Birthday and Snow!

My birthday was great this year! Almost as good as last year, when a group of friends were camping in SC on my birthday and they had a long-distance party for me! They  had a decorated birthday cake, went out for ice cream and dinner, and throughout the whole day they’d send me photos and a video of them singing to me. Weird, I know, but it made it a good day.

This year I had a doctor appointment that morning,and the day before I’d made a batch of knockoff See’s Butterscotch Squares. If you’re from California you know how good these are! It’s like brown sugar fudge, covered with chocolate. I used to make 1/2 batch a lot in Ecuador because friends really liked them, but I never covered them in chocolate there, I just left them as fudge. This time I covered half in chocolate and left some plain. I boxed them ALL up (Yep, I didn’t even taste a single one!) and took them with me to my appointment. I figured SOMEONE should be getting a birthday gift! I got a huge surprise when I arrived; the receptionist said “Happy Birthday, Janis” and handed me a card signed by everyone and a cute little glass jar of bath salts! Cris said that Dr. Matt shopped for them himself! Then the whole staff came out into the waiting room and sang “Happy Birthday” to me! I love those guys! To them it was probably a small thing but it totally made my day. I hope they liked the candy. Here’s the recipe: Homemade Butterscotch Squares

Thanksgiving I just had leftovers from my roast beef birthday dinner (which was tough as nails even after being cooked in the pressure-cooker for 35 minutes). We were expecting a ton of snow so I was all prepared to be stuck here for a week or so, with plenty of propane, water, toilet paper, food, DVD’s and Kindle books to read. When there are big snowfalls, the snowplow doesn’t make it out here for 3-4 days, and I don’t have 4 wheel drive so I just sit tight.

The snow didn’t actually start til Friday morning but it came with a vengeance; we got 2″ of snow in the first half-hour! With 40 mph winds, oh what fun. Then it settled down to a steady light snow all day and into the next. We ended up with a foot of it. Ugh. I shoveled a path from here to the house (because all my food is over there) and I’d just hook Roxie up to her long leash and shove her out the door while I stayed inside with the door open a crack, just enough to let the leash extend out and in. She didn’t spend any extra time outdoors either!

This was my view out the door on Friday. Usually these branches are well up out of my way but that day, they were waiting to dump snow down my neck as soon as I went out the door!

Friday was sunny but very cold, a high of 34 I think. The floors in this camper are not insulated at all so I can go get a whole day’s worth of food and keep it next to the door on the floor, throw a towel over it and it stays nice and cold! I just measured it with my instant thermometer, at 10:30 a.m. it is still 38 degrees on the floor near the door! Perfect refrigerator temp. My poor feet FREEZE in here, and I feel really sorry for Roxie sleeping on the floor but she doesn’t seem to mind. She doesn’t even use her cushy dog bed except at night!

I got some birthday money so I spent some time on line and took advantage of some of the Black Friday sales; nothing fun, just vitamins, some food items from Thrive Market and a few parts needed for the propane hookup of a heater for the house, but I did order some new eyeglasses from Zenni Optical’s sale; only $45 with progressive bifocal lenses,including clip-on sunglasses! I don’t know what terrible thing I did to my current glasses but they are so scratched I can hardly see through them. I always vow to take better care of my glasses but somehow I never do.

That darn snow seems to be really hanging on. Even though it was sunny all day yesterday, the car is still covered with snow and it’s still hanging on all the trees. I admit it is pretty, but I just want it to all go away now.

Last week we had 3 days of rain and this week the snow….I did not get all the insulation done so I could move into the house. I should know better than to set deadlines! I have to be able to cut the foam sheets outside. And now they are covered with a foot of snow but I’m hoping by the weekend I’ll be able to get back at it. I also have a huge issue with my door. Every time it rains, almost the entire floor gets flooded. Thank you Tyler, for setting the door in the wrong place! I’m going to have to try and remove the threshold and move it into the room more and I’m not sure I can get it up without a lot of hassle. But I can’t move in and then be constantly flooded with water. Last night it got down to 17 degrees and it was like an indoor skating rink!

OK, enough whining for now.