Winter Hibernation

I told Fred the other day that when the snow melts I must get out to take a class again. I am hibernating these days. I am doing reasonably well at walking on the treadmill but I tend to spend the rest of the day lying on the bed reading the Kindle! I like to read on the bed because it is one of the few places where my back doesn’t hurt!

Fred has gone out to buy some groceries. He has a friend coming over this evening and they are watching UVM’s Ladycats on TV. So, of course, he needs beer! {He has already got popcorn!} I will retire to the bedroom and read and/or watch TV. Talking about TV, A week or so ago, Fred’s remote died. So, I called Dish Network and told them and the new one arrived today. Well, it was not just a case of put in the batteries and it was done. The first thing that had to be done was to take off the blue bit of plastic at the bottom that said #2 and replace it with another green bit which said 1 followed by UHF. There was even a drawing of this bit of plastic which was called a "key" and the UHF logo!  Now, since my fingers are not strong, I had to ask Fred to remove the blue key and replace it by the green key. Then I started following the directions in the book. Well, to make a long story short, I finally felt I had to call the Dish Network number.

Now, when one calls Dish Network, one has to first go through their automated menu, and, to be fair, this is actually not too bad and quite helpful when one loses the satellite and the thus the channel. Next one gets the mid-range people and thrilled as I always am to get a Real Person, I wonder why we have to go through this first layer of Real People only to be passed on yet again to anpther Real Person who can actually tell me what to do. And today when I was passed on to this department,  I got to speak to someone who sounded like an older man, and an older man from the South. Now, generally speaking, I LIKE the Southern accent. My two sons have lovely accents and I lived in Mississippi for thirty plus years, but this man got my back up immediately. Because I was on my third explanation of what the problem was and I had done, I quite quickly said something along the lines of "This is what is wrong and this is what I have done so far", only to have him say "Wait a minute…" and I swear I could hear "little lady!" hovering on the edge of being said! Anyway, it turned out that the problem was the instruction book. I had the right key but it needed to be turned over and reinserted. Even though the instructions said to put it in with the UHF logo on the top, and there was even a picture with an arrow pointing to the UHF logo, the key actually had to be reversed. In the end it was all sorted out and I thanked "Al" for his help and hung up.

 I ran off and helped Fred bring in all the groceries about half way through this. He had a trunk full and he pulls up and blows the horn to let me know help is needed. I went out and brought half of it in and he got the rest. Then I put it all away so he could rest and so that I know what we have! He bought a big bag of oranges this time which look lovely…

Our cars are clear of snow at the moment. Mine sits in the morning sun and so when I went out to the trash cans this morning, I did a double-take to see no snow at all on it. But that will all change tonight, I fear. More snow is forecast tonight, so tomorrow, part of my exercise for the day will be snow removal from the cars!

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."

Jim Rohn

"Enjoyment is not a goal; it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity."

Paul Goodman

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

Marcus Aurelius