Simple Joys in life

So after an evening of melancholy, its time to turn the page. Life marches on and Terri would want that as well. So this morning, after not much sleep... I rolled out of bed at 5:30am. This is normally very late for me - but on a Sunday morning, its definitely sleeping in (okay it would have been if I had slept.) But my brain was moving - so my body had to follow.

Like almost everyone I know - I have a routine in the morning. And when its altered, I quickly turn into a fledgling fool. This morning Ron got up with me. Now during the week, I'm up at 4:30 and out of the house 2 hours before he even puts his feet on the floor. So when he gets up with me on a Sunday morning - I wonder what's up? cause its usually just me. Evidently the excitement wasn't - he just wanted to get up. Now I'm wondering why? You finally came to bed last night at midnight after talking to the guy who lives across the street who was shoveling his roof at 11:30 at night (this is normal, right?)

So he got up. said three words to me and then disappeared outside. Hmmm... okay - I'm already off my tracks. What am I supposed to be doing? Oh yeah, check AQ. Quiet this early in the morning, joined all the postals listed, no messages in my inbox, and nothing I need to look at. Let's jump over to Facebook. Have to park my cars, look through the Scavenger Hunt pages, send gifts to Ashley so her numbers can be higher than Sean's (LOL), Escape from whatever twisted form of capture I've been thrown into, search for tiles for my words and out of nowhere... ping. I have a message. Now who on earth is chatting with me at this hour? LOL! Seems The Dazzler was also up and restless. Chatted for a bit, signed off to get dressed, jumped in the car and headed off to meet up with Teacup. Said a quick goodbye to Ron who was now sleeping on the couch, and told him I'd be home by 10am.

Half way to Teacup's house my stomach started grumbling bad! I started to reflect. When was the last time I ate? Damn. Not only did I not have my coffee cup with me - but I didn't eat anything since yesterday at 3:30 when Ron cooked scallops. No wonder my stomach was protesting. But no time to stop - I had to be at Tea's house by 7. And the sun was well up in the sky already. Daylight was slipping by and we still were not inky! I was going to drive, but damn. The other thing I forgot - my coolant light had been coming on and off for 4 days. Not feeling overly lucky, I thought Tea should drive. So a quick switch of vehicles we were off.

Now in case you haven't been following this - there is a small rat race going on between Team MudCup and Team Jiffyracer... why, frankly we do not know. Because our only true goal is to get it off Tea's list. Do we have to be first, not really. It just needs to get crossed off at some point. Team Jiffyracer has decided they need to up the ante and get there before us - so they can leave us notes. This has also happened on occasion with The DazzlingKoko team as well. Team MudCup is not what you would classify as competitive. Evidently this is a bad boxing trait. I think somewhere on the AQ site in teeny tiny letters it must say in a subordinate clause "You must get there first or you will be perpetually slammed in logbooks lingering in waiting Lock and Locks all over the country." I will say I've looked for this clause on AQ numerous times. Actually thought I found it once or twice, but would always disappear like a pile of ashes when I clicked on the link.

But as we headed off to Gorham yet once again, (Koko is in desperate need of company) to pick up the ever elusive BOM, we knew before getting there that Team Jiffyracer had beaten us to the punch. Now we have a two for two average of pulling up to this location, and needing to trudge through snow. I was ready - I had on my Bean boots and if I needed to I could probably toss a rope down to the box and drag it across the frozen tundra. But first we had to get there. And our first obstacle was the south bound toll plaza! Damn toll is now a buck! Tea threw the change back into her console and we fished out the credit card! We paid our blood money and continued south. We pulled into the location... and alas - there was a well beaten path to the location!

A quick grab and I had the box in hand and headed back to the car. So it was 7:30, the sun was up - and for the fourth month in a row, Koko did not meet us with coffee and tea. A quick thought of pounding on the front door ran through my head, but I went back to the car instead. Now this was a twofer month. Love was tickling Phil the groundhog. Evidently Team Jiffyracer thought poor Phil should have been red... but we opted to color him in brown. Trying to be careful, we replaced the stamps and read the note left us. We logged in and sealed everything back up. Koko also felt he needed to downsize the location's holding vessel. The smaller cooler was precariously perched on the open end of a bucket.

Now the logical side of me was thinking, why didn't he flip the bucket over so it would sit flat? And tried as I might, I could not get it to sit flat. It kept flipping off the edge of the bucket. Oh to hell with it. I tipped it sideways into the bucket and was done with it, until next month! The return home had us making a quick u-turn to look in a fruitless location for Koko's latest mind annoyance. But we could cross that off as a possibility. Heading north is now 2 bucks! UGH! 3 dollars for 4 images! We were thinking Koko really needed to provide 3 images for the rest of the months to make it worth while. Either that or start planting in Gorham so we have other boxes to look for while we are in the area!

Now in case you haven't heard - Koko and I are co-hosting a small little meeting in March in Freeport. What does this mean on a Sunday morning? A quick car ride through town looking for potential hidey holes for boxes. And oh the places we found! Of course we also tried to do some box maintenance on one of Tea's boxes. For the next few weeks it is an extreme box! And anyone who can dig this box out and bring it to the gather - Tea says she'll have a bonus stamp for you!

We tooled around town and clicked off possible locations in our heads. Found maps to help with the planting a seeking and contemplated possibilities for newer locations, both temporary and permanent.

So I made it home by 10am and no one was there. My family had ditched me! But that didn't last long. Before long I was scrapbooking with Veronica, helping Ashley with her homework poster collage and watching Christopher sing and dance to Mama Mia, again! I carved a little, made a batch of chili for dinner with cornbread. Knocked the ice off my parent's roof right above their back door and shoveled the back walk between our houses. Ron filled my radiator and fixed the flat tire on Christopher's tricycle.

So much to do, so many things happening and so many things to come. No more time spent on being melancholy. While memories will stay with me, its time to start making even more of them! And just when you think its safe... you'll find out that Team MudCup has done something you weren't expecting. So much more to come in the next few months!