January, 2020

As we drove into the driveway from our trip to Vegas, we noticed a small waterfall pouring out of the water meter box. It had been raining heavily for at least 3 days, so none of the neighbors noticed it. Rog shut the water off at the main and we figured we would be out of water for a few days so we headed over to Blooms’ with our water jugs. We filled them up and decided to wait until Monday to fix it. Early Monday I called the PCWA, our water district and they came out to look at it within the hour. Since the leak was on our side of the meter, there was nothing that they could do. So Rog started digging. He got down to the fittings from the meter to the service line and found that one of the elbows was totally loose. So we called PCWA back to disconnect the line from the meter so we could manipulate the pipe. He also drained the hole with his pump. Rog glued it up and we let it set and we were back in business. The bill was only about 30% higher than usual, so it wasn't too bad. We did file a form with them and we will see if they give us a break. Not the best way to return from a trip, but it could have been much worse.

With the limited time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had to push our annual lasagna dinner with the Lloyd side of the family until January. It is the one time every year we see Rog’s brother and his family and we always have a great time. It is a super easy meal for me. I make lasagnas the day before and everyone else brings the salad, bread and dessert. Easy peasy. We enjoyed it.

Our date with Max this month was a trip to Harris Center to see Steve Winter, a National Geographic photographer, who socializes in shooting big cats. He was a great speaker and the pictures, of course, were fabulous. We had burgers at Five Guys beforehand. Pricey for a fast food place, but some really good food!

The craft this month was name snowflakes. Using their name in block letters on folded tissue paper, we cut out snowflakes. Quick and easy...and then they got creative.

We are getting back into seeing movies but have cut them down to every other week. There just aren’t enough good ones out there to go every week!

The weather was pretty miserable and wet for most of the month, but the last week was drop dead gorgeous. It was dry and in the upper 0’s during the day. So I was able to get out into the yard and get everything trimmed and weeded. We still have to do one more day of serious leaf blowing, but that will wait until February. Meanwhile, Rog is spending time every day on the model railroad. He is hand laying track and they no longer make the small spikes he needs, so he is filing the spikes he can get with his Dremel. We are talking 800 spikes. Crazy man. But here sure enjoys it. And the Moss Rock and Timber Railroad is slowly taking shape.