Cold again

So much for my efforts at keeping this blog current.  Time gets away from me--I've been going to the gym in the early mornings, to the thrift store on Weds. and Sat. mornings and to the Archives on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Yikes that's 4 days a week I've committed myself to something.  It's only mornings, though, and it does feel good to be doing something (and even getting paid for some of it).

It's 7 right now and due to drop below zero tonight.  Today was sunny and in the teens with a very cold and strong wind.  Not very pleasant.  I walked with the dogs to the Holts' house to check on a furnace issue.  That was nice but chilly.  When I went back to see if my "fix" worked I drove even though it felt sort of silly. 

I went to the movies on the weekend and on Monday.  I have 2 friends who are movie buddies, we see films together in the winter.  On Sunday we saw The Post, which was excellent but amazingly moving for me.  Reminders of those times affect me pretty strongly.  It was very very good.  On Monday we saw Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, which is also excellent but in very different ways.  It's a disturbing film but boy the acting is wonderful.  I don't like violence on the big screen so there were some scenes I didn't like but mostly I just thought it was really good.

Whew!  2 films in 2 days, that really threw me off.  I thought Monday was Sunday and that threw me off for the whole week.  Now I'm ready to have tomorrow be Thursday.  I'm meeting my friend at the gym at 6:45 (we'll go to Stewarts for coffee afterward, we are officially regulars there now).  After that it's off to the Archives, where we'll scan old photographs.  That's an entertaining undertaking, we laugh a lot and puzzle over the significance of portraits of individuals who are just named with no descriptors or dates.  "It must be important, it's in the Archives" is our joke.

The dogs are just fine but I'm irritated with Bear because I fed the birds today and he will NOT stop eating the seed that fell on the ground.  Big PIG.  They ate a lot of frozen rotten apples today and I wondered if there would be any effects, like maybe drunkenness but no, they're stone cold sober.  I had a dog who ate something that had fermented once and she got very drunk.  I didn't realize that's what it was--she wagged her tail and staggered around a bit, then fell into a deep and snoring sleep.  I asked the vet about it later and he diagnosed it easily: she was drunk. 

So we're heading back into the cold weather after a lot of rain yesterday.  There wasn't as much ice as I expected so that was a relief.  We still have plenty of snow--I always say "there must be at least a foot" but I never measure it.  I just know there's a lot on the ground and big piles where it's been plowed.  And it's winter.

I

WARM and plenty of it

Temps in the 20's these days and boy does that feel good!  We've been having a little snow every day, a couple of inches but that's pretty standard for winter.

I've had a good week, did my stints at the thrift store and Archives.  Hit the gym every day (!) and we're extending our treadmill times slowly.  We're hoping to make February a productive month both in exercise and weight loss.

Tonight I'm going to a dinner honoring the thrift store volunteers.  Am I a thrift store volunteer?   I guess I qualify but it doesn't seem that way.  I was invited (twice) so they think of me as a helper I guess.  I started in October and have missed a few weeks but mostly do show up on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  The people who are always there are remarkable and reliable.  I don't feel that I'm reliable but they do count on me a bit.

My work at the Archives continues to be fun (fun?) and rewarding.  There's a group who are enthusiastically establishing a Town of Keene Historical Society and I've been marginally involved with that.  I'm not enthusiastic or in the Town of Keene so am a peripheral figure but am there because I'm the Archivist.  It's a nice and interesting group but I can't seem to muster the enthusiasm they have.  Oh well.  Not my town, not my people.

This weekend I'll work in the Easter Loft at the thrift store then maybe get to the dump.  Sunday is a Movie Day, plans are to go with R & L to see The Post.  All of a sudden there are films worth seeing in Plattsburgh, that happens once in a while.

Life continues to be full of good friends and nice times.

COLD and plenty of it!

Boy this is getting tiresome.  Temp this morning was -15, right now it's up to 5.  At least the sun was out and warm today and there wasn't any wind.  My house would NOT warm up until I figured out that I'd shut the heat off in the kitchen when it got too warm and had turned down the heat in the living room then as well.  Duh.   I knew when I did that that I would forget to readjust the heat.  Sometimes I wonder how I find my way home.

Anyway it's been a good couple of days.  I cleaned my downstairs (well most of it anyway) and cooked for book group last night.  We had a good visit with each other and a nice discussion about reincarnation and afterlife.  Interesting what people believe, isn't it?

Today I went to the gym, that was fine and we've decided to extend our treadmilling time and REALLY extend it in February.  Can't argue with that.  I had coffee with another friend in Keene later in the morning and that was fine but I got chilled.  I came home, did last night's dishes and took down my Christmas tree.  So proud of myself!  Now I just have to take the boxes of Christmas stuff upstairs and put them away.  OK, that's for another day.  Why rush everything?  It was a good tree this year but it was looking pretty bad.  My book group friend liked seeing it and looked at all my ornaments so it was good to keep it up.

Tomorrow we're hitting the gym at 6:30 in the morning.  Today I got up at 5:30, tomorrow I'll be up at 5.  After gym and coffee I'll head to Keene Valley to edit and crop the images we scanned last week.  Much work to be done with them.  I usually work only 3 hours but was thinking maybe I'd stay longer tomorrow (bet that doesn't happen).  Wednesday is the thrift store (I have 2 boxes of donations from friends--I'm getting more and more popular as people declutter and divest).

It's supposed to warm up a bit and snow tomorrow and Wednesday.  That's OK, now that I've got my heaters turned on.  I amaze myself sometimes with my ability to forget things.

SNOW!!! and lots of it

We had rain and 50 degrees yesterday, got rid of a lot of snow but today we're correcting that.  It's snowing hard, about 7 inches so far with 6-12" predicted.  I'm voting for the 12 (not because I want it but because it seems likely).

I just did an extremely stupid thing and cleared off my car (no small task--coated in ice covered with snow) and drove to the neighbors' to see if the newspaper had been delivered (it had not).  Driveway not plowed.  Roads not plowed.  Visibility limited.  I'm a doofus.  I drove until there was a place to turn around (a mile) then came home, shrugged my shoulders and marveled at my stupidity.  I just like to know if I can get out.  Well yes I can but WHY would I want to?   I should be volunteering at the thrift store this morning but no, that's not going to happen.  We didn't go to the gym this morning because no, that would be a complicated trip to town.

Nice lunch in Plattsburgh with friends yesterday, driving in the rain and heavy fog.  A nice change from driving in frozen slush and slick roads.  Stopped at the dump on my way home.  That makes it a productive trip.

Today my tasks are cleaning tasks in prep. of book group hosting tomorrow.  We read The forgetting time, which is a novel about reincarnation.  I really liked it but Marylou hated it.  That usually leads to a good discussion so at least we'll spend some time talking about the book.  I've left my Christmas tree up for M'lou to look at but it sure looks droopy and it's definitely time for it to come down.

I worked in Keene Valley on Thursday--we scanned more than 100 photos, now I have to crop and label them.  That takes longer than I thought it would, I did half of the ones we scanned last week and didn't get that finished.  And I still have grave concerns about how exactly we're going to get these images onto the Internet.  That part is not my job, I just send the files to a library network who will facilitate the posting.  This is what wakes me in the middle of the night, HOW WILL THIS WORK?

Dogs are fine.  Treasure is a hardy soul, not stopped by cold air or snow but Bear is a wuss and doesn't like to stay out long when it's below zero.  What a baby!  I think I'M hardier than her is and I don't have a fur coat.

SUNSHINE

Oh dear I've neglected this blog.  I had intended to be a regular contributor but somehow it just doesn't happen.  Try harder!

It's a gorgeous sunny day with blue blue skies and white white snow.  Temps in the 20's, approaching freezing, really lovely.  I went to the thrift store for the morning then came home to hack away at the packed snow on my steps.  It gets more like a bobsled run if I don't keep up with the shoveling (which I rarely do).  I got the steps cleared but didn't work on the path from the door to the steps, that's a well-packed down walkway about 2" high.  I'll wait to see if the predicted rain makes it easier to clear.  If not, then what?

I've been doing my usual things--working in Keene Valley Tuesday and Thursday.  Yesterday was a long day because there was a meeting at 4 that I was asked to attend.  Man I was tired last night!  Pretty funny.  I left the dogs at home, taking a chance with Bear because he hasn't spent much unchaperoned time in the house.  They were fine but certainly happy to see me.

This morning I went to the thrift store but we couldn't open for 2 hours because of a propane problem.  That meant we sat in the basement of the church drinking coffee and visiting.  I didn't have the nerve to leave so waited until we opened, then worked a bit before leaving at my usual time.  Boy it's amazing how busy that thrift store ALWAYS is.

Tomorrow is a Keene Valley day.  May go to the gym at 6:45, may skip it.  Temps are supposed to be obscenely high and it's supposed to rain Friday just before temps drop and it all freezes.  Donny wasn't able to plow my driveway because of a truck problem so I push it in my car coming and going.  Not good but he guarantees me that he'll have it plowed by tomorrow night even if he has to use his tractor.  That would be good.

Life continues to be good, very good.  I have massive housecleaning chores to get done by Sunday when I host book group.  Uh-oh--can't do it too far in advance because then it will just get dirty so I have to wait until Friday at the earliest.  Yeah, that's right.

Last Beatles song

My favorite New Year's Day activity is to listen to "The Beatles A to Z" on a Vt. radio station.  I missed the first song but stayed until the last at 8 p.m. (it takes at least 8 hours for them to play all the songs--a very impressive catalog of recordings).  What was it?   Your Mother Should Know.  I took care of cleaning tasks, wrote some stuff, balanced bank accounts, did odds and ends of things until I ran out of things to do while listening to the radio.  You can't just sit on the couch and listen to the radio, you have to be DOING something, right?  Anyway I listened to probably 80-85% of the songs with great joy.

I've had a cold for the last few (several?) days.  I don't know where it came from but my doctor friend tells me that a cold virus can live a long time on various surfaces so that must be the ticket for me.  I don't mind colds, this one was not bad either but viruses always settle in my asthmatic lungs and I cough and cough and cough.  And now I'm out of Robitussen.  I'll get some in the morning and hope for a peaceful night.

It was -12 this morning (oh how tiresome, these temperature reports) but got up to 12 by afternoon.  It snowed for most of the day and we ended up with a couple of inches.  We're entering the Snow Zone, when it snows an inch or two or three every day.  There is more than a foot of snow on the ground now.

Friends stopped by yesterday, they were up from Albany for the day and skied on the lake.  They had an auger and drilled a hole in the 14-inch thick ice 10 feet from shore.  Some people say it's thickest next to shore and that's still not thick enough to go out very far.  I have no idea--I'm wary and just follow other people's footprints onto the ice.  It's too cold now anyway, I'm not even tempted to head out there.

It's been a busy time since I got back from RI but things have quieted down.  Today I went to Keene Val. to work in the Archives there.  There's a wonderful patron who comes in with his toddler on Tuesdays who helps me figure out how to get the scanning program to work and today he showed me how to access and edit the images we scanned when I was last there.  Thank goodness for good neighbors!  It was great to get so much done.  I'll be back there Thursday to scan more photos and the routine begins.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the gym at 7:30 then will go to the thrift store in Wilmington to volunteer.  I haven't been there in a while, since before Christmas.  Not sure what they'll need to have me do, the Christmas Loft may need some packing up or maybe there are a lot of donations that need to be stored for next year.  Who knows.  I'm less enthusiastic about working there now that I've made the commitment to work Tues. and Thursday mornings.  Maybe I'll cut back to one day a week.  Who knows.

The dogs don't mind the sub-zeros too much--Treasure wanders easily in the cold but Bear doesn't stay out long before he starts to suffer and play the "I can't put all 4 paws on the ground at once" game.  Funny boy.