Oh my blog, how I missed you.  Been sick for over a week with either strep
throat or a sinus infection or both.  Sore throat for a few days, fever for a
few days, cough, sneezing, etc.  Went home last weekend to drop off my tax
stuff with Dad to take over to the tax preparer.  So, we added up the numbers,
went outside and de-horned a calf, threw another load of wood into the garage
and that was it for me.  Basically, spent the rest of the weekend on the couch
wrapped up in blankets and sweating out the fever.  

Speaking of recovering, Mom is home now and recovering from her hip
replacement surgery on Jan 28th.  She spent two days in the hospital and I
visited her both evenings.  First evening she was pretty spent and a bit pale
and I had a bad dream that night that her hip popped out and she was in pain
and I was in a panic to get help.  The next night she was a little better
shape, but it felt weird talking to Mom while she had a couple of tubes jammed
into her.  I'm going to blame my sickness from picking that super bug up from
the hospital visits.  *grin*  Anyways, Mom can move around with the assistance
of a walker.  I will be anxious to hear tonight from her tonight on her
improvement this week when I call home.  Mom is still a bit unhappy with the
tradeoffs that come with the surgery, but she was in such pain and couldn't
walk normally any longer with that bad hip.  At least she'll have less pain
and more mobility.  She just can't cross her legs or bend over and grab stuff
below her knees without bending her knees, things like that.

So, in the midst of the sickness, we had a major snow storm blow into the
area.  It came in Tues night and by Wed morning we had over 6 inches of snow
everywhere.  Well, with my 4-wheeled drive option busted on my truck (found
that out for certain last weekend too), I ended up walking into work on
Wednesday.  With only about 1/3 of the people able to make it in to work,
Rockwell issued a snow closing of work at 10:30 for 2nd and 3rd shifts.  So,
everyone took off by 1pm.  Not me though, I ground out 8 hours that day. 
Like, I had anything else to do at home, I ended up having a good day of
mudding instead with Ewige.  So, I looked like a dedicated wage slave and made
a few hundred k of xp to boot!  By Wed afternoon, we had a foot of snow on the
ground, but the city snow plows made it out so people could drive on some
streets.  I even caught a break and got a ride home from a friend at work.  I
spent an hour in the morning shovelling, and another hour+ shovelling again
when I got home.  My snow piles are chest high now.  Now today they are
talking about -30 wind chills tonight and tomorrow.  shesh!  An actual Iowa
winter this year!  

So, for the past week plus, I've been skipping gym.  On the plus side, my cold
killed my appetite.  I could tell I had lost some weight, so I was anxious to
hit the gym this morning and weigh in.  I wasn't disappointed as I dropped
down to 173.  I don't seem to have lost much strength, but my endurance
dropped off though.  Hoping next week goes better to get back into the groove
and push down a few more pounds!  

Tonights blog brought to you by Rainbow - Man on the Silver Mountain