I was going to go to Urgent Care after work today, because my cough isn't going away and I think I might need a steroid inhaler, but the roads were an icy mess, and Urgent Care is at the top of a really steep hill, so I decided to wait until tomorrow.

One more day of teaching, and then going to Hawaii the next day! Well, getting to Hawaii is going to take all day. Flying from here to Chicago, then Chicago to Denver, then Denver to Hawaii. (From the airport here, the only direct flights are to Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and DC. If you want to go anywhere else, you have to connect through one of those places. Two connections was the best I could do. At least I'm going in the right direction on all of these flights. There have been a couple times when I've had to go from PA to Boston via Detroit.)

You haven't noticed it, but most of your neighbors have totally gotten mixed up about trash day at least once. Half the time it's a matter of forgetting to put the trash out to begin with. And don't forget the chaos that holidays wreak on the pick-up schedule. And then again there are the ones like me who generally rememer to put it out but can't be arsed to haul the bins back in when empty.

Hil, may your travels be safe and not made horrible by your cough, and may the sunshine do you a world of good.

If your neighbors are judging you on your trash can habits, they have much bigger problems than you do.

If you're feeling uncertain about your judgment, you can always run your thoughts by us.

I forget Trash Day all the dang time. I finally gave up trying to remember and set a weekly recurring alarm on my cellphone to remind me to take the trash out on Monday evening. I set alarms and alerts for everything because I WILL forget.

At least I'm going in the right direction on all of these flights

All flights from Salt Lake to Pittsburgh seem to have go to New York, first, and vice versa. And it's not like Pittsburgh is a small place, it's got its own international airport. You'd think International airports would talk to each other.

Conveniently, my trash cans live permanently in my alley. So my issue is just if I forget to take things down to the cans in time for trash day, I may end up trying to fit two weeks of trash into the can. Which is sometimes too much.

I can't leave them out it's against the rules.

I know no one will judge me or if they do it's petty. They should judge me on the dead rose bushes I never pruned back and have been sitting out in the snow.

It's just the anxiety creeping up in my brain and it gets to be too much.

Chicago to Denver, then Denver to Hawaii

I wish you the swiftest trip to Hawaii and an uneventful return. But, if you get bogged down in Denver, let me know. I'd love to turn that into an accidental F2F.

Nope, not the rose bushes either. Besides, wouldn't you cut roses back there in late March or even April?