Ice, dishwasher, Christmas Parties, sick

Friday, I went with the Education group to Gaylord Texas Ice display. The hotel itself was worth the trip. I may take Mama back just to experience that. I may have enjoyed roaming about the hotel more than the ice display – which was extremely impressive. The theme was Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer. So, all the sculptures represented themes from the story. Each of the sculptures were done from ice. Some were quite elaborate. Many were twelve to fifteen feet tall. The entire area was chilled to 9° F. It took about forty minutes for us to go through the entire display. My hands were numb even though I was wearing gloves (which I brought). My face was frozen – so were my glasses. We were all dressed in heavy, hooded coats provided by the exhibitors. I cannot imagine the hours that went into the sculptures. The time spent by the artists in the cold of the display area. Once out of the display, it took my glasses a long time to warm up and shed the ice that had formed on them. As impressive as the display was, I do not think Mama would enjoy the cold enough to take her back. She told me the pictures would suffice. After the tour of the Gaylord and the Ice exhibit, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Shopping in Southlake – a very expensive area to shop – followed before we headed back to the office. I realized when I got home that I had been chilled all day.

Saturday, I did not feel well but I did not feel badly. Rather than go bus calling with the pastor, I stayed home and installed a new dishwasher. I ran into several challenges as I did so. I successfully disconnected the water and drain lines, expecting to pull the unit out and unplug the power cord from the wall. That was not the case. The dishwasher had been hardwired – no plug had been installed. In pulling the unit out I ripped the electrical wire out of the wall all the way up to the countertop. That turned out not to be a bad thing. Since the wire was exposed and the wall “cut”, I took the time to install an outlet, so the new dishwasher could be plugged into that outlet. It just seemed cleaner and more professional to do so. The entire process took about two hours. Part of the time was redoing the drain lines on the sink. They had been disturbed when I hooked in the dishwasher drain, but the repair was fairly easy. Mama and Victoria have new dishwasher in place now. The old on was immediately taken to the dump.

Mama and I attended the company Christmas Party Saturday evening. It was okay. The food was good. The company was good. We sat with Red and Joanna Shaw. Mama got to meet some of the new people I work with. And reacquaint herself with some of the ones she already knows. We did not stay very long after the awards were handed out. The entertainment was “Casino Night”. Not our thing. As it turned out, several couples left at the same time we did. I gave my door prize ticket to one of my coworkers since you had to be present at 10:30 to win. All of us made our appearance. I suppose that counts. We were home by 9 pm. Victoria was keeping the Echeveria kids so Erin and Sam could attend their Christmas party. Mama and I avoided another Christmas Party with the group that helped us get into the real estate business. It did not seem worth the effort in either time or money to attend what would amount to another sales opportunity for them. Some friends of ours attended. We will follow up with them to see if we did miss anything.

I had a miserable night Saturday night. Every time I tried to lay down, I felt like I was drowning in mucus. That was the beginning of what would keep me out of church Sunday. I drank hot liquids, started some antibiotics, took several doses of elderberry syrup and slept most of the day. I think I was awake and functioning for about three hours throughout the entire day. We are praying that the drainage I am battling right now does not turn into the bronchitis I seem to get yearly.  Fortunately, there is a young man attending BBTI this year who does a great job filling in for me with the choir when I am out or away. That helps. Whether or not I will be able to teach a class on Wednesday remains to be seen. I will if I can.

If I cannot, there are plenty of backups available.