Lots of snow and the electricity carrot

So I haven't been blogging much lately (duh). This is due to a combination of inertia, work overload, and general crabbiness. If I'm crabby, I see no reason to share it, even if misery loves company.

Also, we were slammed with snow. Snoverload 2.0. Snowmaggedon. Snobliteration. SnowhelpmeGod. Whatever you want to call it.

We got almost 3 feet of snow in the space of about 24 hours on Feb 5-6. I know that the Minnesotans, Alaskans, and Michiganders who read my blog aren't fazed by that amount of snow, but for heaven's sake, this is Montgomery County MD. Where they have a total of like 15 snowplows. And a policy to plow the main roads down to wet pavement before entering into the neighborhoods.

This wouldn't have been a big deal, but my neighborhood lost power sometime that Friday night. We were trapped, because I couldn't slog through almost 3 feet of snow. We have a fireplace, but it does nothing to warm the house. We have a gas stove and a gas hot water heater. But it was too cold to take showers, because we couldn't dry our hair. And coming out of the warm shower into the frigid bathroom was painful. A bunch of our neighbors bailed by walking (slogging) through the snow about a half mile to a main road where they had someone pick them up. Not us.

We stayed. It got really cold. By Sunday, the house was the same temp as the outside. It wasn't so bad during the daytime, but the nights were horrendous. I have never been able to sleep with the covers over my face; I feel like I'm suffocating. But I couldn't sleep with my face out of the covers. because it was too freaking cold. So I didn't really sleep.

Sunday was especially hard, because the power came back on for 30 minutes, then went back off. Up to that time, ThePinkThing had been the model of good behavior. After the electricity carrot had been dangled in front of our faces then yanked away, she had an absolute tantrum. The laying-on-the-floor-and-kicking-her-feet kind of tantrum. I didn't blame her. In fact, I had a small tantrum later that night, when I was literally shaking with cold, unable to sleep and completely miserable. I just waited until I was alone to have it.

We were finally plowed and shoveled out on Monday and went to relatives in the next town. They had heat. And light. And food. And their 5 year-old granddaughter, who was ecstatic to see another kid. And a comfy bed without 5 layers of blankets and 3 layers of clothing. I was actually hot at first. I felt bad about leaving the cats behind, because they are pampered inside-creatures who were confused as to why we were freezing them near to death.

The power came back on on Tuesday afternoon, after almost 4 days. It happened to come back on while we were home picking up the cats. TheHusband was going to take them to the vet to board them while we stayed with our relatives. But then the electricity carrot was offered once again, and this time it wasn't cruelly taken away. We waited 2 hours before committing to stay at home. No biggie, you say -- we could escape if the power went out again. Yeah, but you see we had another blizzard on Wed 2/10. Howling winds, whiteout conditions, another foot-plus of snow. But thankfully this was lighter, fluffier snow. Not the heavy wet stuff of the prior weekend. Our power stayed on. Some neighborhood kids came by and asked if we want to be shoveled out around noon on Thursday (YES!). The street was plowed sometime that evening. We survived.

We learned something too. We need to have either a generator or a kerosene heater, just in case this happens again. I want to buy some old-fashioned hot water bottles. Since we have a gas hot water heater, we could fill them and be a bit warmer at night. I realize that I will never live in Alaska, Minnesota, Vermont, or anywhere where they get boatloads of snow. I'm just too wimpy to handle it.

Scammer receives an "F"

So TheHusband and I are trying to sell our china cabinet and buffet to make room for the new furniture (arriving later this afternoon!). We put an ad up on Craigslist and got 3 responses. I replied to each of these three people. One never responded back. One was so obviously a scammer that I told him that I totally saw through him and to go away.

Here is my email exchange with the third responder:

*****************His response**************

still up for sale?

***************My reply*******************

Yes, they are still for sale. We would love to have them gone by Tuesday evening, because we are getting our new dining room furniture on Wednesday. We are accepting cash only. If you want them you will have get them out of the house yourself (it'll take two people).

Thanks,

***************His response**************

Hello,
I am glad it is still available for sale.I am very much interested in buying your item and i am ok with the price. I am only able to make payment by money order at this time b/c i am away on assignment. Please provide me with your name , address and phone number for payment. It will take about 7days for payment to get to you. As per pick-up, I will make arrangement for the pick-up within 2 business days after payment has been received by you. I don't mind adding thirty dollars so you can keep it in my favor.Please take the posting off craigslist today and consider it sold to me. Thanks

Expecting to hear from you soon.

Regards

(Great, another one of these asswipe scammers, I think to myself. It pissed me off, so I responded thusly)

***************My reply****************************

My name is Natasha Guest. My address is 7359 Wisconsin Ave, Bethesda, MD 20814. My number is (301) 652-9200.

(This name is totally made up -- don't know anyone with this name. The address and phone number are for the Bethesda, MD police station. Ha, I think, go there looking for your money...)

***************His response**************

Hello,
I have given my assistant the go ahead to mail payment to you.You should receive payment within the coming week( 6-7days time).Once payment is received we can proceed with the pickup.Thanks for your understanding and patience.
Regards.

(Hmmm. Could I be wrong, and did I miss out on selling the furniture? Regardless, I didn't respond to this email)

***************Newest email**************

Hi,
I hope you are fine and alright. I have been busy myself but doing great. There is something i think i must bring to your notice. After a reconciliation of my account, i discovered that somehow my assistant must have over paid you. The payment that was meant for another transaction was sent to you and the one meant for you was sent to another; however i want to believe i won’t have a problem with you.
Please once you receive your payment, i will like you to deduct your money and send the remaining via western union to the manager of the shipping company that will help me with the pick-up. I will ask them to contact you as soon as possible, Let me know if this is ok with you. Please contact me as soon as you get your payment.
Warm regards.

(A-fucking-ha! My initial thought was correct. I wonder what the Bethesda Police Station will do with that check...)

Unfortunately, we still have the old china cabinet and buffet and are expecting the new furniture today. Anyone want a 60 year-old Queen Anne-ish (traditional?) solid wood china cabinet and buffet that are in reasonable condition?

It's coming... (Updated)

The delivery people just called. Our new washer and dryer will be here within the next 40 minutes.

I am a bit dubious, given my prior experience with Sears washer/dryers and their delivery. There is also a new potential confounding factor. I looked up the specs online, and the online specs show the washer as 2+ inches deeper than the specs in the store said. I am now not sure the washer will fit in the closet. If it does fit in, we will probably have to permanently remove the closet door. I'll let you know in a bit how it all comes out...
_________________________
Updated at 3:00 pm

It's here and installed. The specs online appear to have been incorrect, becasue it fits in the same spot as the previous one. TH "debrained" the old washer dryer by removing the motherboard. We paid $250 for that board about 2 years ago, and it is in good shape. If we can get something for it, that'll be great.

I'll be doing a load or three tonight.
_________________________
Updated again, July 31

I've done 6 loads so far. Both the washer and dryer work really well. No internal problems to report. Annoyingly, the deliverymen installed the set further to the left than the original unit was. Because of the location, I can't open the detergent drawer all the way. It will have to be shifted over to the right eventually. Even TheHusband (with strict instructions) has run a load.

Busy weekend

My back is feeling well enough, so what did we do today? We cleaned the basement, the linen closet and some of the family room. Tomorrow we will tackle the piles in the living room and dining room.

The amount of crap that has built up is positively amazing and is a testament to my rather high tolerance level for clutter. Eventually, the crap level in my house exceeds my tolerance level, and it gets cleaned up. I wish several things: that my tolerance level was lower (so things wouldn't get quite so cluttered), that I had gotten into the habit of putting things away after using them (that's a hard habit to change), and that I just didn't accumulate so much stuff. One of my sisters-in-law has the least cluttered house ever. It is nerve-wracking for me to stay there, because I always feel that I am messing stuff up. But it does inspire me to try to be neater. Unfortunately, that part wears off quickly after a visit.

Make hay while the sun shines, I say. My back will probably start hurting again, regardless of what I do, and I took it easy yesterday and Thursday.

TheHusband is the brawn -- he does the lifting and carrying. I sort the crap out and give orders (the brains?). He says that I get to be the Rear Admiral this weekend. That's fine, because he is not a full Admiral. I'll allow him to be a (Navy) Captain. After all, that's a promotion from his rank when he left the Navy (Lt, j.g.).

I'm a grown-up now!

In reality, I still want to sit at the kids' table.

However, since I am over 40, work for a living, and have a kid of my own, I guess I'm stuck being an adult. But now I know that I've grown up. You see, I bought a dining room set. TheHusband and I have been using my uncle's mother's old dining room set since shortly after we bought our house (almost 9 years now). It is a generic set from the early 50's with mustard colored velvety upholstery on the seats. And it is rickety. TH has tightened the screws to the bursting point, but the table still is rickety, and its instability has caused drinks to spill. For it to be functional, it would need to be reglued, and the table is not worth it. So we decided to buy a new set. Actually, I decided I wanted a new set and (somehow) convinced TheHusband that he did, too. (I'm still not sure how I managed that. Wish I did, because I'd use those secret powers to get me an iPhone, I'm telling you!)

My aunt and uncle had bought a dining table, chairs, buffet, and a bedroom set from an Amish furniture maker in central Ohio, had it delivered to NJ, and were extremely happy with the products. So (after I looked their stuff over and was duly impressed) we decided to go to the same place. Mind you, this furniture-maker is ~450 miles from our house, so it wasn't a quick jaunt to check out his stuff. It so happened that his workshop/showroom is about 1 hour from my mother-in-law's house, hence the other reason for our trip to OH (as if the baby wasn't alluring enough).

We ordered a dining table, 8 chairs, a hutch, a buffet, a new coffee table (to replace the one that is about to lose a leg), and a hall table (for mail and other stuff, right inside the front door, to replace the rickety one we found in the coat closet when we moved into the house). I did have to compromise on the choice of wood and stain color with TheHusband. Why can't he be a good husband and not have an opinion? We are also considering replacing our kitchen chairs. And we are paying about half what we would pay if we bought the same pieces here in suburban DC. W00t! One of my coworkers may order a bed and tag along in our shipment, thereby reducing some of the shipping cost. Anyone else in the DC area want to order some hand-made wood furniture to be delivered in late August?

Are you sure this makes me all grown-up?