Vomit Complaint

No, I'm not complaining about vomit. Though I admit, I am not a fan.

As a general rule, I try really hard not to complain about stuff. I'm sure that I fail often. Especially when there are a lot of things going on...seemingly competing for worst or most frustrating current life experience.

Sometimes, my friends and I "complain vomit" on each other - you know, that sort of purging of emotions and thoughts that gets all the toxic worry and stuff out of your system...not usually even to be addressed, but just to keep it from saturating your brain or heart any longer?

That's kind of what I wanted to do today. Because, right now, I really really REALLY want a Coke.

As holds true for many of you, regardless of your geographic location, it's VERY cold outside. It's ridiculously cold for where I live...I'm trying to remember if it has ever been this cold. I suppose it has, but I can't remember when (watch it was last year or something - my memory is so quick to exaggerate). I woke up this morning literally because it was so cold. This is no easy task. I have a husband, three dogs, currently live in a room with little air circulation, and we all sleep in a full-size bed. As recently as the beginning of this week, I kept waking up sweating and overheated, and quite uncomfortable. However, I was woken up today by the FREEZING weather. I told My Love that I didn't think the heater was working. He was getting up anyway, so he opened the bedroom door, the dogs scuffled out, and he inspected the thermostat. It was set at 61. Granted, that's much warmer than it is outside at present, but it's no tropical paradise either. He laughed, came back in the room, and we talked...
...when all of a sudden I heard one of our dogs barking next to the window of our room. Outside.
Turns out, one of the contributing factors to the immense cold of the house was that the back door had been open for who knows how long. Our dogs ran straight out the back door, and our two biggest dogs decided to go for a joy run. They jumped the six foot fence, and ran off into the neighborhood. This is the third time this has happened (under different circumstances) since we've lived here (which has been a month).
Fortunately, I had figured it out quickly, and My Love and I scurried out of the house to our respective cars, hoping to track down our dogs before they got seriously injured or lost in the Texas tundra. This is the first time that they've gotten out that I haven't seen them. I drove all around the neighborhood (which, I'm noticing is EXTREMELY open, with a bajillion roads and paths, which makes locating runaway dogs difficult), and didn't see them once. I drove home to get my cell phone, in case anyone called (this is what happened the last time) to say they'd found them...but nothing.
Finally, I saw My Love's car, and the two faces of my escape artists in his passenger seat.

They're now in their crates for an indefinite period of time, and I'm trying to get PVC pipe to put up on the fence to try to keep this from happening again. :crosses fingers and toes that this idea will work:

I'm now about to have to go to the IRS, and see what, if any, progress has been made on our taxes, as this is holding up our entire closing on our house operation, and is causing an UNBELIEVABLE amount of stress and worry on my part. They have not proved themselves helpful in the slightest, but there's always a first time...right? Seriously, there's at least once that things work out, right?

:sigh:

My head is splitting, I'm about to take some ibuprofen, I'm freezing cold, I have all sorts of things I need to take care of (today is catch up on paperwork day), I have to go to the IRS, and all I want on this tiny blue planet is a Coca-cola.

Like that would fix it all anyway, right?

:sigh: And my little counter is only at three...can't stop him when he just got started.

And there you have it, Ladies & Gents, my complaint-vomit. Brought to you today by inclement weather, compounded stress, lack of Coca-cola, and the number 3.

**UPDATE**
I still have not had a Coke. I made it through today without it! Bittersweet victory!
Still no helpful information from the IRS. If prayer is the sort of thing you do, please pray that our taxes process in the next few weeks. We're just having to wait for now, and I'm getting rather impatient. Guess this is one of those character-building-moments.