Shortly after we bought our house, my parents wanted to buy us a housewarming gift and gave us a choice—a storage shed or a freezer. To us, it was a no-brainer: we chose the freezer. The refrigerator we’d inherited from Doris was one of those side-by-side units and the freezer space was shockingly small.
Price tag: $700.
Today, we bought a storage shed for the backyard. A 10×12 wooden shed that will be delivered and assembled for us in 4-6 weeks. We’ll just have to prep the space by leveling that section of the yard (it’s on a slope) and paint it when it’s finished.
Price tag: $5,400.
Err. I guess we made the wrong choice, huh? But it’s not like we had a crystal ball we could gaze into. Who knew the price of lumber would skyrocket and inflation would reach a 40-year high?
We’re going to bite the bullet anyway. We recently refinanced the house and have money budgeted for this project. Our single-car garage is full of..well, a single car. And lots of other stuff. The stuff we’ll be able to move into the shed. The car can stay. While I could just park it in the driveway alongside Tara’s truck, I’ve always been a person who believes a garage should be used to shelter a car. And before you get all huffy and ask why Tara doesn’t get to park in the garage, it’s only because her pickup is too tall and won’t fit in there.
Chivalry is not dead. But, you know, there’s no sense in both of us leaving our vehicles exposed to the elements if we don’t have to.
A few days ago, I was telling Tara about something funny that my boss had said at work. “I sniggered when I heard that!” I recalled.
My wife looked at me aghast and said, “I can’t believe you just said that!”
“Said what?” I asked, puzzled.
“That word,” she replied.
“Sniggered?”
“There you go again!”
“What’s wrong with sniggered?”
“It sounds too much like another word we never use.”
“Pumpernickel?”
“Ha-ha. Besides, aren’t you supposed to say snickered?”
“Pretty sure they mean the same thing, babe.”
They do: a partly suppressed or broken laugh. A quick Google search reveals that sniggered is more commonly used by the British while Americans tend to say snickered, but both are correct (and neither are offensive). There’s even a whole Reddit thread devoted to this. Because, of course there is.
Honestly, I didn’t even give the word a second thought. But now, I’ll probably never use it again on the off chance that I might inadvertently offend someone.
Originally, I’d planned to break out my new smoker for the first time yesterday. I stocked up on charcoal, found a nice pork shoulder roast, and read the manual. (For the smoker. The pork shoulder didn’t come with how-to instructions.)
But by Saturday morning, the forecast had changed. The 70-degree sunshine they’d been predicting earlier was replaced by temps in the 50s and, shocker, a wind advisory for 50-mph gusts. Less than ideal for my virgin smoking attempt, so I stuck the roast in the freezer-that-we-got-when-we-should-have-chosen-a-shed. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future.
Not in the next week though. We’re still supposed to get snow Tuesday night and Wednesday, though the storm track has shifted to the north. Frustrating since we need the moisture. We’ll probably end up with a couple of inches instead of a foot, but we’ll take anything we can get at this point.
There are two all-company training sessions in Wall this week, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. I’ve been assigned to the latter. There’s a chance the weather may affect those. Even a little bit of snow, coupled with strong winds, would make for a treacherous 55-mile drive down the interstate.
Trust me, that’s nothing to snigger at.
Mark My Words 
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