A Little Freeze

Photo: Eric La Fountaine

I'm having a weather doldrums.  It's cold, it's foggy.  Tiny little flakes of frozen fog fall intermittently.  I'm sleepy and feel like hibernating until Spring.  Still I got showered and am ready get out and about.  This Wednesday is the day to grocery shop and visit.  Not my usual day but our week of predicted below freezing temps with fog has been amended to include a day and a half of freezing drizzle beginning tomorrow.  Flat as our terrain is it sounds nasty to drive on.  We used to get what was called silver thaws in Portland, Oregon when I lived there as a child.  It usually left everything covered with ice including pedestrians and bought down wires and tree branches.  I remember walking home from the bus stop and in five blocks had icicles hanging on me.  This sounds similar.  Still, I am glad we are not shuffling through 2' or even 2" of snow.

Last night I watched two of the Swedish versions of Wallender on Netflix.  I'm hooked.  I liked the BBC one with Kenneth Branagh but I like these better even with subtitles.   Started doing stretches and some exercises while I watch.  Ever since I spronged my back last summer I can't sit for very long, films in the theater are still out, the grandkid school concerts are a bit of a rough go too.  So every 15-20 minutes I rise like bread dough and knead myself.

I just started reading Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon's mysteries.  My friend Nancy loaned me a whole grocery bag of them.  I'm finishing up the second one, better than the first.  The writing is better, nice turns of words.  Things I wished I'd said.  The books are all set in national parks.  The first was in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, a park that was new to me.  The second is in Isle Royale in Michigan.  I love that I can look each park up on web as I begin the book, checking out the maps, campsites, and history.  And pictures!  Especially the pictures.  Makes me want to plan road trips and see some of what I've missed. 

I should go back and get more maps from AAA.  I went to our local AAA office Monday to re up my road plan and found it is closing permanently.  Another five people in our small town unemployed.  In January, right after Christmas.  I've counted another 3 longtime businesses that disappeared in December, a photographer, a flooring and decor shop, a restaurant, and a 4th, we lost a book and gift store too earlier.  Maybe those congress members who complained about working over the holiday could try thinking about someone else for a change.  Off my soap box before I begin. 

Stay warm and safe.

Happy New Year

I woke from a dream where I was throwing out and giving away all the flotsam and jetsam in my house, emptying the garage, and cleaning up the yard.  Whew!  Gave away the "fat' clothes, the extra shoes, the knick knacks, the handy packages of leftover screws, and so on.  One bundle left, a 100 pound pack when unrolled magically contained a tent (roof over my head), a foldout bed and sleeping bag (place to sleep), my favorite comfy pajamas, and all the bare necessities of living.  Plus an inflatable cataraft (something fun to do.)  My family was there helping.  A plain message that I have what I need.  May you and yours have what you need for the new year. 

"No, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need." The Rolling Stones.