Snow Day Mark 2

I didn't go to work today. it was a combination of things: the garage didn't finish working on the Toy yesterday (they'd had to order a part); DH was already committed to collecting his mum from the airport and driving her home; and due to the weather, the rail service has been operating an emergency timetable, which I can't rely on. (I checked the rail company's website last night before I went to bed and again this morning - it was impossible to work out when our trains were running. We may or may not have had one train an hour.) I emailed my boss at 6.30 this morning to tell him I wasn't coming in and that I'd take the day as leave. For a while, I kicked myself that I didn't bring home the company laptop on Tuesday night when I knew the weather would be bad - I'd looked at it, commented about it to my assistant, and then packed it away as normal.

Eventually I gave up worrying about work, logged out of the company webmail and got down to some serious day-time TV watching. Oh, and knitting. I've almost finished a pair of Baudelaire socks in UK Alpaca's Alpaca Sock Yarn (colour: charcoal). They're my first toe-up socks. I hope to wear them to work tomorrow (who needs to block socks?) so will photograph them when done.

It snowed yesterday until mid-afternoon. My poor MIL has suffered a temperature shock, flying in from the Gulf to sub-zero temperatures. Yesterday, she was sunbathing; today, she's sitting by the fire, wearing her warmest clothes to keep warm.

We've scattered dishwasher salt on the front step in an attempt to stop it icing up. Amazingly, it worked, dissolving the layer of snow that covered the step and the snow that landed after we salted. It's also killing off the resident moss and weeds that have colonized the mortar between the bricks that make up the step.

The Toy was ready for collection at 3pm today. The cause of his knocking noise? One of the rear tyre has worn badly on the inside and distorted. I was lucky it didn't blow out. The mechanics don't know why this has happened. Whatever caused it has happened since the start of August, when he was last serviced and they rotated the tyres. I asked about wheel alignment and camber (tilt) and they say that it isn't possible for the rear wheels to go off "true". The joints aren't built that way.

Sadly, with the Toy fixed, I have no excuses. It's back to work for me tomorrow.

- Pam