Actually it arrived in the dark, well before dawn, with the characteristic roar of a good-sized norther coming in fast. We’d had several warm, dampish days with fog and little wind but then….whoosh!…and of course it woke me up. I was still warm (too warm) in bed but that didn’t last long. There’s no freeze with it, this time (it’s supposed to go down to 35 tomorrow night but not anything like we had between the 10th and 19th.
And additional comfort is the full tank of propane and the return of the Big Soup Pot to the kitchen stove, almost-nearly-all the soot off it, and full of the next soup already. The bean-soaking steel bowl, used for melting snow to water on the fire alongside the Big Soup Pot, is also back in service, free of soot. The REALLY big water pot ditto, though a bit warped on the bottom from an accident, is back under the slightly-smaller Really Big Pot in the closet pantry. Lights and furnace are on; the kitchen stove works; hot and cold running water come out of the house faucets. Life is returning to normal–the flannel shirt I’m wearing doesn’t smell of woodsmoke any more after several times through the washing machine. Today we get our second Covid shots (yay!) about 40 miles away. Energy levels in the two old geezers are rising toward normal, now.
I’m knitting again–spurred by intolerably cold damp feet in the Big Storm, I abandoned the effort to make “proper” darns in my holey wool socks and just went for “skin doesn’t touch shoe interiors…and then R- couldn’t keep his neck warm enough, and I converted an old unfinished project to a shortish, wideish scarf (helped keep his chest warm as well as his neck) by re-learning castoff in a couple of hours and making multiple mistakes. There wasn’t time to knit during the worst days; we were working to keep the fire going, keep the food coming, and just survive, but since then I’ve started a better scarf for R (ready by next winter) and expect to shift part of the knitting to socks again within the month of March, along with darning socks again, and to heck with how it looks. My feet and legs are both *much* happier in socks that actually fit and do not have tight tops full of elastic.
The shopping list of replacement stuff (e.g. worn-out long johns, jeans) is long and still growing.
Horses are fine. R is fine (I think) and M is fine (for sure.) I am sweating out the next few days because of those thrice-damned idjits in the other party who have been caught plotting to attack the Capitol again on the State of the Union Address, and I’m not sure the feds are taking the right precautions (they sure didn’t the first time!) and the fact that my non-illustrious-worst-ever-Senator, #TraitorTed Cruz, hasn’t been thrown in the hoosgow for his treasonous involvement with the coup conspiracy or shaken like a rat in a dog’s mouth by angry Texans over his little vacation in Cancun during the storm and his snide remarks and “jokes’ about Texans left behind to freeze that he delivered in Orlando. Cornyn is a bad Senator, but Cruz is a manure heap fire (worse than a dumpster fire, if you’ve never seen or smelled one.) I suspect all those members of Congress who went down to CPAC while lying that they were sick, or afraid of Covidm were really going down there to get their orders on where to be and what to do in the next attack.
So two weeks after *this* shot, or maybe three, I’ll return to the aisles of the big grocery stores on a regular basis (wearing a mask of course and trying to stay away from others), the office supply store, the FedEx store where I need to send a bulky awkward package, and so on and on. I just might be at the takeout window of Smoky Mo’s BBQ and Whataburger, or something outrageous like that.
More stuff later.
Stay safe. I worried about you. I’m glad things are getting back to normal (and that you scored vaccinations). Hopefully any reaction is mild. My sympathies for your congress critters.
Glad life is returning to normal for you. My siblings and I have all had our first jabs; my daughter hopes to get hers in April, and we’ll probably get our second ones then (they are leaving it 3 months in the UK). We have never stopped going to the supermarket, being careful to observe “Hands, face, space” as the mantra is here. The supermarkets are within walking distance, the nearest being about 100 metres away, the furthest just over 1km. They are very good at enforcing safety measures, and if there are too many people inside, you have to queue to go in, as you do at the few other “essential” shops (mostly pharmacies) that are open.
You can get – and I have started buying – what are called “gentle grip” socks which have non-elasticated tops. They were originally marketed for people living with diabetes, but they are blissfully comfortable, even if you aren’t!
Someone recommended I buy men’s diabetic socks for my mother. They are too large for her feet so the heel is up on her leg but they are nice and thick on her feet and don’t constrict the circulation in her legs and ankles. She wears them as house socks and it has made all the difference for her cold feet. We tried some of the diabetic socks for women, but she loves how thick these are. Thank you for the update on how you all are doing.
Glad to see that things are slowly getting better. Stay safe and stay sane,
Jonathan up here is very cold and windy New Hampshire.
Here March came in like a Polar Bear.
Still trying to get the vaccine. Massachusetts has been horrible on the scheduling and very little vaccine has made it to Cape Cod.
Fingers crossed that the times will improve.
Stay well everyone.
Glad you will be getting your second vaccintions soon, and that the house is back to normal, the propane tank full etc. We have discovered that there is water getting in one side of the house, only when we have heavy rain and strong easterlies, the simple fixes have been tried, so it looks like repointing, fortunately it’s not much water, but still. The house is brick built and for some reason one bit of the back wall, between the bedroom window and the dining room window below it wasn’t done when the house was repointed well before we bought it. At some point we are going to get to the end of the “why on earth did they do/not do that”s the previous owners left, but we aren’t there yet.
Good to hear you are getting back into knitting, I don’t suppose R is worried by the mistakes as he’s being kept warm, in my experience of knitting for others we always notice our own errors, but others rarely do so.
I guess there are enough true Trump believers in Texas that Cruz won’t be thrown out of office, but I will certainly never vote for that slime ball. We need some surgery to sever ties to Trump and his minions so that they can never again foment sedition.
Yes, indeed. #TraitorTed isn’t up for re-election for four years, by which time he thinks his tracks will be covered. I intend to keep them cleared.
Smoky Mo’s BBQ and Whataburger is critical medicine when no water and bone-chilling cold take over your life. Those burgers cover your face, hands, front of whatever you have on and may leave a puddle on the floor! Concurrent grinning is OK, save the chortles until after you have spent at least one dishtowel cleaning yourself and R up!
Broader dynamics after the burgers!
NO MASKS, NO RESTRICTIONS! Comes down from Governor Gregg Abbort. The mayor, Sylvester Turner of Houston, said “This decision is wrong.” He said Abbott’s measures will make it difficult for local leaders to protect their people within their jurisdictions because the messages are conflicting.
“Until people can get the vaccine, these masks represent the protections that are so desperately needed,” Mayior Turner of Houston said. “This is the wrong policy decision for the people in the state of Texas on multiple levels.”
New York millionaires told their Governor, head of Senate and Assembly, that they want to foot the bills so that across the board, black, brown, and immigrant New Yorkers do not have to continue to bear the brunt of all this pain. And that millions of regular, working New Yorkers are not forced to shoulder the budget deficit, when your (governor, senate, and assembly) continue to refuse to end tax cuts for the rich that prevent our entire state from getting back on two feet.
“That’s why we write to urge you to end the unfair tax breaks that we enjoy, and to use the revenue raised to navigate out of this crisis.” 50 millionaires and multimillionaires signed the detailed document sent to the represented above.
It warms this Californian’s heart to hear about neighborliness in NY. Local governments fighting for support for Texans to take care of themselves and each other! Get rid of those bad apples and put Beto in there, and others like him, and you beautiful people can come back strong in every way possible!
Love to you, Elizabeth and R, and all your readers! Heal individually and as communities throughout the State! Be well and sassy!
Abbott’s an idiot, a lousy leader who’s entirely too weak to hold the line against whiny babies in his party.This will kill another 20,000 people and keep those of us who want to avoid the new, more infective versions now coming along in masks and away from friends for another year at least.
Dear Elizabeth Moon: So glad that you are doing well. You are missed by your Facebook friends. Looking forward to your next book. Aloha!
I’ve tried repeatedly to get back on FB but nothing works. I’ll keep trying.