It’s been a strange week, all-around. The mice, or one mouse (please please, let it be just one) returned to our house…after a nearly two year absence. The cats promptly killed the poor thing. And J promptly disposed of it. Ew. Speaking of J…he has been under the weather all week. And this wacky winter weather (in Minnesota of all places, who would’ve thunk?) has been working against me. Monday morning was the slush-a-thon, with the heavy, wet snow. Tuesday morning it was all flash frozen. I went out to warm up my car to find the locks impenetrable (being garage-less and all). After futilely deploying vast amounts of de-icer, I had to resort to invoking my AAA membership privileges. They were fairly speedy with their response. But I was a bit worried about the fellow who turned up. He seemed nice enough, but his initial attempt at getting into the car involved:
a) hooking up a long tube to his van’s exhaust, and
b) holding the other end against my lock, while
c) breathing in the fumes.
This unhealthy method didn’t even work, and for that I’m sure he lost a few brain cells. He then resorted to the old stand-by. Picking the lock. Which got him in, but also set the alarm off. The little man found all of this to be enormously entertaining…especially as he was watching from inside the house. Sheltered from the biting wind, peeking through the mail slot in the front door. While shouting “Hey Mom!” and giggling. Cute little goofball. So we were delayed a bit, much to his delight, but eventually were underway. A couple of hours late. Sigh. Yesterday morning I headed out without incident, but the drive home was slow and go due to fresh snow. Followed by more freezing. Causing my locks to, again, freeze. But this time the de-icer did the trick. Thankfully. In news of the weird…yesterday morning my co-workers gathered around in the kitchen. To gaze up at the monitors broadcasting Colin Powell’s U.N. address. I tried to watch, really. And tried to be interested. But I loathe this administration so much. And the other monitors happened to be displaying something far more eye-catching. “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” was on. Being unable to resist the pull of that fine film, I excused myself and returned to my desk. Where I was greeted by my new Maneki Neko. It had abandoned during our musical chairs office move last Friday. Hopefully it will bring me better luck in the days to come.
