Flying Solo

 "I have never believed that man's freedom consisted in doing what he wants, but rather in never doing what he doesn't want to do." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I recently spent a week alone for the first time in decades.  The wife and kid flew back east to attend the wedding of a family member, whilst I stayed behind to house and dog sit.  I don't believe the husky and the ancient dachshund would have done well in a kennel situation.  Also the kid has a cat that required looking after - so I took "a week off work" to make sure the critters were properly cared for. 

What might have been a pleasant period of quiet time at home and away from work was not that, in the least.  Just before they left, I had to cover a night shift, and in the middle of it, I had to cover a day shift due to one of the guys having a surgery.  Then there was the snow day, which was pretty tedious.  

Turns out the week was a bit unpleasant.  The weather was grim most of the time, and I was out of my element - because I'm not a home-maker and critter care guy.  The cat disappeared, causing angst and loss of sleep.  She quit eating and using her litter box.  I was worried something had happened to her.  Turns out she was using the guest bed in the basement for a litter box.  Yesterday we put new bedding on order, so apparently I'm still paying for that trip back east :)  I'm not replacing the quilt with anything nearly as expensive - learned the lesson there.

On the bright side, I took time to fix stuff for breakfast that I normally don't do.  I made up some huevos rancheros for the first time in forever.  Pretty yummy.  I sent this image to a buddy, and he said he felt sorry for my toilet LOL.  Told him that the bathroom fan is a beast, and not to worry too much haha.

The day after the big snow storm it began raining, which melted all that snow right off.

Below:  Two days after the snow storm.  I'm not used to seeing green grass this time of year

Below: Three days after the snow.  Bare ground except where the snow got piled up.

Reminder that it looked like this three days earlier.  I've never seen anything like this in December.

For various reasons, I had not managed to install the studded winter tires onto the Subaru yet, and after the snow fell, I nearly drifted off the road while traveling in a straight line on a very icy stretch.  All four tires had very little traction on the black ice.

Since it had already snowed, and I plowed, I had the dubious pleasure of replacing all four rims on a wet floor.  I tried to use the cordless impact gun to remove the lug nuts.  It was able to take them off, but it took several seconds of rattling to break each one free.  After 2-3 lug nuts, I went back to the trusty old pneumatic rattle gun.  At least now I'm good through winter for traction and snow removal :)

And the hits keep coming for break-downs!  Yesterday when I approached the gate at work, rolled down the window to open it with the security badge, the window would not roll up again.  I parked indoors to keep weather out of the car.  After getting the morning work chores done, I had to do a bit of troubleshooting and try to get the window back up.  

I wasn't sure if the window problem was due to mechanical binding, a failed motor, or a bad switch.  Eventually I was able to get a jumper wire across the correct contacts, and the window rolled completely up.  This is the preferred winter position until I can get a replacement rocker switch.  

Below:  Living the dream.

The door panel is sitting in the back seat now, with a Ziploc bag full of mounting hardware.  Looks about like a typical old Idaho Subaru.

I have one of these switches on order now - it's the top left switch that failed.  It'll be here in 10 days' time.  Meantime I'll be opening the door to badge in at work and pulling the door shut using the sheet metal edge.  Fun times!