When I called, she said that the route carrier can't get into my neighborhood. This is true to a degree. You can't go up the main entrance to my neighborhood because it's closed off. But you can go around, and someone whose job it is to deliver things to houses should know all available detours for his route. The mail gets here every day; why can't the paper?
Oh well. I think I pissed off my newspaper carrier anyhow. About twice a month he (or she, I don't know) forgets my house, although my neighbor always gets a paper on the days that I don't. Then I called the paper during those weeks we were getting so much rain because my paper was never in a bag, and by the time I got it, it would be soaking wet.
Eventually I'll get all caught up. ;o)
Yesterday was a very odd day for me. Obviously Kurt's gone now, but what was weird was by the evening, it felt like he's been gone for weeks. It didn't feel like the trip I made to the ship to take him to work had happened just a few hours before. I don't know how to describe it. Maybe it's because I had taken him in and gotten home before the time that I get up most days, so it seemed like a whole 'nother day. I still can't believe that yesterday morning Kurt was sleeping next to me. It feels like so long ago already.
I've determined that the pain in my chest must be stress-related. Or really, I can't even say "stress" because I'm not terribly stressed out about this deployment. It's just whenever I think of Kurt, my entire chest tightens in pain. It's almost like a very bad case of heartburn. I was concerned all day yesterday, thinking maybe there was something physically wrong with my heart, because this is the worst time in the world for anything to go wrong with me. But then I realized that when I'm not thinking about Kurt, I don't have any pain. If I can distract myself with the television or a book, then I feel nothing. Once Kurt pops back into my thoughts, my chest starts killing me again. The good thing is now I know there isn't anything really wrong with me, and it should go away in the next few days to a week, once I get acclimated.
Yesterday I just couldn't keep this darn house warm at all. This is not the kind of weather for electric heat. I had the space heater AND the wall heaters going in the living room, and all my thermometers were saying no warmer than 65� inside the house. I miss gas heat. I also don't have a fireplace. Most folks, when it gets this cold, rely on pellet stoves or wood stoves. For one thing, I wouldn't want a wood stove because of Grace, and secondly, I find it hard to spend $1000 on a wood stove. It's not like it's a technologically advanced piece of equipment! Add another $700 for installation and buying and chopping wood every season... no thanks. I'll just put on more layers! Today I have on both a long-sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt, and Grace is wearing a onesie under her fleece one-piece jumper, and I think both of us are staying fairly warm.
I wore my footed blanket sleeper to bed last night. Yes, I am 27 years old, and I have a blanket sleeper. My stepmom bought it for me when I was in college because my freshman roommate always slept with the window wide open, regardless of how frigidly cold it was outside. I was so warm and toasty this morning I had a hard time hauling myself out of bed! When I went into Grace's room, she was amazed to see her momma in a sleeper just like hers. She looked at me and said, "Wow!!!" and babbled on in Grace-speak. It was so funny.
Last night I made Karyl's Famous Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup as I chatted online with my favorite chocolate lover, Chaosdaily, only I got a bit distracted and managed to reduce my soup instead of simmering it! But it was easily remedied; I just added a bit more water to bring it back to two quarts, and it still tasted fabulous. So today we're having leftover turkey sandwiches (we still have a load of turkey since we ate out so much before Kurt left) for lunch and homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner. You couldn't ask for yummier meals when it's cold and icy outside!
I really ought to go get some fish for Grace's new fish tank. The tank is all set up and the water is regulated, so it's time for some fish. The water's a little cloudy, but I think it'll clear up once I get some fish in there. But with the weather like it is, and the roads as icy as they are, I'm nervous about going out. We live so far out in the boonies that the roads aren't even sanded. Worse comes to worst, I'll just dump the water and start over again. Come to think of it, I don't think I even need to add anything to my tap water (except a pH regulator) to make it safe for fish! I know we don't have chlorine in our water, as it's from a community well and not from a municipal water supply, hence nothing is added to it. I forgot that and bought water dechlorinator anyhow. My nitrates and nitrites are well within limits, and while the water is a little hard, according to my charts it's still acceptable. I may have to soften the water a little, but that's it. I'm also planning on keeping only goldfish in the tank, and they're notoriously hardy fish. I still need to test the ammonia, but I forgot to buy a test kit for that.
See, I think that's why water tastes so funny to me when we go out to dinner. We have nothing added to our water, so I'm not used to tasting chlorine in water anymore. When I go home to DC, I can't drink the tap water; I feel like it's taken straight from a swimming pool! My parents don't notice the chlorine nearly as much as I do, and I don't think I would either if I didn't have well water here at the house. I don't remember their water tasting so bad when I lived in Portsmouth, VA, and I was on city water then.
Kurt doesn't notice a difference in the water when we go out. But when he's at work, he drinks the local city water in port, and when he's out to sea, the ship makes its own water and then adds bromine to it. So he's always getting chemicals in his water. Since most of the water I drink every day comes from the tap here at the house, I've gotten used to "pure" water.
I had a bad experience with well water when we lived in Illinois. My school was on a well, but when it came out of the drinking fountain, it smelled like rotten eggs and tasted like iron. Not a good thing if you're wanting kids to drink a lot of water while at school. There was never a line of kids waiting for the water fountain at that school.