At Least The Days Are Getting Longer

That's what I tell myself. It was -4F this morning at the school bus stop. We get a bit of a respite, then back into the deep freeze starting Thursday night. Saturday morning the weather geeks are saying it could be -13F and cold temps could stick around for 7-10 days. Sigh. On the whole, I'll take cold weather over hot and humid weather. (Here's a tip for you. When it gets cold, wear more clothes.) The problem with both the extremes of hot and cold is that it limits my biking. I've gotten to the point where I can manage about 10F on my bike for an hour at a time. My feet get cold, but the rest of me is fine. When it gets colder, my feet are uncomfortably painful, and I get the old ice cream headaches. When I'm not biking, I find the cold weather rather invigorating, if the wind isn't blowing hard. Then all bets are off. It was actually pleasant this morning at the bus stop with the kids. For the next week or however long the cold snap lasts, I'll be spending quality time in the basement with my trainer bike. Ick.

TOYH's interview yesterday went very, very well. It looks promising. She's excited about the work she'd be doing, and the company seems like a good outfit. They are one of the few, perhaps the only home health agency in the metro that deals with their clients' mental health and medical problems not strictly defined as mental health issues. It drives insurers nuts. They want visits to be limited to medical or mental health. (Note to self: another reason to despise the insurance industry - mental health is not considered a medical condition.) There is also a great deal of autonomy for the nurses. They schedule their own appointments with clients and management isn't looking over the nurses' shoulders all the time. No weekends, no holidays, unless you want to carry a pager and be on call those days. A full time appointment would not be available until sometime in March, but she would be able to start part time soon. A formal offer has not been extended, but the Director of Nursing said that TOYH would be a perfect fit for them.

When TOYH moves into full time work, we are left with the issue of the Massage Parlour. It doesn't make any economic sense to keep it open, although she'd like to be able to keep working with a couple of her long time clients. I suppose she could do it if she wants to net about a buck fifty an hour after all her expenses are paid. Enter the serendipitous phone call. A friend of TOYH's who is a massage therapist/personal trainer asked about the space. She's interested in working on her own and needs a place to set up shop. This would be perfect. If TOYH has the time and energy (that's a big if) to do a massage here and there, she can just rent the space for an hour or two from Jess and everyone would be happy.

Now if we could get Madster and 'Nika's school placement to fall into place like TOYH's work situation seems to be, life would be a lot less stressful, I think. We went to the Mpls school placement fair on Saturday to talk with folks from other schools. We added one possibility and subtracted another one from our list of potential schools. Whatever we decide, we're really going to have to work the system hard to get them moved. The district discourages moving around, for good reason. But we think we've got better reasons for moving the kids to a different school. We'll see what happens.