Cold Season

The headache I have is not just from landing face first and skidding across the concrete floor on my face. I have a head cold. Misery loves company. Where my mind goes with this juxtaposition of complaints, is that I might as well have both at the same time, get it over quicker. And in spite of it all, I can still keep motoring along doing what I usually do, just not quite as comfortably.

I am now sporting a real “shiner” of a black eye.

Yesterday the weather was mild and dreary. Most of the snow has melted from our yard. Today is sunny, and the damp cold wind is takes your breath away. Attila and I did our weekly shopping this morning, and found walking from the vehicle to the store, and then back, a chilling experience.

Where we shop for food is a discount store. It used to share a parking lot only with a few small stores, and a beer store. The parking lot had vehicle-eating potholes, which we learned to recognize, even under newly fallen snow. Then a fitness centre and another discount store moved into the complex. The parking lot was repaired, repaved, and repainted. Now the formerly sparsely used parking lot is teaming with activity, every day of the week. It used to only be busy the day after the government cheques were issued. Things are always changing.

After the shopping excursion I did my share of the putting-things-away, then poured myself a cold beverage and sat down on my easy chair to rest a bit. That is when this entry got started.

Attila is working away in the dry garage. After finishing the wiring, he has dismantled the work bench, that was in the garage when we bought Mist Cottage, and is rebuilding it to his specifications, adding storage shelves below. Since this project has no deadline, he is enjoying himself.

I am enjoying an uneventful, peaceful day!

Worldly

Weather

-2°C
Date: 1:00 PM EST Sunday 6 January 2019
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.1 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: -2.2°C
Dew point: -8.7°C
Humidity: 62%
Wind: NNW 20 gust 37 km/h
Wind Chill: -8
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.””
Dorothy Parker
1893 – 1967

I find I read this differently at this point in my life.
I previously thought of the calm as a healthy peace, as it can be. But I have since learned, through my experience with rigid social engineers, that the calm is not always healthy. The calm can be enforced, blunting thought and passion. This is a new understanding of calm for me, one I had not seriously considered in my youthful inexperience.
I previously thought of the storm as a single, disruptive, and sometimes dangerous, event. In my mature years I see the storm as part of a system, not a single event. Knowing the storm involves knowing all the components of the storm, including the before and after, the short-term and long-term consequences, and necessity of the release of energy too long confined.
Ms. Parker’s phrase has become fluid and active for me.

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Teri

Isn’t the sun wonderful! We’ve now had 5 days of sunshine in this last month qnd I’m loving today’s brightness.

I’m getting a few things done around here, too. Just put in two sheets of peanut butter cookies that I’d had to put off for several reasons. Oh, and yesterday we were able to get the flooring for our other two bedrooms! Two years ago we did the office bedroom. This year we amazingly found the same engineered flooring at a much better price. Two years ago $40/sqft down to $28. This year, $41.60 down to about $18!

Just tried one of these peanut butter cookies using the 3 ingredient Kraft recipe. Sadly, they’re very oily tasting. Grandma’s recipe is always best!

meriset

I wasn’t happy doing the grocery shopping while it was raining, but I suspect it was more pleasant than your chill. Still, I thought of those poor people I saw picking lettuce in the fields near the library in the rain Saturday. They had to have been having one sucky day in the wet and (by Yuma standards) cold. Feel better soon! —Joan

Eileen

Feel better, Maggie!