A pocket for Corduroy

Sometimes I feel as if I was a child in a different country (well I was, actually). I never read Corduroy, but I did read Madeline. Today I cataloged a whole, whole big bunch of children's books/CD's. Corduroy, Madeline, Henry & Mudge (whoever they are) ad nauseum. It made my back hurt. Now I have to move on to another batch for another library. This is not my favorite part of my job.

Last night was Ken's birthday celebration. Bill & Fred didn't come because the weather was inclement. If you can have inclement weather, can the weather be inclement? Anyway, it was a dark and stormy night so it was up to me to help Ken celebrate turning 93. He is old, very old. He seemed even older last night. He spent the day receiving phone calls, which pleased him a lot. He made a list of all the people who called him and was very proud of the list.

My brainstorm for dinner was chicken wings, which is something Ken is quite smitten with this winter. I asked Kim, who has young children, where the best place to get wings would be and of course it was a seedy pizza place you wouldn't want to eat at. I don't like wings but these were ok. Ken & I had a nice time and he really liked having his birthday recognized by a meal. We ate a lot. At one point I got incredibly depressed, thinking about people who get old, or don't get old, but who die. Of course I'm thinking of my brother this time of year--more than usual, because I think of him every single day. These days I think of him with sadness and regret. And last night I thought of Ken's death, which I've also been thinking of a lot lately. Trying to prepare myself I suppose. He seems rather frail to me, and certainly seems older these days. Winter is hard on him and he's a little cross, which is totally out of character and a sign of old age.

So it wasn't the best night for me. We got about 5" of snow yesterday and that just added to my misery. I've said that I don't like March. It's really the most miserable and cruelest month. This morning it was -16 and wasn't supposed to break 0 today. Weds. the forecast for my neighborhood is -26. Warmer by the weekend, maybe into the 40's. If I make it that far. I'm still poking under the snow for wood, plus using precious pieces of my dry wood from the woodshed. I feel pathetic. Ken wants to shovel my deck in the worst way but Bill talked him out of it (he told him that, if I wanted it shoveled I'd do it myself--nothing could be further from the truth but of course I couldn't tell Ken that. I'm just lazy and sick of shoveling). Ken also prepared a box of kindling for me so that "all you have to do is put some in the stove, light a match, and you'll have a fire." It's really wonderful that he has this drive to take care of me. I feel pretty beaten by the elements by this time every winter, then March finally ends and I cheer up in April. Maybe early daylight savings will help, but the whole thing is more of a puzzle than a solution to anything as far as I can tell.

Now it's quittin' time and I have to figure out what trinkets I can get for my mother's birthday. Socks, for sure. I have a couple of books I can give her, but what else? I hate having to come up with presents just because it's her birthday, but she needs to have something to open and I can't be there this year. I can only stand to go to the mall tonight, and only a couple of stores there. If that. Must get stuff in the mail SOON if it's to get there on time, I think her mail is delivered by horse and buggy it's so slow.