Even Steven is Fiddlin' Again, and Val Likes His Tune

Val's life generally exhibits a balance. Almost as if Even Steven is her co-pilot, riding shotgun during the weaving of the rich tapestry that is Val's life. Saturday was no exception.

I was minding my own business, perusing the innernets as I am wont to do every day before I make a trip to town. We had three inches of snow overnight, so I had a picturesque view out my kitchen windows. The strip of snow on the porch rail was occasionally scuffed off by the talons of a large crow that kept landing there. Blobs of the heavy wet snow dropped off the trees, letting their limbs stretch skyward again.

THEN IT STOPPED! 

My idyllic morning noon was marred by the loss of an internet connection! At 12:18. I remember it like it was today! Which it WAS, at the time of this typing. I tried a couple of re-starts of HIPPIE, but no internet was forthcoming. I thought a blob of snow might have slipped off something and onto the "eye" part of our little satellite dish that provides our internet signal. I figured maybe, as the day wore on, it would melt, or slip off.

I was disappointed, but drowned my sorrows in a nap. Then town, for scratchers, and to get bananas, and some soup in case Hick wanted it for his newly-developing cold. I figured at worst, Hick could go down to the basement when he got home, and reset the router thingy.

The snow had melted off the roads. My town trip was uneventful. Hick was home when I arrived, and came out to carry in the groceries. My internet was still not working. Hick went to the basement, and got it fixed. As a reward, I made him a hot toddy to sip while lounging in a hot bath in the big triangle tub in the master bathroom.

Then I made Hick's supper, which was leftovers from Friday's big pot of sausage, potatoes, and cabbage, with corn muffins on the side. It was almost two hours later that I got to sit down with my scratchers. Only two winners. One was $10 on a $5 crossword. The other was THIS:

That's a $500 winner on a $10 ticket! The tens have been very good to me of late. I got this one at the Gas Station Chicken store, from my favorite clerk. Here's a view of the top section:

This is the newest of the $10 tickets. It came out the Tuesday I got sick. So for a whole week, I was keeping myself at home, not-buying the new tickets. That probably affected the order of the tickets from what I would normally have bought. Here's the bottom section, a bit closer:

I figured it was going to be pretty good when I uncovered my first line of coin symbols. I was thinking "pretty good" as in around $50-$100. I was thrilled to see that $20 prize under the first coin.

The year is off to a good start!