Appetite for winter

The snow still looks good, but it’s melting fast and by tomorrow will be seen only in patches here and there.

Enjoyed “stone soup” at Looneys’ last night. This is a familiar event set up by my bro Dave’s Sabbath school class. It comes from an old story about not having enough to eat but putting another stone in the soup to help it go around. So we all come with our various contributions for the soup, and when they’re all stirred up and cooked together, they always taste delicious.

Of course I had to sample each of the five desserts people brought: cookies, cake, and others.

Today I’ve spent in total solitude. Which isn’t that hard to take. I was working at a pretty good pace about 2 pm and suddenly became terribly sleepy so took a nap. I keep putting of work I need to do to make some $$, and I will probably regret it soon.

I did get some interesting email, including a note from Lora restating her determination to be here for “Knife Day” on February 19–unless the roads are bad. I told her it would be almost spring by then and the roads will be dry. Maybe.

Janet Qualls says they have room for me to stay there the night after the knife cutting event, so I should be warm and safe.

And Lois chatted with me after church a bit about staffing the primary division while she is gone. She didn’t know anything about the scheduled surgery and is leaving tomorrow for three or so weeks in India.  “I won’t be here to be with you!” she said. She was with me when I was about to go under from a yellow jacket reaction and brought me cooked food when I was getting over my broken wrist.

Such a blessing are true friends.

Limerick weather

About 2-3 inches of snow out there, but melting and refreezing as the days go by. Something about writing limericks has taken me for a spin, encouraged by my niece Lora.

 

This one deals with my decision to have wrist surgery Feb 19…

 

There was a young woman named Joyce

Who faced a ridiculous choice:

    Pain now and then

    Or pain without end

“Cut me!” How steady her voice.

 

And this one was for my dear friend suffering from chronic UTI…

 

Marilyn my friend has a bladder

That makes her madder and madder

    At germs that keep growing

    With illnesses blowing

And everything keeps getting badder.

And a pair of limericks about misgivings re our new pastor…

We once hired a brand-new pastor

Who wanted to be our master

    The slides for his sermon

    Crawled sideways like vermin

This will soon be a disaster!

Before many weeks had gone by

It seemed it was best if I’d try

    To listen and learn

    Awaiting my turn

To see what turns out by and by.

All the way to 7 degrees

It’s nice when it’s cold, really cold. I don’t have to think up creative excuses to throw at the errands and other stuff I should go somewhere and do. I can just stay indoors where it’s dry but warm.

This has been my typical day since the beginning of this year…

8 am Up and out of bed, soak in the tub, breakfast
9:30 am My assistant Kay arrives. I try to get work done, especially if there’s something I need Kay to help me do. I like to chat with Kay during this time.
12 noon. Time for lunch and a quick trip to the PO or somewhere else. Read the newspaper.
1:30 pm. Back to the computer.
3 pm. Time for my afternoon nap.
5 pm. Watch the news.
6 pm. Do some more work if there’s something urgent going on.
7 pm. Do some more work if I feel like it. Update my blogs.
9 pm. Stop working. Read. Watch TV.
11 pm Time to knock off for the night.

We love snow in Idaho

Snow is something we need here in Idaho to get us through the year. Our irrigation water comes from snow, our drinking water comes from snow, the water in our creeks and streams comes from snow. Without snow, we’d look more like the Sahara desert than heavily irrigated sagebrush farmland.

There’s a bit of snow outside today. We had two or three inches the other day. Now most of it has melted and re-frozen as ice. I’d go to the PO and bank anyway, but it’s Martin Luther King Day, so those establishments are closed.

January is whizzing past

In Idaho January is the slowest month of the year. Thirty-one days with no holidays, no warm days, no lawns to mow.

I love getting an extra hour or two of sleep every day this time of year. Even more I enjoy the invigorating brisk air that seems to turn the blades of the windmills in my mind. I come up with more ideas in January than in all the other months of the year combined.

So far this January I’ve planned three vacations, invented a new business, read 100 pages in The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam, drawn pictures of people in church, hosted my bro and his wife for a Friday supper, played Mozart and others on my new electronic piano to the extent that my sore wrist would allow, cleaned out one closet (upstairs), and generally have managed to avoid most vestiges of work.

I may not bring in as much income this year as last, but I’m not worried about that. Call it pre-retirement or post-retirement or just retirement, these slower days are delicious.