Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. Feels like it was just a week or two. Time flies when you are having fun I guess. And I am having fun, still loving it up here.
Nothing too terribly exciting has happened. I've just been settling in and dealing with trying to get money from my previous landlord. He acts like every penny he has his life depends on it. The agreement was that he would buy the heating oil back from me. That has nothing to do with the fact that I broke my lease. I turned the cabin over to him the end of January and realized he had yet to give me any money. I wish he had email so I could just email him but he doesn't. I bit the bullet and got his voice mail thankfully. I left a nice message that I was just checking. I did drive by the old cabin and it looks like he did get it rented so I mentioned that as well. I just basically asked for a time frame of when he would be sending me some money. He called the next day and I let it go to voice mail. He called right back so I figured he was wanting to talk to me and not leave a message but I still didn't answer. Turns out he left two messages, one saying he had just sent a check to partially cover the heating oil and my deposit. That really surprised me because I wasn't expecting the deposit back since I broke the lease. He also made it sound like he is going to refund me the rent I prepaid. Well that minus the time the cabin wasn't rented which was about two weeks. So hopefully I will be getting a nice chunk of change back from him. Goodness knows I need it. Anything helps right now. His second message was that while he agreed to pay for the hotel when the heater went out, he's never done that for anyone before, blah, blah, blah. He asked me to call and let him know how much the hotel was. I called him later and again, thankfully, got his voicemail. I told him how much the hotel was, thanked him for covering it and let him know that I felt it was the right thing for him to do. I mean come on, you can't expect your renter to stay in a cabin at -30 with no heater! Anyway, the drama is all coming to an end soon. I did get the first check today. I will be anxious to get the rest.
I had been without a toilet in my place. Just before I moved in the heat went out and the water in toilet tank froze and cracked the tank. My landlord told me that they could just buy a new toilet or replace the tank. They had done a lot of research and this toilet was the most efficient they had found. I told them I was fine waiting. I just a camping toilet (a bucket with a bag in it lol) and was using that. It was a step up from an outhouse no question. Well, it took forever for the tank to get here but it finally did. I'm glad I waited. It's a good system but it is so nice to finally be fully back to indoor plumbing. :-) Needles to say my mom is very happy to hear that as well.
Thursday I had one of those mornings. I woke up early and couldn't sleep. I just tossed and turned and dozed. At one point I started wondering if my alarm had gone off. In the mornings I never remember hearing my alarm and turning it off, I just know that it happened and I get up. Sometimes I freak myself out thinking that it did when it didn't. I looked at the clock and it was 7:21am, I get up at 7am!! Not good!! I immediately decided to forgo the shower because I could take one at work during lunch. I went downstairs in my pjs, shorts and a t-shirt and let Clara out. I turned the light on her collar on and could see her through the windows in the front of the cabin. She went to the back of the cabin so I went to the kitchen to watch her through that window. I got there just in time to see her take off full blast towards the front of the cabin. I went back to the front and saw her running full speed down the driveway. I ran out onto the deck and yelled but of course when she's in hot pursuit, she hears nothing. Thankfully no one was coming down the road because she ran across it without even slowing down. She proceeded to run down the neighbor's driveway. I could tell that she was chasing something but couldn't tell what. It was either a dog or a moose. No idea. I put on some mesh shoes (no socks) and took off after her. We had gotten about 4" of fresh snow that night. As I got to my neighbor's driveway, I could see the light on her collar down by their garage. Then I started hoping the neighbors didn't see me or hear me. And I really hoped they didn't come out with a gun. I snuck up to their garage and couldn't find Clara. I started freaking out about her going off into the woods. Nothing I could do but wait for her to decide to come back. Or that she was behind the neighbor's house and I was going to have to snoop around their house looking for her. As I walked past their boat I saw her just wandering around sniffing, as happily and oblivious as can be. I was so relieved and so mad at the same time. I picked her up by the nape of her neck. like a mother does with her pups, and carried her back to the cabin that way. She knew I was not a happy camper. As I walked across the road and into my driveway, I stepped off the side of the road into a snowbank knee-deep into the snow, wearing mesh shoes, no shocks and shorts. OMG I was soooooo not happy. I decided at that moment that screw it, I needed a shower and I would just be late to work. Turns out I was only 3 minutes late after all that!! I couldn't believe it. Luckily the morning was the low point of the day and the rest of the day went fine.
So you might have noticed the picture of me and Richard Simmons. He came to Fairbanks for an American Heart Association deal. I ran in to him at the gift shop at the hotel and he said hi to me and chatted a bit. Then he said "Look at you, you look so warm and cuddly" and he came up to me and rubbed his hands all over my chest and gave me a hug. I was laughing so hard. I had my friend take a picture of us. It was too funny. He's too funny. One of the most hysterical people I've ever met. He is same in person as he is on tv. I really admire him. He is who he is and he makes no excuses or apologies for it. If you have a problem with that, it's your problem. We could learn a lot from him. Oh, and while it has "warmed up" to +10 (I know it's all relative) he was wearing his short shorties!
It's gorgeous out today. Sunny and beautiful and -2 out. I love days like this. Our days are definitely getting longer. We are over 8 hrs of daylight now and still gaining about 7 minutes of light a day. Summer is still a ways off but this is a great time of year.
Here is the link to the YoutTube video of water at -40. It's a crappy video. I'll have to wait until next winter to try to get a better one. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ8Bs2UFRLE
I hope everyone is happy and well.
