It's A Waiting Game - ARGH!

I'm waiting on a final piece of equipment before I can forge ahead with my holiday cards. I really hate it when I'm stuck running in place because of equipment problems, and I truly thought I had every piece of equipment known to humankind. Apparently I do not. There is one that I still needed. So, after my score pad arrives (hopefully shipped today via Priority Mail), I'll be able to get this year's cards folded properly and then continue with the design process. I got a late start this year, and it may end up biting me, but sometimes things have to jell in my head before I can dive in. 

I ordered something similar to this - a scoring pad 
for paper folding. I have heavy cardstock that needs 
to be folded into half and I want it to look good, 
not poor. The grooves will help me to get a 
straight score and the correct shaping for a clean 
fold. Yes, I'm picky about the cards I send to you. 

Winter is returning to my area today after more than a week of unseasonably-mild temps. It was a true joy to have temps in the 60's over the weekend, but we'll be back into the 30's with snow today. (Apparently it is impossible to truly hold off winter up here in the Frozen Northlands.) Also, of course, my next door neighbor's damned tree continues to dump its leaves all over my yard and driveway. We've cleaned up after that tree three times already, and almost immediately it needs to be done again. It does NOT make me happy. It's a huge tree, and I keep hoping that it's sound - no weak core to the trunk. All I need is a weakened tree, a windstorm and bad luck to have the tree come crashing down onto MY house. The damage would be considerable, the rebuild would take close to a year, and I certainly am NOT up to crap like that. 

The tree of my neighbor is just about this big, and it could 
cause some very serious damage to our house. It's an old 
maple tree, and they can live upwards of 130 years, so I'm 
not super worries (our part of the city was started in the 
1960's) but it is a very mature tree and very thick and 
big with lots of branches and LOTS of leaves (most of 
which seem to fall onto MY property). 

Why would it fall onto my house? Although I'm sure it would clip the next door neighbor's house too, his house is north of the tree. I'm directly east of the tree, and given the fact that winds move from west to east in our part of the nation, it more than likely would come down across my kitchen and into my living room. It would be devastating, so I'm hoping the tree still has a healthy, long life, or that it's taken down by professionals if it has a rotten core. I don't think tree people have ever looked at it, but a good look might be merited. 

Apparently I did something wrong when applying 
for a duplicate social security card. I'll have to go 
through the envelope tomorrow and try to figure 
out what I needed to do differently. Did you know 
you can only get a maximum of 10 replacement 
cards in your lifetime? I had no idea, but came across 
that bit of information this morning. 

Apparently I did something wrong when attempting to get my duplicate Social Security card. I opened the envelope from SS last week, read that they were unable to process my application because I didn't do X, Y or Z, and put the mail back into my pending stack. I just couldn't deal with it. I'll take a closer look tomorrow and see what needs to be done to make it work. Not getting the card really isn't an option, so I need to find out what hoop I need to jump through and how high I need to jump. *sigh* 

Nobody is better at setting up hoops for us to jump 
through than the Federal Government. They are the 
masters of hoop jumping. Now to figure out what 
hoop I missed, and try again. *sigh* 

I hope all of you have a marvelous Tuesday. Just think - one week ago we were all holding our breaths, hoping that the votes we had cast would make a difference in this election. I'm here to tell you, no matter who you voted for, it DID make a difference. As you can tell in this election - every vote counts. So thank you for voting. Be kind, stay safe, and please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow.