Bitchin', Snowin', Jeepin' and Horsin' around.

Yep, I am at it again. It's not exactly an office special this time.

So the surgical-hot-glue they used to seal up my incisions has finally come off in its entirety. I’ve been pretty grumped out about having those little pointed shards annoying me all day... I pried out the one from my belly button this morning and it was heavenly to be rid of that little bugger—it was the worst one. It sort of cracks me up to think of them with a hot-glue gun in the surgery room, squeezing the trigger like a bunch of middle-aged crafters in mom-jeans and 'I-give-up' hair making wall and door wreaths.  I stated on Facebook this morning that I am surprised I didn't lift my shirt to find a bird's nest with a fake chickadee and some country-style silk sunflowers glued onto my incision too.

I had to get up at this ungodly hour so my husband could drive me in. The night before last, an unexpected snowfall up in the cascades made my drive home most unpleasant. By the time I got to my town, I could hear the snow scraping the bottom of my car. I had to take a run at my street to get through the thick, slushy berm of snow created by the ploughs and then drive at ridiculous speeds on our little gravel road to make it to the driveway without bogging out in the deep, wet cascade concrete. I was successful however, and the Prius passed a number of unfortunate vehicles nosed off the side of the road into ditches that night, so it got a loving pat on the hood before I went into the house. The snow was so deep I had a log-shaped snowball rolling in front of my bumper when I finally slid into the parking spot next to our house. That was a first for me. LOL.

I think the best benefit of four-wheel-drive vehicles is not so much the four wheel drive action, it’s the bloody height. We knew when we bought the Pri that this would be an issue... they are low-riders. I’m glad we kept the other Jeep—or I would not be at work today. Poor Prius, although very much laudable for getting me home safe the night before last, was pretty much inundated by the deep snow by the next morning—so I ended up taking a snow-day yesterday. Our street is still unploughed as of today, so our only alternative was to get up super early today so hubby could take me in to work in the reliable Jeep. The snow had melted some and compacted down, but it was still pretty deep around the Prius; and the snow on the road is still way to high for Pri to nose through. Hopefully it will melt out a bit today. The Jeep will have to be the stand-in for now.




Jeep-a-boo.


They truly are incredible little cars, those Jeeps. Sure they’re gas-hogs, but they trundle through pretty much anything, even with the disadvantage of not having a locking differential (they only have power on the one front tire and one back tire—diagonally when in 4WD mode as hubby explains it). That Jeep has given us 100,000 miles of reliability and trustworthiness for really what amounts to very little in cost. Sure, we dumped $1,800 into a new transmission, and it’s needed its heating system and radiator replaced... but that Jeep commuted with me 75 miles a day every weekday (and more long drives on weekends and trips) for five years, it has tromped through snow events like a trooper, it has hauled the trailer of trash to the dump, it has tugged other vehicles out of stuckness and blazed trails through dense snow so others with less capable vehicles could follow. I love that Jeep.

What’s even better about this car is that it has improved in looks these past years. When I first got it, it had a black soft-top made by some obscure company that was falling apart. We got it a soft-top, and then traded that for a hard-top, and then hubby managed to find full doors to replace the half-doors, and we fixed a rust-spot on the tub, replaced the leaking seal-thing on the top of the window and now it’s a better package than it was when I got it in ’04 (yeah, with a few more miles on it, granted)... Jeeps are like giant erector-set toys or something. You can just keep building and adding onto them and they just get better and better.  Lifts, tires, racks, lights, winches, hooks... Possibilities are endless.  I have a hard time thinking about losing that little green trooper. If are ever in a situation where Jeepy buys the farm, we will probably replace it with another used Wrangler. As crappy as the mileage is, they are completely indispensible for where we live and for what we do. We have our sedan commuters who pack on the miles now; the Prius and the gifted Dodge Intrepid my mother gave us. They save us gas-money and work fine on the most part in all weather; but when the deep stuff arrives and the low-riders are snowed in, we have our trundly little Jeep to get us through. :) Not that I wouldn’t have preferred to just stay in bed this morning... but I suppose we all have to be responsible. ::grumble::

I took some time with Hubby to go see horsikins for a change. I missed him!!! I haven't spent hardly any time with him lately, and I'm full of guilt.  I haven't ridden since November, and he's lost all his muscle mass and looks like a huge Shetland pony again. ::GAR!!:: I worked him a bit on the longe and he was exploding with unspent energy.  It'll be a while before he looks like this again:

Fine lookin' horse if I say so myself.

Anyway, I'm going to try to LITERALLY get back into the saddle this weekend... after running him prolifically on the longe first so he doesn't aggrivate my torn meniscus or recent surgery, etc., by throwing me.

Okay, I’m off.  Have to hit the road at this horrid early hour. The benefit, no traffic... Laters.