Trapped Again!

Val is homebound again! By her own choice, guided by common sense. Another winter storm is plaguing Backroads. The forecast since last Friday has been proclaiming either 6-9 inches of snow for us, or 9-12 inches of snow. We're on the cusp of where a "dry upper atmosphere" might lessen our accumulation. 

With temperatures in the teens and single digits, and wind chills below zero, I feel it's best that I remain at home until Friday, when it should be partly sunny, with a high of 29. No need to tempt fate.

Poor Pony doesn't have that option. He was back to work on Tuesday, when the storm was due to hit. At least the snow held off until 2:00 p.m., with only a dusting on the ground during morning hours, and a lull waiting for the leading edge of the main weather system. Thankfully, The Pony sent me a text around 3:30 that management had decreed only package delivery. So The Pony could be done around 5:00. At 5:10 he said he was home and warm, so I could stop worrying.

Hick said to tell The Pony to leave on his bathroom heater overnight. And of course to open up his kitchen cabinets so the house heat could keep the pipes warm.

I asked Hick if he should let the water drip at the Beauty Shop, since the last period of such temperatures had resulted in a frozen water line. Hick scoffed at me! Can you believe THAT? And said, "Well, if it snows 6-12 inches, that will insulate the ground over the pipe." Not sure how this will turn out. As much as I love telling Hick "I told you so!" I don't want the pipe to freeze.

Since I will be staying home Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday... Hick is tasked with picking up scratchers for me. The result was not good on Tuesday. Hick got the WRONG TICKETS, despite having two sets of pictures of the only two types of tickets I wanted him to get, as well as having bought these exact same tickets at the exact same places during the last freeze!

I only had two winners, of $6 each. I guess we all have to make sacrifices due to the inclement weather.

A Good Run

Val has been on a winning streak with her scratchers. On Thursday, I bought my regular two $5 crosswords at the Gas Station Chicken Store. I was happy with the results:

That's a $100 winner. I had six words, and the "double" symbol of the money bag was in one. It's the top puzzle. I had across words of: RED, ACE, SORRY. And down words of: BOARD, BUS, and SOY. The last of which contained the "money bag" symbol to double the win.

I was quite happy with that ticket, and thrilled to take it back to the Gas Station Chicken Store on Friday, to show my favorite cashier, and redeem it. But NO! She wasn't there! She was bitten while breaking up a dogfight. But the Woman Owner was behind the counter. So I handed her the ticket, telling her it was a $100 winner. 

Well. Woman Owner refused to take the ticket!

"I'm sorry. Our lottery system is down. We can't check any tickets to cash them in. We've called for support, and apparently all the workers are at a convention right now! I'm sorry that we can't cash in your ticket."

"Oh. Well. It will cash in tomorrow same as it would today. I didn't bring in my money. But I still want to buy tickets. I'll go out to my car and be right back."

Thankfully, nobody was in line to buy tickets. Nobody was in line for anything. I caught them at a lull. I returned with my money, and bought my crosswords, and a $10 ticket that I had planned to squander my winnings on. I was dismayed that the $10 ticket shot right out into Woman Owner's hand. Obviously, the last ticket on the roll. I had gambled on it being in a new roll. They had two different rolls of the same ticket, but I had decided before I left home that this was the roll I wanted.

Good thing I stuck with my plan! That's a $200 winner! I first thought it was nothing, when I didn't match any numbers. Then I scratched off the bonus symbols up top, and was rewarded on the last one:

Yep! $200 on a $10 ticket. I can't complain. Then the next day, I won $100 on a $3 ticket. A winning streak is always nice. But it doesn't last forever.

There's a New Weirdo in Town(s): Part 2

I didn't think any more of my Weirdo encounter at Country Mart on Friday. Until I paid for my bread and onions at 10Box on Saturday. I headed over to the lottery machines. Somebody was at the right machine, so I started at the left. While I was scanning my winners, I noticed something familiar about the guy at the right machine in my peripheral vision.

It was WEIRDO! I didn't get a whiff of him. But he was dressed in the same manner, albeit different clothes. It was his motions that I recognized. Standing in front of the machine, scratching his ticket. AND he was watching what I was doing at my machine. That was a bit off-putting.

Anyhoo... a lady came in and was standing on my side. Waiting. I don't like that. I gathered my tickets out of the tray, and pulled my cart around to wait for Weirdo to be done at the right side machine. It was out of crosswords, but I wanted some $3 tickets there. It crossed my mind to just forget it, and leave. But dang it! I had planned on getting those $3 tickets from that right side machine.

I waited. And waited. Leaning on my cart, pretending to be disinterested. Then Weirdo put a card in the machine. I don't know how that works! I just scan in winning tickets for credit, or put in cash. Anyhoo... Weirdo bought a $10 ticket that has terrible odds! Like 1 in 10. But the attraction is that this ticket can only win $50 or $100. So if you buy enough, or hit it just right, you can get a good return on your money. At least I then knew that Weirdo wasn't just scratching tickets out of the wastebasket while biding time to ask somebody for money or a ticket. He had actually purchased a ticket. Still... no need to block the machine from others while he was scratching.

Weirdo moved over just a little bit. So I moved up and got my $3 tickets. Three of them. I'm really glad I did! The second one was a winner!

That's a $100 winner! If I had left, somebody else would have gotten my rightful prize!

Anyhoo... Weirdo had as much right to be there as anybody else. Even though he was being weird, he WAS buying a ticket. I found it odd that I encountered him two days in a row, in towns about 7 miles apart.

I've been having a heyday with my scratchers. Maybe I'll tell the rest.

There's a New Weirdo in Town(s): Part 1

I was dismayed to see somebody using the right lottery machine at Country Mart on Friday. I always make that my first stop, before entering into the store proper for groceries. The right machine has the crossword tickets that I crave.

At least the left machine was working. I went over there to get the lesser crossword, the $3 version, that I abhor, but get for my favorite cashier at the Gas Station Chicken Store. Tipping is not allowed, but what can it hurt to give a token of appreciation in the form of a lottery ticket...

Anyhoo... I really wanted to get my $5 crossword out of that machine on the right. This weirdo was just standing there! Not buying. Standing in front of the machine, blocking it, while scratching a ticket. It took quite a long time. I was beginning to suspect that he was just going through the motions. Did he really buy that ticket? Or maybe did he get it out of the wastebasket nearby?

Don't get me wrong. I don't begrudge people taking tickets out of the wastebasket. Some people have found winners there. At the very least, they can get tickets to scan into the MOLottery.com app for points towards drawings and free tickets. I don't scan mine in, so when I throw away a ticket after redeeming the winning prize amounts in a machine, they're still good for someone else with the patience to use the points.

Anyhoo... this guy smelled really bad. Not like body odor, but like not bathing. I had pulled my cart over by the unused registers to wait until I could gain access to the machine. I guess the Weirdo got a clue, because he moved over to the side while still pretending to be preoccupied with his ticket. It gave me the creeps, honestly. But I wanted my crossword. Weirdo seemed entirely too interested in what I was doing.

Once I had shopped and was checking out, the older guy who sometimes cashiers called for a young gal employee. "When you're not busy, go tell Manager about that guy. That old man who comes in for the lottery. Oh! Wait. He's back again."

Indeed, Weirdo was at the right machine, talking to some man who was buying tickets. I don't know the nature of their conversation. I had deliberately not made eye contact when I was there, so as to discourage interaction. I could feel Weirdo looking at me, but refused to engage. I'm not sure what was going on with him. Maybe he was waiting for somebody to ask to buy him a ticket. Maybe not. Maybe he was just a lonely smelly guy seeking human contact.

Anyhoo... I got my crossword and escaped without conversing with Weirdo. It was not to be our last meeting...

There, But for the Grace of The Universe, Could Have Gone The Pony

The Pony is not totally unlucky. Sometimes The Universe does not exactly smile upon him, but at least does not thumb its nose. The Pony had to work late on Friday. He sent me a text at 2:30 that he would probably be out until 6:00. Two hours overtime. So I shouldn't worry if I hadn't heard from him at the regular getting-off time.

The Pony also revealed that a fellow worker had been involved in an accident the night before. On the same road The Pony travels every day to and from the office to his route.

"If you go by the auto shop we use, you might see the wrecked LLV (Long Life Vehicle). A rural carrier rolled it over on the big curve by the tracks last night. Someone was in his lane and he overcorrected and it flipped. He's fine. Maybe bruised, but the manager said he was feeling/doing okay when she talked to him this morning, since he had his seatbelt on."

"So glad he's okay. People drive crazy there."

On Saturday, when The Pony was waiting for a tire to be replaced on his Metris, he got some pictures of the wrecked LLV.

The LLV is the square little vehicle that you probably think of when you imagine a mailman driving around.

I blocked out the serial number part of the vehicle identification. Still, you can see how the top dug into the dirt in the rollover.

It held up fairly well, I think. The LLVs were built in the 1980s. They were supposed to last 20 years. Many are still in service today. The Pony was lucky enough to get a route that has a Metris assigned to it. It's a mini van that has AIR CONDITIONING and a heater that actually warms the vehicle. Hopefully, it is as safe as an LLV! That workhorse did its job in protecting the driver.

Bad Luck or Good Luck. It's Relative.

The Pony has had a streak of misfortune lately. Wednesday night was no exception. 

Sometimes, The Pony falls asleep on the couch after work. He's been off this week, taking some days to relax over the week of our birthdays. Which doesn't make him immune from falling asleep on the couch. He has done that throughout his life, on many different couches.

"I woke up in the middle of the night, without any lights on. I got up for the bathroom, the one in the hall. For once I was still wearing pants. When I was done in the bathroom, I bent over to pull up my pants. I smacked my head on the door frame! I got a big knot over my eye."

I learned of this when The Pony came out Thursday to download my tax software on HIPPIE. I'm sure you know by now that technology is not my friend. Anyhoo... The Pony was over in Backroads anyway, for a doctor's appointment for something else. He showed the doc the eye.

"She said if it had been a few centimeters off, I would be in the city right now, seeing a specialist, in an effort to save sight in my eye!"

That's the deadbolt to lock the door on The Pony's hall bathroom. It has a sliding barn door. You can see the outside of it here, before The Pony moved in, with assorted furniture sitting around.

It's a small half-bath. Just a toilet and pedestal sink. Not a lot of room for bending over to pull up pants, even with the barn door open and a light on.

There's the damage to The Pony's eye, but without the knot that later appeared. The doctor took a good look, did some vision testing, checked the pupil reactions. Except for some pain, The Pony was fine. 

Which I guess is actually GOOD luck. Considering...

No Inclement Weather Can Keep Hick from His Appointed Rounds

We were under a winter storm watch on Wednesday. Of course it has turned out to be nothing, after we canceled a casino trip over it. The Pony has taken some vacation days this week, in celebration of our birthdays. He still volunteered to go in and help out a couple days at the post office. Wednesday was not one of them, considering the forecast.

Anyhoo... nothing stops HICK from going to town every day. At least for Casey's donuts. He usually has a project. Like Bargain House. 

"I think me and Old Buddy can still get the boards put on the back of the house. If the snow isn't coming until 8:00, that will give us plenty of time."

Looks like Hick was right. It helps that we got next to nothing anyway. He was able to close in the back porch area on Bargain House. Here's how it looked when we bought it:

Hick tore off the ratty-looking decayed wood, and closed in part of that back porch to make a laundry room/mud room entrance.

Hick also said they got the door hung. You can see the hinges, but the door is open in this photo. Hick will put siding over the wood, he says. He regrets that he HAS the siding to do it, but it is white, and won't match the yellow of the rest of the house. So he can't use it.

You can also see that there's plenty of room for future residents to have a nice covered patio to sit on and watch kids or pets play in the back yard, or have a grill or small table there.