Just Another January Rain

Wasn't it just Sunday that we had rain?  Why yes, yes, I do believe it was...Welcome to winter in Georgia.  It also rained a wee bit yesterday and then it rained again today, with no promise of that partly sunny sky the local meterologist said we'd have...unless that eyebrow line of sun between clouds at sunrise was the partly sunny part?  Then if it was, I hope you didn't blink.

I had a hard night last night.  Remember that shoving furniture about I did yesterday?  Felt every single muscle used last night, I promise you.  I was so tired, but the moment I lay down I had spasms in my back and arms and legs, not painful but definitely uncomfortable.  I turned to my trusty sleep aid after an hour of that and did manage to doze about an hour.  And then I was up at 2am digging out Aleve and melatonin trying to get lasting sleep.  Might as well have left them off for all the good it did me.

Skies  were clear this morning when John left for work, although there was that misty ring around the moon yet again.  I am beginning to think that is a harbinger of rain...Everything I read says it's ice in the atmosphere.




I dragged about hoping I'd feel more energetic.  I've noticed a conundrum of sorts: the more I give in to the lethargy that comes with tiredness the more tired I feel. I don't feel energized until I begin to move about and be, well, energetic.  So I finally got myself together this morning and headed out to do that grocery shopping.  First there were errands to run in town. I had to do some banking, drop off electric and phone bills, return an item I'd picked up by mistake and exchange for the one I meant to get....But I noticed as I drove about town that my car was making quite a bit of noise...

Don't you just HATE that?  When your car is making a weird noise and you can tell by how it's driving that it's not the engine but the noise is so gosh awful that you get paranoid about it?  I drove on to the town I'd meant to be shopping in, since the dealership we use to service the car is there.  The noise disappeared at normal highway speeds but when I slowed down...ugh.....

Thankfully the dealership wasn't at all busy.  I felt pretty sure there was a rock or stick or some such causing all the noise, though I'd walked around the car and looked under it and around the tire where the noise seemed to be coming from.  They took the car right back and I waited and waited and waited and read a magazine and when I finished the magazine I looked through the window in the door and saw five mechanics gathered around my car, all looking and listening...That worried me a bit, lol, needless to say.

Finally the clerk returned and said they'd found a stick but thought I might have other potential problems with the car...but nothing they could put their fingers on exactly.  As it happened I knew one of the mechanics from family gatherings and he came in and talked with me, too.  Both guys said, "Drive the car and if there's no more noise then don't worry about it.  We're mechanics...we tend to get ticky about all sorts of noises the average customer doesn't even hear."  This I know too well from Samuel who is a shade tree mechanic of the first caliber.  The guys at the dealership were sweet as could be, no charge to me for the service and I went on my way. No noise.  None.  The car handled as well as ever.  Total relief.

I didn't do as well on my grocery shopping as I wanted to do.  I should have gone in with cash, I really ought to have done.  I went over by $30...Impulse buys were the culprit.  $10 of that was for a piece of smoked turkey breast I mean to slice into sandwich meat.  I also got an extra bottle of real maple syrup ($4.99/8ounces is a very good buy and I can't resist while it's affordable), a family sized pack of sale priced boneless skinless chicken breasts and a couple of bags of discounted candy...And there is $30...Hardly sounds it might have cost so much does it?  Just goes to show how those 'little' extras add up. Even though the impulse buys are good sound buys, I wish I'd kept closer to my list.  And I didn't even buy flowers today at all...sad face over that one.  There was nothing pretty available...good thing considering my overage.

The majority of the foods bought today are NOT for this month...No these are good sales I'm using to replenish what I plan to use this month and fill-ins for bare areas on the cupboard shelves.  I have a separate listing of items put into the pantry and freezer so I can keep track of food usage this month.  I did buy milk, mushrooms, bread, cheese and eggs for this challenge period.  Oh, and candy, lol.

It's rained off and on since I started grocery shopping (it was just cloudy up until then) and rained more since I started home and arrived back here.  It's cooled down too...That's a couple of days ahead of schedule as well.  Trudy won't even venture out from the dry spot under the carport, but if it rains all night and tomorrow too, she'll soon find her way to the porch once more because the carport always floods with rain.

For rainy afternoon activity today I've sipped coffee (too much of that lately!) and listened to two musicians works: Walk Off the Earth is the name of one group and Sarah Blackwood (associated with the first band as well).  I like the sound of the music, the cover songs they do, the original music and the harmonies.  Very nice.  I've chatted with Virginia and read her latest blog entry (clever woman has made tote bags to gather freezer items so she can find what she's looking for) and wasted a whole lot of time listening to music and rain together.  I've piddled about and done a chore or two but nothing strenuous...Oh reminds me to go dump the towels into the dryer!...and that has pretty much been my Tuesday.

What's yours been like? 

John will start his 'weekend' tomorrow.  He was happy that the weather report predicted 100% chance of rain.  He said that made staying at home doing nothing that much more reasonable, as though being dog tired after a week of work weren't reason enough!  I have meals prepared for the most part.  I also have a list of things to keep me busy so no danger of lazing about, but I look forward most of all to sleeping past 5:30...or at least rolling back over and going back to sleep when I wake up at 5:25 as I do most every morning. 

I have a couple of books to read, a huge stack of magazines to sort through, a project or six, routine cleaning, making and clearing up behind meals...Plenty to do and then some for the week ahead as you can see.  Hopefully I'll get the quiet time needed to check in here and share a few websites I came across this past week.  Until then, stay warm and dry.  It is January, after all.

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