It snowed quickly and hard last night, we ended up with 4-5 inches of white magic. not magic, just white. I was enjoying the bare ground, not always visible in early April, but now I'm looking at a landscape that is more like January. It's supposed to be 50 and raining today but right now, at almost 7 a.m. it's only 28 and cloudy. I have to go to the Holts this morning to turn up their heat--they're arriving tonight for the weekend. It will be nice to be with them, but I sure don't feel like leaving my living room right now, and it's not even that warm here. Well tough, toots, get off your butt and walk down there.
I've been to Plattsburgh too, too many times lately. Made 3 trips last week, it will be 4 this week. Dentist appointment, meeting at the Historical Association followed by lunch with Bill, emergency med. run for Jim, and lunch with Julie today. It feels like a long drive to me now, which is what is expected when you don't do it 5 times a week, every week the way I did for so many years.
So what do I do besides drive to Plattsburgh? Not really much, it appears. I email friends, I read the paper and many magazines, I watch too much television, I let the dogs in an out and in an out and in and out, I clean my house (a little, sometimes, rarely), and suddenly the day has ended. I agreed to edit the Clinton County Historical Assoc. newsletter so met with the Director there earlier this week. What exactly this will entail is unclear to me, but I'll have to learn Publisher in order to be of much help, and will have to work there in Plattsburgh because I don't have Publisher here at home. Oh boy! More trips to Plattsburgh!
Today I'm having lunch with Julie, which will be tough as she continues to deal with problems. I can assist by offering support and advice (oh I always have plenty of that) and making her laugh. Last night I visited with Pat & Jim, who are facing a crisis of their own--Jim is unhealthy and is having trouble breathing. I made and emergency run to get him some meds last night. His condition is all to reminiscent of my father's final months, but there is so much more information and so many more treatments now, so Jim will probably outlive us all.
I communicated with my friend Mary Frances yesterday, we're meeting in Cleveland soon--my pilgrimage to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I guess I take a trip every spring, last year it was to Georgia, which was a real treat. This year it's to Cleveland and Ann Arbor, again a treat. Why am I so obsessed with the RRHF? I don't really know, except listening to music has always been important to me. I'm lucky to have a life soundtrack consisting of the good music of the 60's and 70's, with gaps in the late 80's and most of the 90's. I don't like museums much but this one has been summoning me for decades. And I will be very happy to see Mary Frances, who currently lives in Pittsburgh. I haven't seen her in a very long time. We worked together in Providence and were good friends then. The gallons of Dewars we drank together were legendary.
This week included the anniversary of my brother's death. Generally death anniversaries don't do much for me--I miss my people every day--but this year, the 13th anniversary, for some reason hit me harder. My brother was a special person (but then, aren't all dead people "special?"), he was truly capable of great charm and humor and was a good big brother. A very loving person. It's too bad he didn't get to know his granddaughter, which is a shame. He did have a good life, though too short for sure.
Enough about dead and dying people.
Next week I'll have my winter tires switched, a definite sign of spring. This has to be done before driving to Cleveland, but I'm always hesitant to do it too early. I think my timing is pretty good this year, having winter tires will be awfully handy today.
And Donald Trump failed in Wisconsin. My mother conceded that, thankfully, we may not have a President named Trump after all. She's been very worried about that. I have more faith in Americans than that--time will tell whether that's misplaced faith or not. I voted this week, absentee ballot, because I'll be away for the NY primary. I also was summoned for jury duty but didn't even have to show up. Ordinarily I'd be happy to serve but the timing was all wrong for me, I am counting, absolutely counting on leaving next Saturday.
The dogs are just fine. They like snow. We have a regular visit from a snowshoe hare (we don't have cottontails here, we have giant hares), driving the dogs wild. The hare is turning brown from its winter white and is a dun color so I'm surprised that Tess can spot it in the brown grass, but every day she explodes when she sees it. I don't like to have them chase the poor hare, but sometimes I let them out, worrying that they might catch it. Doubtful, very doubtful. Anyway it's reassuring to me that Tess' vision is so good. She's barely deaf, is much like an older person who turns her head and says "Did you say something?" This is her 13th year and I feel very lucky. I think this means that Treasure will be 7 this year, but I really should look that up.
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