Good Neighbors!!!

WOW! The snow finally stopped falling here much earlier today and by the looks of things, I would judge that we probably ended up with about 8 inches of the white stuff when it was all said and done.

I had tried to do a little shoveling last night and this morning, Mandy went out and managed to get enough snow cleared from and around her car that she was able to get the car out and moving. She had to run a few errands -including picking her brother up as he came through on his run on the interstate and they then had to get a 5 gallon container to fill with diesel fuel or kerosene to put in his fuel tank at his house as E-beth and the kids had run out of oil for the furnace -again -over night.

Yes, it was a pretty brisk, cold night for sure and 5 gallons of fuel in a furnace when it's really cold sure doesn't last very long, ya know.

Thankfully though, while up at her brother's house, his neighbor across the street apparently was getting plowed out by his granddaughter's boyfriend, using a four-wheeler with a plow on the front and he agreed to come down then to our house and plow out as much as he could of our parking area. Mandy called and told me to go clear my jeep off and see if it would start so we would then be able to move it out for the young man to plow the area almost completely then.

Which I did and Mandy and Clate got my jeep moved and the guy showed up and plowed it very nicely so now we too have a relatively clear parking area. With, of course, a few scattered spots of ice underneath it but what the heck, it's still a whole lot clearer than it was before and at not near the amount of labor as would have been involved without this help!

Now, the next thing on my agenda was to make some phone calls to get information pertaining to my big but non-existent raise I am getting in January from Social Security. The way the papers were worded that I received about this raise and what was going to be deducted from my check  before it floats (finally) into my checking account, I wasn't sure if the money that was being deducted was going to pay just for my Medicare or if it was going to pay for my BC/BS supplemental insurance. Finally got those questions answered and I'm covered on both angles -Medicare and BC/BS, plus prescriptions and the end result is my raise will net me $8.00 less than was was getting before the raise.

Isn't that just super fantastic though? But at least it wasn't as expensive a raise to me as the one we received, oh -about 4-5 years ago when I was supposed to get about a $50 a month raise but ended up getting $35 a month less than I had been receiving. Gotta hand it to those who calculate these things, don't 'cha?

Now, the last thing on my "to do" list at this time is to find out how much it will cost me to get a new wheel bearing put in my lovely little old (but darned reliable) jeep?

Anytime I know there is some kind of automotive repairs needed I automatically start thinking about how many coins this is going to cost me and also, do I know anyone who has some really nice gold ones they'd like to slip my way too! I was just thinking about how some anonymous donor slipped a nice fat kugerrand (I have no idea how to spell that) into the kettle someplace in Georgia I think it was and that one item was reputed to be worth about $1,750 bucks. Boy, something like that and I could get the jeep fixed plus a few other repairs it could use and even get Mandy's buggy doctored up okay too -all at the same time and with enough left over to afford a case of Black and Tan beverages for New Year's Eve for me along with a lot of wine for Mandy and friends too!

Yeah, I could be generous in that instance I think, couldn't I? And wouldn't that be a neighborly thing to get some beverages and invite others to come have a drink and celebrate the onset of a new, clean, crisp year?

I'd really love to see neighbors come together like that, wouldn't you?