Oh Snow

All this week the meteorologists have been predicting a big snowstorm for the weekend. It was one of those storms where they kept adding to the snow totals as the week went along. What started out as 4-8" gradually grew into 12-18" of snowfall. The snow was supposed to start on Friday afternoon, but didn't actually start until late that evening.

When I drove to work on Saturday morning, I had about 6" of snow to clear off my car. The good news was that the ground was warm enough that there was only a few patches of minor slush on the roads. There was only a minor dusting of snow on the ground when I got to work and it started to seem like this was the usual case of the meteorologists making a mountain out of a molehill. 

My co-worker and I were standing outside just before 3PM and about ten minutes later when we were inside, you could see that it was not only finally snowing, but that it was blowing sideways. Out of nowhere, the wind was blowing very hard and it was practically whiteout conditions. Before I left work a couple hours later there was a few inches of snow on the ground and the roads were starting to get pretty nasty.

On the drive home, I passed a box truck just off the side of the highway laying on its side, facing oncoming traffic. I didn't encounter problems until I got off the highway. I couldn't get going after coming to a stop at the top of the off-ramp. My tires spun and I just kept slipping and it took a good 45 seconds to finally get traction. The same problem happened at every stop I had to make the rest of the way home, which was fortunately only about a mile away. I don't even want to know what would have happened if I didn't have a good set of snow tires.

This morning I woke up to probably around a foot of snow in the yard (it's hard to tell exactly because the wind blew the snow into drifts all over). I shoveled off the back patio area so that it doesn't turn into a skating rink for the dogs. While I shoveled, they ran around and played and I was glad that someone could enjoy the snow. As for me, I'm glad I don't have to drive in the snow today or tomorrow. I guess it's a good day to read or have a Netflix marathon.

Some People

Have you ever run across a person who was so rude and condescending that you literally could not believe it? I ran across just such a person today. I'm still trying to process what would make a person be so downright mean to another human being over a minor thing. I was only a secondhand party to the situation, but it was unbelievable.

Basically a client with a small problem called to complain and ended up outright stating that the woman who spoke to her on the phone was a nobody who didn't know anything. The client insinuated that she was rich and therefore better than everyone and was going to stop bringing us her business (hallelujah if she follows through!). She even resorted to calling my co-worker nothing more than a glorified pooper scooper.

All of this over a very minor issue that the client was definitely wrong about. The client was rude and clearly lying over the phone and has a past history of being difficult and not making her payments on time. Ultimately, my co-worker had to hang up on her after telling her to speak with the owner because they weren't going to get anywhere. The client then spent the next ten minutes just calling back repeatedly and finally leaving a nasty voicemail (which I listened to and can verify that the woman said some very unpleasant things about my co-worker).

Where does someone get off more or less saying that someone else is a piece of trash? It made my co-worker cry and she regularly has to handle phone calls from clients, so it's not like she's never dealt with an angry customer before. I've never even seen or heard her lose her temper with a client (even though I'm sure some of them are very trying).

I know that some people get very upset over their dogs as though they're a child. I get it because to a point I feel the same way. I'm still not going to get so mad over something that I'm going to tell someone else that they're worthless and I'm clearly better than them because I'm rich. I'm probably never going to be rich, but hey, that's beside the point!

I have to wonder if the situation would have gone any different had this woman come in to deal with a person face to face. Just look anywhere on the internet and you see people behaving like monsters because there's no direct human interactions. It's a lot easier to type a nasty comment out than it is to say it directly to someone's face where you can see how it hurts them.

I've been mad over perceived bad customer service before, but I've never used the situation to make someone else feel like they're useless. Mistakes happen, if the situation is bad enough to require a comment, I'll speak to a manager. I'll explain what happened and ask for my money back if it's warranted or just let them know that the situation needs to be rectified so that a future customer is not treated poorly. Everyone has an off day at work, but this wasn't even the case here. The only thing my co-worker did wrong was answer the phone!

The good news is tomorrow is Friday. Fingers will be crossed that no more tears will have to be shed and no clients will make anyone feel worthless. The funny thing is that while this woman was berating my poor co-worker, another client was bringing in donuts for us say that she was so grateful for the wonderful service we provide her. Talk about your polar opposites! Let's hope for more of that type of client.

It's A Hairy Situation

Winter has returned as expected now. From last night into late this afternoon it snowed, dropping about 6 inches of snow on us. At last glance outside, it had started to lightly snow again, but the forecast shows that it'll be back to nearly 60 degrees by Thursday. So on to the main story for today. 

Last week, I went to visit my grandma and took her to get a perm done in her hair. She has been asking for some time for someone to take her because she has decided on her own not to drive anymore unless she absolutely has to. I was also ready for a hair cut, so it was the perfect opportunity to take her so that we could both get our hair taken care of.

I don't know why it's so hard to get a decent hair cut. I know I was spoiled growing up by having my mom always cut our hair. She understandably got tired of cutting all our hair so in the last several years I've been on my own. I have tried getting my hair cut at several different places. It seems like I've only really had one good hair cut that was exactly what I asked for in that time.

My hair didn't turn out terribly this time around, but it was cut a good 2" shorter than what I had asked for, making it the shortest hairstyle I've ever had. The good news is my hair grows quickly, so before I know it will be long enough to need a cut again. It's just frustrating that you explicitly tell the stylist what you want and they invariably don't listen. It's either cut too little (which of course is easily fixable) or cut too much or cut in a style that isn't exactly what you asked for.

It's so short now that I can't do anything with it. It's too short for a ponytail of any sort and I've even had a hard time keeping it back with a headband. It's not the end of world in any way, but in the meantime it's hard to deal with. I work a job that has me outside for 11 hours a day and sometimes it's windy, so it would be nice to not just constantly have hair in my eyes. I dyed my hair on Sunday so that has helped me to be a little happier with the way it's looking now.

My grandma wasn't entirely satisfied with her perm either, so I guess it wasn't just me. The stylist who did hair took a long time, but since I've never had a perm, I don't know if it was especially long or more average. She also left a weird part in the front of her head that my grandma was not happy with. She's gotten pretty stubborn and hard to please in her old age though, so I'm not surprised she found fault with something.

Next time I'm ready for a haircut, I'll move on to another place. Maybe I'll give my sister's stylist a shot, she seems pretty happy with her, it's just a bit more than I usually spend on a simple haircut.  I guess if I want a good haircut, I will need to be willing to spend a few more bucks. It's not like I get them once a month, more like once every 6-12 months. For now, maybe I'll just make a point of wearing a hat when I'm outside so that my hair isn't constantly falling in my face.

It's Technically Still Winter

I know that it's technically still winter and that folks on the east coast are having tons of snow to deal with, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the wonderful spring weather we've been having lately. I even noticed that the grass has started to turn green this week. Of course, we've still had some cold days and a couple small snow storms, but I'm so ready for spring. We have a good, solid two or more months of potential snow storms, but for now, I'm enjoying it.

Basking in the warm sun

For me, the ideal situation would be if the temperatures never ranged much outside of the 50-80 degree range. Anything warmer than that and I'm too hot, colder than that for long periods gets to be pretty annoying too. Living in Colorado is probably not the best choice if I want that weather, but the gorgeous scenery far outweighs the weather drawbacks.

Gotta love those cloud formations over the peaks

Today, my sister and I took our dogs for a short drive into the mountains to a dog park that had a bunch of open space and trails to walk off-leash. Of course, we failed to realize that even though weather was pretty warm (I'd guess the temperatures were in the upper 50s), there was still plenty of snow on the ground. Parts of the trail were icy and parts were incredibly muddy, so we didn't get to hike quite as much as we planned, but the dogs had a blast.

Lots of space to run and smell things!

Jonesy was rolling around the snow and Bob and Danger were running and chasing each other. They played and ran around and had a general good time. They didn't care in the least about the mud and ice. I think this nice forested dog park will be a great spot in the summer and it's less than an hour away from home.

In other news this week was a pretty good week at work. I take Jonesy with me every day I work at the doggy day care and he loves it. He makes lots of friends and plays and gets lots of exercise. He's also a momma's boy, so he loves spending time with me. The good news is, today was my last day at the job I wasn't happy with. I put in my two weeks notice a little under two weeks ago, but I'm not on next week's schedule. I'm perfectly okay with that because it really wasn't a good situation anymore. Hopefully from here it's onward and upward to better things.

Puppies make good nap buddies!

The Great Outdoors

One of the good things about working outside (other than enjoying nice weather) is that I get to spend lots of time enjoying the clouds. I am always fascinated by the shapes and colors of different cloud formations. I love a good sunrise or sunset any day of the week.

Sunrise on a snowy morning this week

I also love that my work is positioned far enough north of Denver that it's in a more farmland area. There are lots of big birds of prey hanging around because there are open fields with lots of mice. There are hawks, owls and even a bald eagle or two. I plan on taking my digital camera one of these days so I can try and capture some decent pictures of the birds (my camera phone does a good job, but the zoom is pretty limiting). 

Had to go with smaller size because this one is so grainy. It was taken in the dark with my phone and I had to edit it with photoshop. It's an owl in the tree I park my car under.

Of course it's still February, so there will be plenty of snowy days to come. At this point, I'm just enjoying the warm weather while I can and looking forward for spring. Then comes summer, which I'm less excited for because I'm not a big fan of hot weather, but I'll worry about that when the time comes.

A rainbow cloud from this week

 My foot is doing after being sliced with glass last week. It still hurts when I walk around without shoes on, but otherwise it's fine. Then, I got bitten by a dog at work this week, so my streak of being injured is not at end yet. It's not a serious wound, but of course it was my right hand that was hurt and I'm having fun trying to do things left-handed. I swear my left hand is in need of some special training because the coordination level is practically non-existent.

Yesterday's sunrise

Yesterday's sunset

The Week That Was

This post is just going to be a recap of the happenings of the last week with a few pictures weaved in to break up the text that may or may not have to do with the stories. Early last week, the weather was gorgeous for January in Colorado. We had two days above 70 degrees (normal high temperatures this time of year are more like the mid-40s). Those two days made me very glad that I have a job where I can be outdoors for the majority of the day.

Enjoying the unseasonably warm weather when Jonesy popped in for a kiss.

Then there was yesterday. The forecasts had called for less than an inch of snow to fall overnight Saturday into Sunday. So imagine my surprise when I woke up to around 8 inches of snow in my yard. I think I cleared closer to a foot of snow off my car (which was cold and allowed the snow to accumulate faster). That's Colorado for you though, 70 degrees and sunny to almost a foot of snow in less than a week.

An inch or less of snow, my foot!

Saturday was a heck of a day for me. I got to work and saw that for this week they only had me scheduled for a total of 8 hours. I'm available to work there any amount of hours, 4 days a week and they give me two days with four shifts, what a waste of my time. I've been getting quite frustrated with this job and that was pretty much my last straw. I've worked this job for 2.5 years and since the newest set of management has taken over, things have gone downhill. They hire tons of people and keep even their longer term employees like me (I think I'm 3rd in line in seniority now) strung along with very few hours so they don't have to provide benefits for anyone I'm guessing.

Today, I officially put in my two week's notice to quit. Yesterday the head manager was not working and I wanted to give myself a day or two to make sure I was doing the right thing. Luckily, I'm getting enough hours at my other job right now to be able to pay all my bills. And as business picks up there in the next month or two, I'll be getting more hours than I can shake a stick at. If necessary, I can take another part time to fill in the gaps for a little while too.

Back to Saturday, at work that morning I managed to drop the keys I carry around for work into the toilet. The little clasp that keeps them hooked to my belt loop decided to give out right as I was standing up from the toilet. If you've ever dropped anything into the toilet, I'm sure you have an inkling of the absolute disgust I felt when I heard that metallic clink on the porcelain. So, for a lovely mental image (hey, I had to live through it!) I had to go fishing in the toilet I had just peed in for keys. Then I vigorously scrubbed my hands and the keys for a good ten minutes. And just for good measure, I dipped the keys in hand sanitizer as well.

My car's odometer hit 350K last week and I missed it. :( -Also, I clearly need to clean off my instrument panel...I don't remember splattering anything on it, but it's dirty.

That was not the end of my bad luck for the day though, as it continued that evening at home. I went into the kitchen and decided to cook breakfast for dinner: french toast and bacon. I started to cook the bacon, then somehow, after multiple trips back and forth across the kitchen, managed to step on a shard of glass. My brother, apparently, shattered a glass earlier in the day and not only didn't warn me (I'd have been wearing shoes in there had I known!) he failed to clean up very well.

Personally, if I shatter something, I sweep up the big pieces of glass and then even on tile floors, I'll hit it with the vacuum cleaner. You gotta get all those little bits of glass up off the floor. You know, so someone like me doesn't end up with shards of glass in her foot. Thank goodness it was me, not the dogs or the cat who had stepped on the glass. When I went back in to vacuum the floor, I saw several sizable shards of glass on the floor.

I ran from the kitchen to my bedroom, where I keep my first aid supplies due to low storage space in the bathroom. Also, my tweezers are kept in my purse, you never know when you'll get a splinter (at least if you're me it's a pretty frequent occurrence). I pulled one smaller shard of glass out of the ball of my foot and that's when it started bleeding, not just a little, but gushing. I could tell there was another piece of glass trapped under the skin, but I was hesitant to pull it out. Would it hurt more to do it myself or should I call my mommy for help?

I opted to dig it out myself, whilst dripping blood on my carpet. It was hard to see what I was doing with all the blood, but I managed to work the larger shard of glass out of the skin. I cleaned up the wound and put a bandage on it to help stop the bleeding. Then, I stared to smell smoke. THE BACON! Too late, the bacon was fairly well burnt and of course this was the last of my bacon. The dogs were excited to have some bacon after it cooled off and not at all upset that it was blackened.

Later, the bandage that I had on my foot fell off because it's difficult to get anything to stick to the ball of your foot. Now that the bleeding had quit, I inspected my wound and it was not a long cut, but it went pretty deep. Had it been on a less fatty portion of my foot, I may have gone to to the emergency room instead of just taking care of it on my own. At last check, it was looking pretty good, I don't think it will get infected. Fortunately, me being me, there's a big stock of antibiotic ointment and bandages to keep it covered until it's dried out enough to not stick to the inside of my socks.

Here's a nice sunset from last week to take your mind off all the gory details if you're upset by that sort of thing.

In fact, I may use some super glue to close the flap of skin up before work tomorrow. I can't imagine a bandage staying in place for 12 hours while I'm on my feet most of the day. It might sound weird, but someone told me super glue is similar to surgical glue and I use it regularly to close cracks in the skin around my finger nails. Winter is hard on my skin and Colorado is not a very humid environment in the best of times, so my skin splits no matter how much I moisturize and it's painful. Although, maybe I'll hold off on the super glue because I'm not sure it's a good idea with a deeper cut like this. If you never hear from me again, I guess we'll know I went ahead and it was a bad idea ha ha!

Anyway, on Sunday I think I had a pretty successful day. I didn't drop anything into the toilet. I didn't cut myself on anything. I didn't burn my meal. Those are all big positives after having a day like Saturday.