungle. Can anybody tell us who our visitor was?

Sapping our strength

I'm so darn tired of writing about the weather. But there's nothing that's had more impact on our lives lately. You don't feel like going anywhere, doing much of anything, because it's just such a hassle. Boots, coat, scraping ice off the car, treacherous driving (the village ran out of road salt), and on and on.

If I put on my PollyAnna hat, I'd say that it could be a lot worse. I love my job and my home. Even if it's been hard to find under all the snow this season.