This is what happens when you go on errands in the Seattle area during the Super Bowl ... Everyone else is in front of a screen watching, so you have the road to yourself! Never seen the town so deserted!
This is one of the main arterials through town, and is usually packed with cars. I went into Costco and they had big screen TVs set up throughout all the departments (bakery, dry goods, frozen foods) tuned to the game. There were more employees than customers as I walked through the nearly empty warehouse, taking my time as I filled my cart. Every once in a while there would be an eruption of cheers throughout the store when the Seahawks had a good play.
I cut 8 inches cut off my hair on February 4th. I hadn't cut my hair in more than 2 years. I handed the scissors to my husband and let him make the cut, so there would be no complaining from him that my hair was too short. I still have long hair, don't worry. I decided not to donate it (as I have in the past) because I would have had to cut more than 12 inches, and I didn't want shoulder length hair. I need it long enough to tie back for safety with my job.
Although we had days of below-freezing temperatures, we also had mostly clear skies, so it looks like we will be getting through my first winter of bus driving without a major snow event. Above is Snoqualmie Falls, before we had a light snow the next day. The mist from the falls froze, there were major icicles, and it was really stunning.
The following day we met up with Grandpa to go to the NW Flower and Garden Show. For the first time in the history of my attending, I bought nothing but parking and the entry ticket. I just wasn't in a spending mood.
My favorite part of the garden show is the demonstration gardens. Plants have been forced into believing it is spring or summer through weeks in lit, heated greenhouses. What a contrast to what was happening outside the convention center... Snow!
We had dinner at a coffee house / creperie in the shadow of the Space Needle, then I drove my dad back to his rental room in the north end of Seattle (instead of letting him take the bus) because the roads were getting dicey with compact ice and snow, plus it was a Sunday evening, so the bus service was sporadic at best.
Little K was bored while I was appliance shopping, so she took this photo of me (and photos of about 40 other random things at Home Depot). Our washing machine finally bit the dust, after 14 years of hard use, with 5 years of daily cloth diaper loads, and more recently heavy towel/bedding loads from the 60+ diarrhea afflicted foster kittens we've had over the last 5 years.
Daddy took the girls skiing a few times. They hadn't skied in two years because Daddy had had knee replacement and wasn't able to go. As you know, I don't downhill ski. I tried to learn several years ago, but spent more time figuring out how to stand back up again after falling, than actually going anywhere.
We intended to spend a lot of time this month watching the Winter Olympics, but were appalled by the commercials on the TV networks during the Olympics: explicit pitches for medication to help with "vaginal dryness with sexual intercourse," and "erectile dysfunction." So much for family-friendly viewing. The girls ran from the room whenever commercials came on, and after awhile stopped coming back. We tried watching via online streaming through our cable/internet provider, but they had their own insidious commercials for shows and movies on the Sy-fi channel, showing graphically violent mutilation and torture. No thanks.
After a busy January of subbing at work, things slowed in February, and there were weeks with nothing. I began to think they forgot my phone number, and I would go down to the bus base and just hang out in the dispatch room, signing my name on all available temporary runs and field trips. I'm so low on the seniority ladder though (#142 out of 145 drivers) that the work always went to more senior drivers. For the entire month of February I made just over $300.00.
Other than not having much work for me, overall February was a good month. We had a week off for President's Day and spent a lot of time with Grammy. Above you see the girls running back to our parked van, where Grammy rested while we went into a Target store to buy some things for her. We are parked on the very top of a six story parking garage, a preferred spot so Grammy could look out and watch the clouds and feel less confined than in the depths of the dark garage below. Spring is in the air, I can feel it coming.
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