Winded

The Jersey Gals

Yesterday was a fairly eventful day weather-wise as winter returned with a vengeance in the form of intense winds for most of the day. It caused some serious damage at the new facility with the plastic garage doors we are blessed with. I had to devise a contingency plan where all the vehicles had to be turned around in the garage to use a different access point. I thought that was my only headache until I returned home.

Wind Damaged Door

I’ve written before about my hilltop home and the attendant winds, on a normal day. Yesterday was anything but that. I found the wind had torn my mailbox door completely off. Strangely, and unfortunately since they were all bills, none of the mail was blown out of the mailbox. As the sun was setting I got to work at replacing it – for some reason I took affront to damage; as if nature was challenging me. I need a mailbox and having a damaged one sitting in front of my house – well now we have the whole male pride thing kicked in.

The Old Mail Box

The mailbox was secured with some rusted screws that hadn’t been touched in over a decade. I was surprised when the first one came out easily but success stopped at that point as the rest of the screws were all rusted shut. It’s at this point I went to my trump card (I just realized that old saying has new connotations) – brute force and ignorance. A hammer and a chisel soon had the offending screws ruing their decision to thwart me. Unfortunately the underlying platform for the mailbox was plastic and combined with the sub-freezing temperatures was essentially ruined by my actions.

The New One

I set out for the nearby Home Depot to locate a replacement mail box and now a mounting platform as well, as the sun was setting.  I had just located these when I received an incoming FaceTime call from my New Jersey ladies. My granddaughter seemed very interested in my new location, she’s a big fan of Home Depot. I promised to continue the call when I got home. I had a decision to make when I returned as only vestigial sunlight remained to make the repair. I had to choose between that call and making the repair with some semblance of light.

My Competition

Okay it wasn’t that hard a decision to make. The First Blog Reader will always take precedence over any non-lifesaving activity. When we did connect I found that I’m fighting a losing battle in the granddaughter fascination department with none other than that Sesame Street stalwart – Elmo. I find it mildly disconcerting that I’m losing in a competition with a stuffed creature but apparently my granddaughter prefers redheads. It still warmed my soul to spend a few distracted minutes with her even in the face of her repeated Elmo chants.

Stylin With Mom

The installation by flashlight went batter than I had any right to expect, given the still ferocious winds and piercing cold. I was so proud of myself that I texted the whole family to proclaim my prowess. With middle age you have to claim your sparse victories when they come. The winds had one last surprise for me this morning as I found the bucket which had been filled with Buddy’s donations for the entire week had been blown two houses down. The bag containing the actual donations was redistributed back over the constitutional grounds. On the upside – everything I had to police up (again) was frozen solid.

That's Right

Today will be the last day I present the morale pictures at the bottom of the blog. I was going to end it last week but I received a message from Soxfather’s Sister demanding that I do so. She’s suffering under the delusion that she had some sort of editorial role on Frail Deeds or that I wouldn’t take the exact opposite course she recommended. I think I’ve made the point that despite who may temporarily reside at 1600 Pennsylvania it’s still a beautiful world and a great time to be alive. I aimed it directly at people like Soxfather’s Sister who feels that life has been irreparably compromised because we have an idiot in the White House. News Flash: it isn’t the first time that occurred. I really enjoyed getting these pictures every day and was surprised how many of the places depicted I’d been blessed with seeing in person, the rest await. Again, I’m so lucky.

Today’s Soxfather’s Sister’s morale photo injection for the last time: