Ummm...snow yesterday....more snow today...

The forecast for today is somewhere around 8". On top of the 2" we got yesterday. On top of the 327" we've had since the beginning of the year. (that might be a SLIGHT exaggeration, or not!) I still love snow, but even I, a die hard fan, is having a bit of a tough time with the sheer quantity of it that's been coming our way this year.

I've started researching health insurance plans on the possibility that I may still very well be unemployed at the end of February when my COBRA kicks in. I haven't received the official COBRA letter from my last job, but I suspect it will be more than I can reasonably afford and I'll need to find another alternative. Unless Congress restarts the subsidies from last year. Or John's company magically gets a decent plan that allows for an "individual plus 1" plan (because it's silly expensive to add me to his plan - it has to be a family plan for the 2 of us). And for the first time in my life I have a pre-existing condition and a state law that says I must have insurance, cost be damned.
I've been watching the progress of the icicles on the house lately. They are a dangerous thing of beauty to me (one almost fell on me the other day!). I love how clear they are and how they are all different. So pretty!
A shot of the temperature on Monday. At 9:30 in the morning. Which means it was about -10 when I let the dogs out at 4:30 in the morning. And it warmed up to a whopping 5 by the end of the day. Thank goodness there was no wind! Good times! (NOTE: While I love snow, I don't like really cold weather)
And this is the nut that still crams herself under the coffee table and then tries to stuff her big head through the opening to chastise us and get us to play with her. She's doing her weird growl/chatter in this photo and won't stop until someone acknowledges that she's there. And she'll move from the opening near me to the one near John just so no one feels left out! She's just not right...

John is heading back from Maine today. It was just an overnight, but it was good for me to have some alone time. The past few days have been hard and I'm struggling with the situation I find myself in. The call about a job that was set up on Friday never came. And that was OK because I really suspected that I wasn't truly qualified for the position. But I have applied for a few jobs that are just what I used to do and have heard nothing. I know the process is slow, but it's hard to wait right now. I want to work. I want a job that I can enjoy. I want to be a productive member of society. I am feeling frustrated because it seems that all the jobs are at least an hour away. I don't live in a rural area. It shouldn't be this hard to find a job that doesn't require me being out of the house 12 hours a day. I'm mad because I feel that all my prior work experience means nothing. I worked so hard to get to the level where I worked for the key people in a firm. I am by no means an entry level candidate. But the pickings are slim for anyone who wants to make more than entry level pay. ARGH! I know that things will turn around and that these feelings are just part of the process of dealing with the changes, but I want it all to be better now.

There is a bright part to this time off. This time I have been good about using the time wisely. My kitchen cabinets are on their way to being spectacularly clean and organized. I've taken care of a pile of personal filing that has been growing for a year. Yesterday was the first day in a week that I've kind of dropped the ball on productivity. I ran to drop off John's work FedEx and get a few things at the grocery store. And then it was home for too much computer time and getting set up to do some scrapping. I didn't do much more than organize the things I want to work with, but it's a start and I'll take that.

Today, it's job applying/following up and working on this project: Special Delivery: Share Your Love. I can't think of a better way to use some of my downtime.

Sorry for the epic (and mostly boring) post. It'll get better...