But it's just a cold with a fever, I'm lucky it's not worse. I bark like a dog and can't sleep well. I was taking an antihistamine a few times a day until I read the package that said to take one a day. Oops. This is Day 4.5 and man do I feel lousy. I have a very good friend who's been coming to visit me and brought in 2 days' worth of firewood for me. The temp this morning was 5 so that is much appreciated.
I went to the holiday party Friday night (I was feeling much better then) and I'm afraid I infected about 50 people. My mother has a cough but I can't say I infected her, I think we were mutually infected. Where? by whom? Anybody's guess. We went Christmas shopping and we went to the grocery store. It's pretty pointless to try figuring out where this came from.
The party was very nice, lots of good friends and some new neighbors. There is a place on the south shore of the lake that sold for more than $800,000 and we were all stunned. I met the buyers and they seem nice enough but they're crazy to have spent that kind of money. I confessed to watching their 2 Labs from a dock on the north shore using binoculars. Embarrassing much?
Saturday I rested for most of the day but the day started at 4 a.m. I did go to AuSable, got some groceries and cold meds, gassed up the car and came home. This morning I went to the neighbors' for the newspaper but came straight home, no visit with them, just a quick hello. I don't have to go anywhere until Wednesday. Wow that seems forever from now. My friend is coming in an hour to bring me a hot toddy and a snack. She is a good friend. A very good friend. I seem to have a lot of those.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Home at last
I drove home from RI today, left there just before 10 this morning and got home around 4. It was an easy trip but there was more traffic than I'd expected. A surprising number of travelers in the North Country, there's usually very little traffic north of Glens Falls but no so today. huh.
I have a cold and cough--because of my asthma these things always settle in my chest. bark bark. I'm happy to be home. My friend came to see me tonight, bringing clam chowder, flatbread pizza and a delicious hot toddy. All were perfect. She stayed a while and we caught up on out lives and Christmases. That was great.
Tomorrow night is the neighborhood holiday party. I have many many pears, two friends sent me pears and apples for Christmas treats so will make a pear dessert. Yum.
We have snow here but have lost a lot. It rained while I was away then froze so under the 4 or so inches of snow is ice. Watch out! My house was just fine in my absence but my sump pump is temperamental. There was water in the cellar hole when I got home but I'm sure not as much as there was during the rain so that's a relief.
The dogs are happy to be home but are exhausted--it's not easy to complain for 6 hours in a car. Bear moans and whines.
We're supposed to have freezing rain in the morning but I'm oh-so-lucky and don't have to go anywhere.
I have a cold and cough--because of my asthma these things always settle in my chest. bark bark. I'm happy to be home. My friend came to see me tonight, bringing clam chowder, flatbread pizza and a delicious hot toddy. All were perfect. She stayed a while and we caught up on out lives and Christmases. That was great.
Tomorrow night is the neighborhood holiday party. I have many many pears, two friends sent me pears and apples for Christmas treats so will make a pear dessert. Yum.
We have snow here but have lost a lot. It rained while I was away then froze so under the 4 or so inches of snow is ice. Watch out! My house was just fine in my absence but my sump pump is temperamental. There was water in the cellar hole when I got home but I'm sure not as much as there was during the rain so that's a relief.
The dogs are happy to be home but are exhausted--it's not easy to complain for 6 hours in a car. Bear moans and whines.
We're supposed to have freezing rain in the morning but I'm oh-so-lucky and don't have to go anywhere.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Christmas Eve
It's the afternoon of Christmas Eve and I'm I'm in Rhode Island at my mother's house for a week. I have the dirtiest car in the state because of the snow and salt at home. A couple of people have commented on how dirty my car is. We had a lot of rain here and that helped but it still looks bad
We've had a good time together my mother Mark and I, with some shopping lots of reading, and some napping. I heard from my friends at home that most of the snow and Hawkeye has melted. There's no snow here and I'm loving the bare ground.
We have a quiet Christmas time here. Tonight we will have lobsters and steamers for dinner and then Mark will finish decorating the tree. Tomorrow morning our breakfast will be lox and bagels with stocking presents. For Christmas dinner we are having a huge roast of beef. My mother is worried that it won't thaw in time. I can't be worrying about that because I don't care. I like Christmas and I especially like our very quiet and private Christmas time. It
We've had a good time together my mother Mark and I, with some shopping lots of reading, and some napping. I heard from my friends at home that most of the snow and Hawkeye has melted. There's no snow here and I'm loving the bare ground.
We have a quiet Christmas time here. Tonight we will have lobsters and steamers for dinner and then Mark will finish decorating the tree. Tomorrow morning our breakfast will be lox and bagels with stocking presents. For Christmas dinner we are having a huge roast of beef. My mother is worried that it won't thaw in time. I can't be worrying about that because I don't care. I like Christmas and I especially like our very quiet and private Christmas time. It
Monday, December 17, 2018
Can it be true?
Am I really as ready for Christmas as I think I am? How can that be? I just mailed the last of the packages I had to ship, bought the roast for Christmas dinner and went to the dump. I still have presents for my mother and Mark to wrap but I usually do that in RI. Maybe I'll do that before I leave (but I doubt it). I've send my cards, the tree looks cute and crooked, I put up the outside lights. I do have to feed the birds and go to my friends' house to check on their thermostat and modem and do laundry there (I'm still being very careful about my water usage).
It's a cloudy dark day but the temp is 31 so who can complain. I've got chores to do around the house before leaving but I also have 3 days before I leave. I have to put the new seat cover on Bear's seat in the car--he's ripped up the cheaper one I had before, plus pulled out some of the stitching on the seat (ratpig). I have dishes to wash. Clothes to put away. Other clothes to pack. My but it feels strange to be so well organized.
It's a cloudy dark day but the temp is 31 so who can complain. I've got chores to do around the house before leaving but I also have 3 days before I leave. I have to put the new seat cover on Bear's seat in the car--he's ripped up the cheaper one I had before, plus pulled out some of the stitching on the seat (ratpig). I have dishes to wash. Clothes to put away. Other clothes to pack. My but it feels strange to be so well organized.
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Let there be lights
I finally dealt with my Christmas tree--I bought a full-sized one, which is what I do, and cut off about 2 feet of the bottom. Put lights on it and put it in the stand and on the dinner table. Only it wouldn't fit, it was still too tall. Boy did I feel stupid. OK, I cut off a bunch of the top. Plugged in the lights. Even though I checked them out BEFORE wrapping them around the tree most of the lights refused to light up. HUH??? Oh brother, what a pain. OK, this morning I drove to Peru (half an hour away) to the hardware store there, bought new lights, took the tree off the table, putting it on the floor so I could reach the top and put the new lights on it. A work of art! A thing of beauty! Well, it leans to one side and the boughs are lop-sided but it lights up and has some ornaments. The top 1/3 is empty of ornaments because I have to stand on a chair to decorate it. Which I will do maybe tomorrow. I need to hang more shiny ornaments on it, there's not enough sparkle. Every year I put on fewer ornaments and give more away to the library for their sale. It turns out there's another box I didn't realize I had, with ornaments in it. Since I haven't used them in at least 2 years I think I can give them away.
Other things I did today: fed the birds, brought in firewood (even though it was 35), fed my friend's cat, laundry, put solar lights on posts of the wood shed so I can see wood at night, watched too much TV. Not a whole lot to report on but I'm mostly satisfied. I did use up all of my WeightWatchers points for the day by 4:30. Nasty.
Other things I did today: fed the birds, brought in firewood (even though it was 35), fed my friend's cat, laundry, put solar lights on posts of the wood shed so I can see wood at night, watched too much TV. Not a whole lot to report on but I'm mostly satisfied. I did use up all of my WeightWatchers points for the day by 4:30. Nasty.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Ripe old age
I turned 66 yesterday. I'm lucky to have many many friends of many many ages, some of whom insist I am still young. Thank you, all who tell me that. I feel young. I also feel loved and fully birthday-ed. What a lot of attention and good wishes I received. I have collected a wide and wonderful crowd of loving generous kind people in my life, from my early years in Rockford to my years here in Hawkeye. Phone calls, emails, cards, messages and just a lot lot lot of attention. All making me feel fortunate and happy, very happy.
And now it's back to reality. It's -7 right now. The dogs have had their midnight snack and each went out for a short time. Quite short, announcing to me that--BARK--its cold out there and could they please be let in NOW. It will get colder before daybreak but it won't be -20, those are the temps that make me nervous. "I can remember when" is often heard here, and I do remember when we first lived in this house it was -40. I stayed home that day, refusing to put my car to the test and worried about my house. Cold and snow, snow and cold. "That's what winters USED to be like" I hear a lot. I have to agree, we don't generally have the massive amounts of snow we had in my memory here but we still hit 100 inches I think. At least that's what my plow bill indicates, at $50 a pop every time he plows my driveway--and he only plows for 6" or more.
It's a work day and there are 2 people who would like to use the resources of the Archives. OH NO! One person is researching the boundaries of the Town. I'm not sure what exactly he's hoping to find, we have a map collection in the library, not in the Archives but it's in the mountaineering collection. I'll sic Margaret on these people and she'll find something akin to what they're looking for. She's a wonderful assistant, she is actually my assistant but it's foolish to call her that. She's my colleague and does the research while I just mess around with metadata and scanned images and pleasing the Board members by being charming to them.
I have half of my Christmas shipping wrapped and packed but not yet shipped. And lying in my driveway is my tree, not yet cut to size or brought indoors, looking more like a carcass than something of Christmas. I'm hoping to get to the post office this afternoon. More like committed than hoping. Tomorrow is lunch with a friend who shares a December birthday, I've yet to wrap her presents. There will be errands taken care of in Plattsburgh too, then maybe I'll be close to completing my Christmas present-like tasks and I'll focus on the tree. In my younger days I made a point to have my tree up by my birthday but that seems less important now. The tree will be viewed by my book group in January and probably the friend I see several times a week but other than that the dogs and I will enjoy it. I like seeing my collection of ornaments, and I really like having the little colored lights on that side of the living room. Maybe some year I should just spread the ornaments on the table, surrounded by the lights. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
And now it's back to reality. It's -7 right now. The dogs have had their midnight snack and each went out for a short time. Quite short, announcing to me that--BARK--its cold out there and could they please be let in NOW. It will get colder before daybreak but it won't be -20, those are the temps that make me nervous. "I can remember when" is often heard here, and I do remember when we first lived in this house it was -40. I stayed home that day, refusing to put my car to the test and worried about my house. Cold and snow, snow and cold. "That's what winters USED to be like" I hear a lot. I have to agree, we don't generally have the massive amounts of snow we had in my memory here but we still hit 100 inches I think. At least that's what my plow bill indicates, at $50 a pop every time he plows my driveway--and he only plows for 6" or more.
It's a work day and there are 2 people who would like to use the resources of the Archives. OH NO! One person is researching the boundaries of the Town. I'm not sure what exactly he's hoping to find, we have a map collection in the library, not in the Archives but it's in the mountaineering collection. I'll sic Margaret on these people and she'll find something akin to what they're looking for. She's a wonderful assistant, she is actually my assistant but it's foolish to call her that. She's my colleague and does the research while I just mess around with metadata and scanned images and pleasing the Board members by being charming to them.
I have half of my Christmas shipping wrapped and packed but not yet shipped. And lying in my driveway is my tree, not yet cut to size or brought indoors, looking more like a carcass than something of Christmas. I'm hoping to get to the post office this afternoon. More like committed than hoping. Tomorrow is lunch with a friend who shares a December birthday, I've yet to wrap her presents. There will be errands taken care of in Plattsburgh too, then maybe I'll be close to completing my Christmas present-like tasks and I'll focus on the tree. In my younger days I made a point to have my tree up by my birthday but that seems less important now. The tree will be viewed by my book group in January and probably the friend I see several times a week but other than that the dogs and I will enjoy it. I like seeing my collection of ornaments, and I really like having the little colored lights on that side of the living room. Maybe some year I should just spread the ornaments on the table, surrounded by the lights. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
Sunday, December 09, 2018
And on it goes
It was winter today, -4 this morning, high in the teens. Right now its 11. That's not too bad because we've no wind. This house is so much nicer with spray foam insulation underneath! duh.
I've been to the gym a couple of times this week, boy would I like to get back into that routine. We're planning to go again this morning but my friend hosted a wonderful party last night and I wouldn't be surprised if she thought maybe it would be good to stay home and put the house back together.
I enjoyed the party--it was all couples but that rarely even occurs to me until I describe a group to someone (or in this case someTHING). I had too much wine and am suffering the effect of that now with a headache in the middle of the night. Someone filled my very large wine glass too full and I wasn't paying attention and drank it all. And that wasn't my first glass of the evening.
I was taught in high school journalism that one should never start a sentence with AND or BUT or HOWEVER. Do these rules still apply? Grammar rules have changed. It's always interesting to me what specific things we remember (OK, maybe not ALWAYS interesting)(but often enough). Moments, rules, events of no particular significance perhaps are seared into our brains. Like the zip code of Waterville, Maine, where my brother tried to go to college (04901), and yet I can't remember my close friends' cell phone numbers. Not even close.
I've been to the gym a couple of times this week, boy would I like to get back into that routine. We're planning to go again this morning but my friend hosted a wonderful party last night and I wouldn't be surprised if she thought maybe it would be good to stay home and put the house back together.
I enjoyed the party--it was all couples but that rarely even occurs to me until I describe a group to someone (or in this case someTHING). I had too much wine and am suffering the effect of that now with a headache in the middle of the night. Someone filled my very large wine glass too full and I wasn't paying attention and drank it all. And that wasn't my first glass of the evening.
I was taught in high school journalism that one should never start a sentence with AND or BUT or HOWEVER. Do these rules still apply? Grammar rules have changed. It's always interesting to me what specific things we remember (OK, maybe not ALWAYS interesting)(but often enough). Moments, rules, events of no particular significance perhaps are seared into our brains. Like the zip code of Waterville, Maine, where my brother tried to go to college (04901), and yet I can't remember my close friends' cell phone numbers. Not even close.
Tuesday, December 04, 2018
Now it's more like winter
It's 15 now, temps due to be in single digits overnight. And I got chilled today, darn it. I'm hoping I sure didn't get acclimated to warmer temps. No, I'm not that fickle and silly.
I've been keeping busy. really? no, not really. Mostly I just do my household things: dishes, laundry, firewood, feed the birds, shovel and hack at ice on the deck. The driveway is deep iced ruts, I drove too much through the slush of the weekend, now I deal with the results. It's hard as rocks out there.
I went to work today and it wasn't the most productive day as far as Archives tasks went but we did what we did. I met with the president of the newly-formed historical society. They have finally wrestled away the historical collection from the home of the Town Historian and it's now waiting in the Keene library for organizing and sorting and making accessible. The president of the society met with me today to get ideas on how to proceed and what to try to accomplish. I was feeling inadequate to the task but we worked out a plan and came up with some ideas on how to proceed. If it were nearer my home I'd be more involved but driving the 40-minute drive twice a week to the Archives is as much as I feel like doing (I guess).
Tomorrow I have a busy morning, stress test and EKG at 7:45. That means leaving home at 7, which isn't a problem. What is a problem is that I'm not supposed to ingest any caffeine before the stress test. I hate to be so rigid but I sure do like a cup of coffee when I get up and when I have to drive to Plattsburgh in the morning. Too bad for me. I'll survive. My instructions are to wear comfortable clothes (I don't really have any other kind of clothes) and not to eat a big breakfast (I never do unless I'm with summer friends at the restaurant in Upper Jay). OK, this will be easy.
The dogs are fine in their new collars. Bear was wearing the pink & purple one but when the new blue one came for Treasure I realized the folly of my choices. Now all is right with the world.
I've been keeping busy. really? no, not really. Mostly I just do my household things: dishes, laundry, firewood, feed the birds, shovel and hack at ice on the deck. The driveway is deep iced ruts, I drove too much through the slush of the weekend, now I deal with the results. It's hard as rocks out there.
I went to work today and it wasn't the most productive day as far as Archives tasks went but we did what we did. I met with the president of the newly-formed historical society. They have finally wrestled away the historical collection from the home of the Town Historian and it's now waiting in the Keene library for organizing and sorting and making accessible. The president of the society met with me today to get ideas on how to proceed and what to try to accomplish. I was feeling inadequate to the task but we worked out a plan and came up with some ideas on how to proceed. If it were nearer my home I'd be more involved but driving the 40-minute drive twice a week to the Archives is as much as I feel like doing (I guess).
Tomorrow I have a busy morning, stress test and EKG at 7:45. That means leaving home at 7, which isn't a problem. What is a problem is that I'm not supposed to ingest any caffeine before the stress test. I hate to be so rigid but I sure do like a cup of coffee when I get up and when I have to drive to Plattsburgh in the morning. Too bad for me. I'll survive. My instructions are to wear comfortable clothes (I don't really have any other kind of clothes) and not to eat a big breakfast (I never do unless I'm with summer friends at the restaurant in Upper Jay). OK, this will be easy.
The dogs are fine in their new collars. Bear was wearing the pink & purple one but when the new blue one came for Treasure I realized the folly of my choices. Now all is right with the world.
Saturday, December 01, 2018
Rain? Really?
They're predicting 1. snow 2. sleet/ice 3. rain for tonight and tomorrow. So far nothing is happening. We saw the sun for about 5 minutes today but that's the first time we've been exposed to Vitamin D in days and days. It didn't snow at least.
I had a good enough week. Was at the Archives on Thursday, where someone came in needing help doing research. A rare sighting.
This morning I worked in the thrift store though I only stayed until 11:30. I don't understand how the other volunteers can work for 5 hours, I just get exhausted and my feet get tired. Concrete floors, lots of walking around and standing the whole time. It was busy with shoppers and there were a lot of droppers too, lots of stuff to process when I left but did that make me stay to help the only other person in receiving? Hell no, once I decide to leave there's no stopping me.
The dogs are fine. Bear got a new collar just before Thanksgiving and today Treasure's new collar came. How exciting! Life in Hawkeye is pretty slow-paced but really, that's not exciting nor is it newsworthy.
No big plans for tomorrow. I'm very curious about the weather, it's 28 degrees right now. Will it rain? That would be nice, should make it easier to shovel the stairs and path on the deck. But then...will it freeze before I can shovel? or will it not rain at all but just freeze? OMG I just don't know. How lucky am I to have those be the questions on my mind!
I had a good enough week. Was at the Archives on Thursday, where someone came in needing help doing research. A rare sighting.
This morning I worked in the thrift store though I only stayed until 11:30. I don't understand how the other volunteers can work for 5 hours, I just get exhausted and my feet get tired. Concrete floors, lots of walking around and standing the whole time. It was busy with shoppers and there were a lot of droppers too, lots of stuff to process when I left but did that make me stay to help the only other person in receiving? Hell no, once I decide to leave there's no stopping me.
The dogs are fine. Bear got a new collar just before Thanksgiving and today Treasure's new collar came. How exciting! Life in Hawkeye is pretty slow-paced but really, that's not exciting nor is it newsworthy.
No big plans for tomorrow. I'm very curious about the weather, it's 28 degrees right now. Will it rain? That would be nice, should make it easier to shovel the stairs and path on the deck. But then...will it freeze before I can shovel? or will it not rain at all but just freeze? OMG I just don't know. How lucky am I to have those be the questions on my mind!
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