It's -8 right now and due to be -200 or so by morning. Well, it IS winter in Hawkeye, isn't it?
I've been fairly busy recently. Last week I volunteered at the Clinton Co. Historical Assoc., just for 2 hours on Weds. The project I'm working on is scanning old photographs and writing descriptions of them in a spreadsheet. It was more complicated than I'd hoped (I think what I really wanted to volunteer doing was stuffing envelopes, or something mindless like that) but I got into it, of course, and enjoyed myself. I'm going back this Weds.
After being at the Hist. Assoc. I was to meet my friend for lunch at the Thai restaurant. So there I went and sat and waited and waited. She, it turned out had gone to the Thai restaurant that's UPTOWN, while I of course was at the one DOWNTOWN. She waited, I waited, she worried, I worried, then all was well. We're having lunch again this Weds. TOGETHER.
Friday I had lunch with Barb, which was really nice. I like hearing about her family, especially since I knew her before her son was born, and his girlfriend is now pregnant. WHAT???? My little Andrew, going to be a father? Oh my.
On Saturday we had the Big Burn of this year's brush pile behind Ken's house. Everyone takes their brush, branches, etc. to the pile all summer, and in Feb. Joe comes from Georgia and the pile is lit. It took a while to get it really going but once it started, it was as impressive as always. A smaller pile this year than some years, but a nice day and good company. I went with the Holts but we didn't stay until the bitter end, we left before the hot dogs were cooked. The snow is deep but it's still powdery so at least I could walk up the hill to the fire. I had my doubts...
Saturday night I had dinner with the Holts, always a treat. Rush has started his new job in DC and they're working on the logistics of that. Right now Annie is still in NJ but she'll be in DC with Rush soon. It will be great having them there to visit, but it puts them farther away from Hawkeye.
My frozen pipes were finally fixed on Thursday. The pipe behind the washing machine split on Sunday/Monday and I finally got someone to fix it for me on Thursday. I had the Holts' house for water and shower and wash so it wasn't as disastrous as it might have been. I got good advice on how to keep it from happening again, so now I have the doors of the bathroom vanity open and the heat on in the bathroom. I'll check on it before going to bed, and if I wake during the night I'll make sure it's OK. Whew!
Joe measured the thickness of the ice while he was here, and this year it's 28" thick. A perfectly respectable number! We have had consistent subzero temps so it's not surprising that the ice would be a bit thicker than some years. It's hard to comprehend what it will take to melt all that ice. I haven't been out on the lake yet--my unsuccessful trip 2 years ago has made me a bit nervous. I did go out on it last year and managed not to fall through.
The dogs are doing well in this weather. They don't mind going out until it gets to -20 or so, then they have trouble keeping all 4 feet on the ground at once. Sometimes Tess stands in the driveway and barks at me, but I just tell her to hustle on inside. I'm not totally tired of the weather yet, probably because I'm home every day to keep the house warm. It was so awful when I was working and came home to a cold house, leaving a cold house in the morning to go to work. Now I keep a good fire going all day and it's lovely.
I'm not as productive as I hope to be but I think I'm just getting used to this new life. I do some cleaning, I cook a bit, I read, I watch too much TV and I get to be with my dogs. It's all grand, just grand.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Danger Will Robinson
It was -8 this morning and everyone is hysterical about the dropping temps tomorrow and tomorrow night. Lots of publicity for wind chills of -40 to -50. Well, I don't have much faith in wind chill--all I know is that if it's windy and below zero it feels very cold. At least we're not supposed to get the blizzard that's expected south and east of here. It snowed all day but we only ended up with a few inches.
I had an exceptionally lazy day. Up around 5, warmed up the house, talked to my mother then went to the dump. Took a long way home just because I like to do that. Then I settled in for the day and really did practically nothing but watch TV and pet the dogs. The dogs took off the other day and were gone for 2 1/2 hours. I was worried but had tracked them down Old Hawkeye Rd past the Holts so at least wasn't worried about cars. They came home, finally, but poor Tess was really lame for the rest of the day and into the next day. She's good now but certainly does move more slowly than she used to. I think about life without her, which will be hard for Treasure and me but I guess his is how I work my way into dog euthanasia.
I have the tail end of my cold now, a nagging cough and congestion. I went to Saranac Lake and bought good cough med. and more Sudafed so I keep everything under control. It's just lingering now. I finished the book I was reading last night. The author's name is Celeste Ng. How do you pronounce that? Ng. It was a good book but pretty depressing. Nicely written. Now I'll start the new Anne Tyler book IN PRINT. I've been using the 2 Kindles I have--one is an old one, borrowed from a friend, and the other is my new Fire. It will be strange to handle a book again. I bought a copy of the book thinking I would read it then send it to my mother, but she needed something to read so I ordered several books for her, including Anne Tyler. She (like me) has a house full of books but likes to read NEW books. I'm keeping a list of books to read, or at least read reviews of. Collection development was one of the favorite tasks of my job so I still have a keen eye on book publishing, I don't know how long I'll keep this up, but it's fun now.
No big plans or tomorrow or Monday. I'll see P&J tomorrow and probably not leave the house much on cold, cold Monday. I feel so very fortunate to be at home during this weather, keeping the house warm and the stove stoked. I have 2 commitments next week, 1 is volunteering at the county Historical Association and the other is lunch with Barb. YAY.
I called some friends the other day and found out that one of them was just diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. That was pretty depressing news and I haven't really taken it all in yet. Our friend Barb N. is doing better, I hear, which is fantastic news. I know we need to expect problems and illnesses as we age, but it sure is a drag.
Dogs are just fine and such good companions. I had a long talk with Annie yesterday. She & Rush are in Calif. while he accepts his new position at the AAAS, having spent 2 weeks in Yosemite before going to San Jose. Their lives will change dramatically as they will gradually move to D.C.
Happy Valentine's Day. Mark sent me a new toy and some candy and my mother sent me a card addressed to ASF Frozen Northland, Snow Country USA. That address was on the inside, of course--although I sometimes get mail with strange addresses, I don't think that one would have made it to me. Maybe, though.
I had an exceptionally lazy day. Up around 5, warmed up the house, talked to my mother then went to the dump. Took a long way home just because I like to do that. Then I settled in for the day and really did practically nothing but watch TV and pet the dogs. The dogs took off the other day and were gone for 2 1/2 hours. I was worried but had tracked them down Old Hawkeye Rd past the Holts so at least wasn't worried about cars. They came home, finally, but poor Tess was really lame for the rest of the day and into the next day. She's good now but certainly does move more slowly than she used to. I think about life without her, which will be hard for Treasure and me but I guess his is how I work my way into dog euthanasia.
I have the tail end of my cold now, a nagging cough and congestion. I went to Saranac Lake and bought good cough med. and more Sudafed so I keep everything under control. It's just lingering now. I finished the book I was reading last night. The author's name is Celeste Ng. How do you pronounce that? Ng. It was a good book but pretty depressing. Nicely written. Now I'll start the new Anne Tyler book IN PRINT. I've been using the 2 Kindles I have--one is an old one, borrowed from a friend, and the other is my new Fire. It will be strange to handle a book again. I bought a copy of the book thinking I would read it then send it to my mother, but she needed something to read so I ordered several books for her, including Anne Tyler. She (like me) has a house full of books but likes to read NEW books. I'm keeping a list of books to read, or at least read reviews of. Collection development was one of the favorite tasks of my job so I still have a keen eye on book publishing, I don't know how long I'll keep this up, but it's fun now.
No big plans or tomorrow or Monday. I'll see P&J tomorrow and probably not leave the house much on cold, cold Monday. I feel so very fortunate to be at home during this weather, keeping the house warm and the stove stoked. I have 2 commitments next week, 1 is volunteering at the county Historical Association and the other is lunch with Barb. YAY.
I called some friends the other day and found out that one of them was just diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. That was pretty depressing news and I haven't really taken it all in yet. Our friend Barb N. is doing better, I hear, which is fantastic news. I know we need to expect problems and illnesses as we age, but it sure is a drag.
Dogs are just fine and such good companions. I had a long talk with Annie yesterday. She & Rush are in Calif. while he accepts his new position at the AAAS, having spent 2 weeks in Yosemite before going to San Jose. Their lives will change dramatically as they will gradually move to D.C.
Happy Valentine's Day. Mark sent me a new toy and some candy and my mother sent me a card addressed to ASF Frozen Northland, Snow Country USA. That address was on the inside, of course--although I sometimes get mail with strange addresses, I don't think that one would have made it to me. Maybe, though.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
I have a cold and sound like death warmed over. I finally got some good drugs and can smell again and can almost hear at normal levels. It's not a bad cold, not one of those that makes you feel really, really awful. It's more of an inconvenience and how can I complain when I have a wood stove, 2 dogs and all the time in the world to convalesce with? Ah, life is good.
We celebrated Jim's 80th birthday in good style at Mainely Lobster with a great showing of family members. The food was great, everyone cheerful, and the roads were slick but passable.
Today we saw the sun for the first time in a while. It felt warm and very strange. I went to Plattsburgh to have lunch with my friend Julie and did a little grocery shopping for P&J while I was in town. Julie was having horrible headaches, had a CAT scan done and it came back abnormal so she saw a neurologist this week. I was pretty hysterical, having just lost 2 friends to brain cancer in the last few months. Anyway, she's fine and has no tumor nor is there anything really wrong with her. That was a huge relief. She's still at CEF so I counsel her on how to be still at CEF. The woman they hired after I left is now installed at my old desk and Julie finds this very depressing. I don't blame her, we were very dependent on each other for humor, sanity, and sage advice. Well life goes on.
I had a doctor's appointment in Plattsburgh on Monday, did some grocery shopping then. Yesterday I went to AuSable to mail some things. Yes, I'm still running the roads. I have no plans for the rest of the week, or the weekend--so many days with so little to do! Next week is the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, an annual favorite of mine. I record the whole thing and wallow in different dog breeds. I love it. It must be incredibly boring to the normal human but I love watching dogs being paraded around by odd looking people.
It was -3 this morning, now is 17 and not bad. Apparently it's supposed to be -15 (or more) soon. I've used up my Ken wood and am now burning the wood I bought last summer. It's not as good, of course, but is good wood nevertheless. It's not in the wood shed so I have to dig it out from under huge piles of snow. Ah, it's good for me! I haven't walked the dogs in weeks, haven't done much of anything myself since Duncan & David left last week. Joe comes soon, which will be a grand and welcome distraction.
The dogs are great. I shut Treasure's head in the rear window of the car today, which startled and scared both of us. She's so skittish anyway, it was very dramatic. They run off once in a while while I'm getting wood but they don't go far or stay away long. Someone was in the bog the other day so maybe they broke trail and I could walk the dogs in there. If it ever warmed up I would maybe do that. Or not.
Thursday, February 05, 2015
Sunny February day
I had a nice morning drive. I went to Saranac Lake to check out the ice palace, then came home the long way, over Whiteface. It was really pretty but the dogs got pretty bored.
My friends who were here at their camp left yesterday. I miss them already--it's nice to have them in the 'hood and I truly enjoy being with them. They launched a small rocket with a camera attached and showed me the videos of their 2 launches. It was soooooo nifty. At one point, as they were getting ready for lift-off Duncan said "Godspeed little rocket." I laughed hard at that one.
I haven't been doing much. I cleaned my house (sort of) and yesterday I cooked breakfast for my friends. We had a good visit and lots of fun, then they left. Aw.
Monday I stayed home because we had a good storm. We probably got a foot of snow, light fluffy stuff that wasn't hard to shovel. I got plowed out around 3 p.m. and had a nice chat with my plowman. He's sweet and very reliable. It's so liberating to have a foot of snow plowed from your driveway.
Tuesday I went to Plattsburgh for groceries and to pick up some pictures to send to my mother. No pictures worth posting here, just pictures of dogs and the car. I got to have coffee with my friend Julie. I miss her a lot--we worked together for 28 years and share a similar view of the world and that workplace.
Yesterday after breakfast I went to Wilmington to see Marylou. She's been out of work for a while due to sciatica but is back working part time now. It was good to see her and we had a nice visit. I see that I spend a lot of my time finding people to visit with. But I am not lonely, I still enjoy being alone. My dogs are constant companions, and good ones, too. Life continues to treat me well.
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