It's a Deep Freeze and ICE Out in Minnesota

Yesterday was "ICE Out" or "No More ICE" in the state of Minnesota, or at least in the Twin Cities area. Multiple businesses were closed, people were demonstrating against ICE on almost every corner. The fact that the weather was at -8 F also didn't help/hurt. Essentials like banks, etc stayed open, and we were open, but the day was spent on some serious remodeling. We have to do a video walkthrough of the shop for Travis, and Chickie and DH dug into things - basically doing a fairly decent remodel of the North side of the shop. It looks good - really good. There's still a LOT to do before we film, but it's starting to come together. 

Minnesota is a state where we take personal freedoms 
very seriously. The entire state united in protest against 
ICE yesterday. It was remarkable, and given the wind chills 
of -16 or more, it was done in short, but sustained bursts. 

We didn't have any customers at all yesterday, and given the mess that the store was in when I arrived from appointments in the early afternoon, I was rather grateful we had been given this day. I immediately set myself at the typewriter and worked on getting the W-2 forms typed out. DH will look them over today, and then they'll be ready to distribute so that everyone can get their taxes done on time. 

I usually try to type the W2 Forms in the very 
early morning hours when I won't be 
interrupted, but yesterday afternoon proved to be
a good time to get them done. DH will look 
them over today and then distribute them where 
they need to go. 

It's going to be early mornings and late evenings for a while now, though, as we get the store ready to close, so my daily updates might be shorter on some days. The kink for yesterday came with massively cold temperatures added to the fact that our garage door at home wouldn't close properly. I contacted my garage door people and they added us to their list of homes. They arrived shortly after noon, replaced and repositioned some sensors, and voila! The door now works once again. I am pleased about that, but it meant that I was at home waiting for repair people for the entire morning - a real waste of time in many ways. 

Automatic garage doors operate with sensors that send an 
electronic signal from one side to the other. They weren't 
communicating on our door, and needed to be replaced. 
So, the techs pulled the old ones, installed new ones, and 
pushed the new ones a bit farther away from the actual 
door surface for a stronger connection. We'll have to be 
careful when we pull out the snow blower, but I think 
that extension was a good idea. 

So, I'm heading out into the cold. It's only -16 F right now, which is a big improvement over the -26 F of yesterday at approximately the same time. We're totally into the deep freeze of Winter. Bundle up, be safe, and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.