Archive for February 2013
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
February 14, 2013Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends. I hope you all mark the day with flowers or chocolates or a few snuggles.
Last night it snowed a bit, enough to cover the walk and the car. I thought even that small amount of snow was overkill. It is Mother Nature run amok. I can see her now with her strands of hair flying in all directions. Her flower crown is dead. Her lovely flowing dress is filthy and torn, and her face has a snarl just for us. There is an evil gleam in her eyes. Run for your lives!
Valentine’s Day was one of my favorite days in school. We’d spend a couple of afternoons turning lowly shoe boxes into decorated Valentine’s boxes. I’d cover mine in red construction paper and make a slit on the top for all the valentines I expected then I’d decorate the paper. We’d leave it in school until the special day.
My mother would buy each of us a box of valentines. They had pictures on the front, and the sayings were usually puns: two ears of corn, “Shucks! I’d like to ‘ear you say you’d be my Valentine today”, or the turtle who shell always love me. Can we swing along together? That one, of course, had two kids in a swing. The kids always had red cheeks and big smiles. Clocks were common, “It’s time you were my valentine.”
The night before the big day I’d sit at the kitchen table and write out my valentines. I’d decide which of my classmates would receive one and put a name on each envelope. The worst part was fitting my own name on the back. Kathleen is a long one, and for some reason we always used full names so Ryan had to fit in there somewhere. In the morning, I’d carry my cards as if they were masterpieces, and I’d carry the cupcakes my mother had made for the afternoon party.
School that day was a loss. Arithmetic and spelling were no competition for valentines and a party. Finally, after lunch, the nun would have us clear off our desks. We’d get our boxes and get ready. She’d call us row by row, and we’d drop the valentines on desks as we walked. I can remember hoping and hoping to get one from a boy with whom I was smitten. In the second grade, smitten was about the best we could do. If I got one, I was giddy.
After all the rows had finished giving out their valentines, the party began. The food was up front for the taking. I remember lots and lots of red cupcakes, some sugar cookies and conversational hearts. My friends and I would sit and open our valentines together. I remember a lot of laughing, a lot of little girl laughing for that’s who we were. I don’t remember being disappointed, but maybe that’s something forgotten. I remember the fun of opening those cards, of eating a chocolate cupcake with red frosting, but I mostly remember carrying home my treasures in my beautiful Valentine’s Day box.
Aquarius: Esme Patterson
February 12, 2013On the Ropes: Eels
February 12, 2013
“Like Alexander the Great and Caesar, I’m out to conquer the world. But first I have to stop at Walmart and pick up some supplies. ”
February 12, 2013Clean, warm and happy describes me perfectly. The sun is out, snow is dripping off the roof, and the ice will soon melt. I hear the blast of heat from my furnace, the sweetest of sounds.
The road was black ice when I went to get the paper this morning. It had rained last night then the rain froze. As luck would have it, my paper was under the car. I needed to get the broom so I could push the paper out from underneath so I had to go back inside the house, a scary venture given my history with ice, but both times, in and out, I took minced steps. The road was so slippery ice skates would have served me better. The last thing I wanted was another fall. I still have pain from the first.
Gracie has been out most of the morning. She is my weather barometer. Speaking of which, the paper mentioned that unless the government decides to replace aging weather satellites, our polar-orbiting satellites will not be accurate for forecasting weather by 2016. Sandy’s landfall and this storm were accurately tracked and predicted by the European center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts while the best model we have didn’t predict this as a really big storm. Soon enough I’ll have to rely on cranky knees and elbows for my forecasts. Oops, my back hurts, must be rain coming.
Today I step outside into the world, my first time since Friday. I suspect nothing has changed though, without TV or newspapers, I did miss some world-wide news. The Pope resigned and horse meat was taken off the grocery shelves. That news was still headlining yesterday’s paper. On the sports’ page, Red Sox spring updates have begun. Pitchers and catchers are already at spring training. Perhaps the Sox will do better than the cellar, their last occupied spot in the standings.
The local schools are not open again today. Even when I was a teacher, I loved snow days though today is more like a shelter day as the high school is still being used as one. Not everybody has electricity back. Thursday is the day being tossed about by NStar as to when all will be restored. If it were my house, I know they would find me sitting on the couch frozen and looking much like Jack Nicholson did in the maze at the end of the Shining.
I seem to have written far more than I expected for someone who has been living a sheltered life. Maybe tomorrow, after my jaunt outside, I will be bursting with news, jokes and commentaries about the world at large.
Did I mention I’m going to the dentist?
Hot Hot Hot: Buster Poindexter & His Banshees of Blue
February 11, 2013Too Hot: Kool and the Gang
February 11, 2013
“So all night long the storm roared on: The morning broke without a sun; In tiny spherule traced with lines Of Nature’s geometric signs, And, when the second morning shone, We looked upon a world unknown…”
February 11, 2013The electricity came on at 10:45 this morning, nearly three days since my return to the days of Little House on the Prairie last Friday night. The heat is cranking and the house is now a balmy 47˚. When I woke up this morning, it was 39˚. I am still wearing three pairs of socks, a shirt, sweatshirt with a hood and a really heavy wool sweater, and Gracie is still wearing her coat as well. The mittens helped a little, but my hands were cold the whole time. The worst, though, was my cold nose. The only time it was warm was at night with my face under the covers, a doubled over down comforter and a second doubled over comforter, and I kept my hood up to protect my head.
You could see your breath in my house this morning. Outside was warmer.
The first morning (on Saturday) I heated my coffee from the night before in a pan on the fire. I had two cups, more to get my hands warm than anything else. I kept the fire going all day and had the quilts bundled around me. That day I had hope. There was a lot of hard wood in the cellar which I carried up, falling only once down just three steps. I broke some dishes on a bureau beside the steps and cursed and cried a little, more from frustration than anything else. I was close enough to the fire that I could feel some warmth and Gracie was beside me as was Fern. Poor Maddie meowed every time I went by and patted her and Maddie is never a meower. I read a real book, a Patterson called Zoo, that day as there was no way I was leaving the comforters or the fire except when Gracie wanted out. I was warm sleeping that night bundled as I was with the layers over me.
Sunday morning the house was 44˚. One of my neighbors brought the papers from the driveway to me as she was checking on all the neighbors. I told her I was fine except for coffee, my life’s blood. About an hour later she returned with a cup, and my day was made (such as it was!). I was running out of wood, my phone’s battery was in the red, no dog food left and my car was still stuck in the snow. I was freezing and Fern was so cold she got under the covers and Maddie got up on the couch with the dog, something she never does. I called my sister with an update of my misery. The only shelter which accepts animals was full, and I wasn’t about to leave them so I could go elsewhere. A while later my sister called. She had tried to find a motel which accepted animals but wasn’t lucky then she remembered my nephews. It took three calls to wake them up, but they were more than happy to come over. Amber, my nephew Tim’s girl friend, came and kept me company and brought gifts for me for the two of them. They have just come back from Australia, Bali, Hawaii and San Diego. They were in Australia working for a year and then stayed to tour for another few months. They’ve been gone a year and a half total. They also brought coffee, wood and dog food. They (Mike, my other nephew, and Tim) shoveled out my car and the walk. Amber said she hadn’t ever been in a house so cold. It was still 44˚ when she was here.
Last night was freezing. Gracie, Fern and I shared the couch, but I had to get up a couple of times to rearrange all of us so I’d be comfortable. I couldn’t believe how cold the house felt. Then, as I said, it was 39˚ when I woke up.
The house is 55 balmy degrees right now. I should be sun bathing in the warmth!
If I ever go on vacation, I needn’t worry as there are plenty of pseudo-Kats to write Coffee. I thoroughly enjoyed reading my blog!! I got a few laughs, and have to admit you sounded an awful lot like me!!
Birds are still fine. I filled all the feeders on Friday, and there is still seed in the biggest feeder!
As for the Spawns, I haven’t seen any!
No mice in four days!
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 