Post by RoxMonster on Jan 29, 2024 14:57:47 GMT -5
I hike alone a lot but day hikes shorter than 3-4 miles usually. I don’t live in bear country and we don’t have many animal predators here. The worst I’ve encountered once is a wild Turkey that followed me for a bit lol.
I don’t take anything like bear spray or mace. I do have a first aid kid in my day pack. Also everywhere I hike alone around here has cell reception so I take my phone. If I didn’t have reliable coverage or my hike was longer, I would get something like a Garmin InReach.
The #1 thing I do if hiking solo is tell H where I’m hiking and ideally what trail(s) as well if I know. I text when I start my hike and text when I’m back at my car. If he doesn’t hear from me in a reasonable amount of time for that distance, then he knows something might be wrong.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 28, 2024 11:31:23 GMT -5
I’m super particular about going out certain places to the point I will (and have) turned down invitations to go with people besides my H.
An example: Our local minor league baseball games. I like sitting on the first base line, towards the back and I HAVE to sit on an aisle. But the seats are in the sun for the first inning or so of the game, which is hot in summer, so we grab food and go stand at one of the pub tables in the shade until the seats are shaded. Then because our games are (sadly) not super well-attended, I may end up moving slightly to different seats (in our same price grouping) because I’m fat and some seats have more room than others so if our assigned seats are too tight, we’ll move back a row.
Good friends of ours have asked us to go to a game with them but we come up with an excuse not to because there’s no way they would want to do that whole routine lol. And I’m worried I’ll get stuck in a seat that’s too small.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 27, 2024 16:13:44 GMT -5
We’ve really enjoyed watching all the different seasons/iterations of Traitors on Peacock. Season 2 of the American version is airing now but we have to wait to watch weekly.
We just finished Fool Me Once and it was good.
I just started Shrinking.
Also have been rewatching (for about the 50th time) Gilmore Girls while sick this week.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 26, 2024 16:20:28 GMT -5
I never get fajita veggies so I am not sure on that. But I had to respond because H just picked us up lunch from Chipotle today and they ran out of white rice and had to make more.
A bunch of people were standing around waiting because all they had said was “We’re making more.” H said he asked about how long this would take and they were like “About 30-45 minutes.” The other people waiting got pissed. I feel like that is a time period that should have been communicated to the people waiting on it lol. Like if I’m told “Oh we’re out of X but making more,” I’m going to assume the wait is like 5 min not 45!
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 24, 2024 11:32:09 GMT -5
Still testing negative for Covid but only on day 3 of symptoms so I will probably re-test again tomorrow or Friday as well. My symptoms feel almost exactly like when I had Covid the last time. I had a low-grade fever and chills last night. That is gone now after taking Tylenol. My smell and taste are dulled (totally lost them last time).
H is still healthy so far, fingers crossed. I hate not being able to breathe out my nose and the feeling of head/ears being plugged. We have unlimited sick time at work, so I did take the day off (even though I WFH anyway and had no meetings today because I cleared my calendar for an event I was supposed to attend). I figure it'll be best to totally rest and not feel like I have to be working on stuff or keeping up with Teams/email.
When I talked about having 3 days in office/off-site this week for events….just kidding! Woke up sick today. Sore throat, congestion, sinus pressure. Testing for Covid later though it may be too early to show up if it is. So I had to back out of all my events.
Really hoping this is a run of the mill head cold and not Covid. It sucked last time. I’m so annoyed because in the winter, I barely leave the house. Went out for lunch this weekend and boom! Sick.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 22, 2024 10:14:37 GMT -5
Everything here is a sheet of ice and most everything shut down (schools, trash collection, city busses, etc). I’m supposed to work in office tomorrow so we’ll see how the roads are.
I also have a two-day offsite event Wed/Thurs. I haven’t worked outside my home since Dec 5 and am not ready for wearing a real bra and hard pants all day for 3 days this week lol.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 21, 2024 12:05:11 GMT -5
All I know so far is veggie beef soup tonight and leftovers tomorrow night. And Wed. night, I have a work happy hour/dinner thing so I'll be having BBQ and H will fend for himself.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 21, 2024 12:03:09 GMT -5
We did our mall walk this morning and it was enjoyable! I think that's something we'll continue on weekend mornings during the winter until we can walk outside again. Then we went out for breakfast, I showered and am now curled up with my coffee while H gets our crockpot meal going. I actually feel motivated today and I really think it's because the sun is out. It's still cold AF but the sun truly helps my mood so much.
I want to get the rest of our finished basement cleaned up today and stuff boxed up to donate, I want to do some dusting in our living room and paint my nails. Also having a robot vacuum on our first floor has been a game-changer. We run him every day when we go upstairs to work and he is done by lunchtime. It has helped to keep up with dog hair so much.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 20, 2024 18:36:02 GMT -5
We went to lunch at a tea room and it was delightful. The baked potato soup was amazing! (The rest of my tiers were good too). Tonight we're trying a new pizza place for takeout and watching that American Nightmare doc on Netflix.
I am getting so antsy not being able to walk outside with the cold, snow, and ice, so I think we're going to go walk at the mall tomorrow AM at like 8:00 with all the older folks lol. And then maybe have brunch after.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 19, 2024 11:12:08 GMT -5
More snow, more cold. Blah.
I do have one plan for this weekend, the first in weeks lol. We are headed to a tea room for lunch tomorrow in a neighboring town. I feel like I haven’t worn real clothes in so long!
I am procrastinating paperwork shit I don’t want to do but need to in order to move my TRS (teacher pension) and 403b money to my job’s 401k. I know it is going to be a huge PITA dealing with them especially my 403b company. I’m just dreading it. But our financial advisor said getting into the 401k is most beneficial.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 15, 2024 11:09:27 GMT -5
I come from sea level and have been to CO three times. The first time we flew into Denver and stayed for a couple days. Even so, it was very hot (July), I was dehydrated from the plane and foolishly had margaritas with dinner. I didn’t feel great but felt a lot better after getting in the AC and taking a nap for a couple hours. We went to RMNP a couple days later and I was Ok - not sick but still more winded than usual when hiking at 11K+
The other two times, we have driven to CO. One time we went straight to Dillon which was 9K+. I was better at hydrating ahead of time and didn’t do any alcohol that time. I still got winded when we arrived just walking across the hotel lot but that got better as time went on.
Also I haven’t been to Breck (actually looking at planning a trip there this summer). But I wasn’t the biggest fan of Estes Park itself. LOVED RMNP and being in the park but could take or leave EP.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 15, 2024 10:00:51 GMT -5
I’m off today but H is not. It’s another day with wind chills of -30. The only place I plan to go is the vet later because we think Rox may have an ear infection.
Otherwise I plan to do a YouTube workout video and paint my nails. We normally go in office on Tuesdays but my boss told us on Friday to stay home tomorrow due to the dangerous temps so that’s nice.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 14, 2024 19:55:07 GMT -5
So cold today. -42 wind chill. I did some online shopping, declutterred and organized the basement, H and I had a Trivial Pursuit tournament and are now watching Fool Me Once on Netflix. Not too bad for a day we didn’t leave the house! Also had homemade chicken and dumplings for dinner which was excellent.
I'm so sick of being stuck in the house but it's not even enjoyable or all that safe to go out. The roads are slick from the freezing temps and wind blowing over the snow. Many local businesses are closed even. I have tomorrow off work but it's more of the same.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 13, 2024 15:56:03 GMT -5
Not tacky at all and I do this all the time. For many occasions, I'll get my mom an e-gift card for the place she gets pedicures at and it's local to her; I'm 2.5 hours away. So I always do the e-gift card and if we are celebrating in person, I'll print it and wrap it.
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 12, 2024 11:19:04 GMT -5
Another snow storm here. Only a few inches so far but most schools closed because the roads were a mess. We’re supposed to get more tonight and then bitter cold temps. My boss already told us to not come in Tuesday (our usual in-office day) due to the dangerous wind chills.
I have to cancel our tea lunch reservations tomorrow in a neighboring town because I don’t think it’s a good idea to drive 45 min on country roads in this weather. Boo
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 11, 2024 10:16:04 GMT -5
I think my area of IL is getting rain and snow mixed so not a ton of accumulation but arctic temps into next week with wind chills near -25. We got about 4” of snow from our system earlier this week (they say 8” fell but the rest melted).
"Homendy described a chaotic scene in the plane's cockpit and directly outside the cockpit after the blowout.
She said the flight crew heard a bang and the cockpit "door flew open" from depressurization, so they immediately put their masks on, but communication in the cockpit and between the crew members in the cabin and cockpit were very difficult.
The force of the depressurization slammed the cockpit door into the front restroom door, damaging the restroom door, and it took a flight attendant three tries to get the cockpit door to close again, Homendy said.
She noted that the first officer lost her headset and the captain had a portion of her headset pulled off. The captain and first officer couldn't hear anything in their damaged headsets once they were recovered so they used the overhead speaker to hear."
Post by RoxMonster on Jan 10, 2024 12:35:34 GMT -5
Kind of a lazy, slow day here with not much work I have to do. Our snow storm yesterday meant I could stay home on the day we normally go to the office. I haven’t been in since Dec 5 since they didn’t require us to go in the rest of the year or Jan 2.
All the side streets are frozen slush and we have another even bigger storm coming Friday. I’m disappointed because we have reservations Sat to go to another town and have lunch in their tea room. It was something to look forward to during these drab winter days. However, I’ll probably have to reschedule because it’s a lot of country road driving and I doubt they’ll be in good condition that soon after the storm.
I am not into sports at all except I enjoy watching the Olympics.
H is a big sports fan - football and baseball. Lifelong die-hard Cubs fan. It is mostly a fun diversion for him. He used to be at the point it would affect his mood that day but over the years, isn't much like that anymore.