well hello 56

yesterday i turned 56. i was pissed on tuesday nite before going to bed - i hated it that it was the last day that i would be 55. i rather liked that double nickel age. but 56? well, it even sounds boring.

on my last night of being 55, we were slammed with 20" of snow, so when i arose on the first day of my 56th year, the world was covered in white. first off, i was bit torn with this, cuz i do hate the snow, but on the other hand, any shade of white is my favorite color - but definitely HATE the snow.

i downed a couple cups of very strong coffee, donned my jeans, sweater, down vest, coat, ear covers, gloves, and uggs and off to start the digging out in 1-degree temps. not long after, the malemate joined me and we managed to get it half done. we went in, thawed out for a couple hours, and then went back out and finished the drive.
it was tiring. cold. and i was in a pouty pissed off mood.

i came into the puter room to check on work only to find that i was having network problems. i isolated it to the router. i got on the phone with linksys. the foreigner is doing her 20 questions that have nothing to do with the hardware. finally she comes back and says i see that your 90-day free phone support has expired - and before she had a chance - i just said, "i guess we are done talking then." click.

pay for support or go buy another router? well, buying another router is by far the cheaper option plus i would get the free phone support for another 90 days.

by this time, i am really getting pissed off about what a crappyCrappyCRAPPY birthday this is.

i tell the malemate that i am going to walk to walmart to get a new router. he said he would go with, but that we should be okay taking the suv. so, for the third time, we bundled up in the layers of clothing, opened the garage door, got in the suv, started up, backed down the now cleaned off driveway, straight into the 20" deep snow of the street and, OF COURSE, we got stuck.

again, we grab the shovels and proceed to dig the suv out. got it dug out and pulled it right back in the garage.
clearly, i am not going anywhere on my day.
i stomped back in the house.

i went back to the office and started messing with the router settings once again.
finally, i just did a reboot on it - and miraculously, everything came back up - EVERYTHING - even my blackberry - which had NEVER connected to the router!

okay, so now i'm in a little better spirits.

then the malemate calls out that lunch is ready. he had made us his GREAT bacon burgers.

by now i'm starting to actually feel happy.

later, after i had showered and was winding down and had settled on the couch with a scotchie in hand, the malemate sits down on the other end - he grabs the lotion and tells me to give him my feet - he said, "afterall, it is your birthday and you should have a foot massage."
why yes indeed!

okay, at the end of that, i was feeling loved AND happy.
it ended up being a very good start to the 56th year.