Ugh. It has been SO COLD lately. Like...record low temperatures cold. When we woke up this morning, the temperature was -16°F. That's the actual temperature, not the wind chill (or what it feels like outside). According to my weather map, the wind chill this morning was -32° F. We also got about 3-4 inches of snow over the weekend. Oh and on top of that? The power company is asking everyone to conserve energy and are implementing rolling outages for about 30-60 minutes to help prevent unplanned outages that can last hours and even days. Our internet has also gone out a few times since the inclement weather started...which doesn't work very well when working from home. Needless to say, it's super fun times in the Midwest right now. :P
Speaking of fun times (not!), we finally got our car back from the repair shop. What. A. Mess. Our experience with the insurance company (GEICO) was fine...everyone we spoke with was extremely nice and tried to be very helpful. However, the Collision Works place that GEICO uses for their Auto Repair Xpress® program...well everyone we talked to was nice, but their work was not.
The first time we picked up our car, the hood was off and they completely missed the fact that the windshield washer reservoir was cracked. So we took it back. We picked it up again, and it was making horrendous noises (we realized there were rocks all over the engine bay flying around while we drove) and the hood was still off. So we took it back AGAIN. And then it snowed...so we haven't really had much chance to inspect it, but I know the hood is still up on one corner. And when I went to the store the day after we got it back, I saw that there is still glass all over the dash and on the floor despite "glass cleanup" plainly listed on the estimate. But...that's whatever. The vehicle seems to be running fine...I just don't know that I'd choose to use that shop again...especially when it's pretty far from where we live and we had to go back up there multiple times.
OH! And Hertz Rental car was a horrid experience as well. I'd contacted GEICO about the rental and the woman on the phone was super nice and had everything ready for us to pick up the car...which would be paid for by GEICO since it's part of our insurance coverage. I called Hertz to confirm everything, and they said they only had a little compact 2-door Chevy Spark. The guy said they should have standard size vehicles the following day...and to call and check the following morning. I also confirmed with the guy that my debit card would work to reserve the rental...and he said it would. So the next day, I called and there was a standard-size vehicle available so my mom drove me up there to pick it up while Johnny was working. Luckily she did...because we ended up having to use her credit card because they wouldn't accept my debit card. Ugh. Then it was a nightmare trying to extend the rental when we had to take the car back. The first time I called, the woman on the phone said it would charge another $50 deposit if she tried to extend it, so she would just make a note of it. Then when we had to take the vehicle back again, the GEICO claims adjuster said that he would take care of extending the rental...and sent us a message saying it was taken care of until the 20th. However, then I started getting calls, texts, and emails from Hertz saying that the rental was "seriously overdue." I called them and they weren't even showing that it was extended beyond the first five days we were originally scheduled for the rental. It took MULTIPLE phone calls between Hertz and the claims adjuster before it was finally taken care of...the day we picked up the car for the final time. We were told that we could leave the rental at GEICO's repair place and they would return the rental...so hopefully that works out like it's supposed to. UGH. What a mess!
I let Ashlyn spend the night with XH's parents over the weekend. She hadn't been since Christmas and when she comes home, we make her "quarantine" for a few days just in case. They didn't have school Monday for President's day and then school was called off today because of inclement weather...so she was able to stay until this afternoon. Tomorrow they'll have remote-only because of the cold weather...but Ashlyn has been doing remote-only all year so that's no different for her. She is still really liking her journalism class...and so far she's been doing well with social distancing (it was an issue during drama club in the beginning of the year). We also ordered her class ring last week. WHAT?! I can't believe I'm ordering the last class ring...my baby is growing up so fast!
Other than that, things have been same ol' around here. Johnny is still working from home. This is his last week of training for an additional "department" type of thing...so after that we can go back to sleeping in a little longer since he'll be back to his regular hours. I wasn't able to get any files last week but I picked up three files today totaling 156 minutes (and I'd gotten one 156 minute file two weeks ago). So I'll be busy with those over the next week. I'm planning to make Cheez-it Fried Steak in the new PowerXL sometime this week and something with chicken since I have a whole package of chicken breasts. I'm sure I'll make spaghetti at some point as well...that's a typical staple in our house.
I'm definitely ready for spring to bring warmer weather, that's for sure! Bozley loves the cold weather and the snow though. After it snowed, he would go to the back door every 5-30 minutes just to go roll around in it and come back in...then do it all over again. He really needs to go to the groomer...but I keep waiting until it isn't snowy or muddy outside so the freshness lasts a little bit longer. :P But his toe floofs are starting to get pretty long!
Well...I should probably get back to work! :)