“Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?”

The morning is lovely with blue skies and sun. We’re in a warm day, freezing night weather cycle. It is in the 50’s now and will go down to the mid-20’s tonight. I’m just fine with that.

Everything is quiet. I haven’t been anywhere since Christmas, and I’ve been lolling about in a series of sloth days. Driven by a bit of guilt, I use my sweatshirt sleeve to clean as I walk by furniture hidden under a layer of dust, and I used the kettle to water a few plants this morning. That’s it, my entire list of semi-completed chores.

This is a boring week. Christmas is over. Nothing much is happening anywhere. I turn on my tree every night and the outside lights go on, but they are remnants of Christmas.

When I was a kid, if it was cold enough to freeze water, I’d go ice skating. The free rink was in Recreation Park. Every winter, the town put up a small building on the side of the field at the park and fenced in around it. A water truck filled the fenced area. That was the rink. I loved the little rink building. It had a wood stove to keep the hut warm and was the perfect place to take a break on one of the benches lining the inside walls. Under the benches were piles of shoes and boots. The last obstacle to going home was trying to find your pair of shoes.

I still have a pair of ice skates. I only use them for decoration. They hang off an old wooden sled outside. It has to be at least twenty years since I last skated. I didn’t enjoy the skating. It wasn’t at all what I remembered. My feet hurt.

It’s just about time for some eggnog. I’m going to use my moose mug.


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8 Comments on ““Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?””

  1. Bob Cohen's avatar Bob Cohen Says:

    Hi Kat,
    When I was living in NYC during my high school years I learned how to ice skate. There was a World’s Fair in 1939 in Flushing Meadow Park. The one before the 1964 Fair. The left over New York City pavilion was converted into a huge double skating rink, one for ice and one for roller skates. That’s where I learned to ice skate with rented skates. Once I had my own skates I skated on the frozen pond in the “Goose Pond Park” across the street from my high school. I was a very rudimentary skater only going forward at moderate speed. My friend Paul was a very good skater who could go backwards and make simple jumps. He took me once to skate at the rink in front of the RCA building at 30 Rockefeller Center. He liked show off for the tourists. 🙂 My skates have long since been discarded along the way and I don’t have any desire to skate today.

    I haven’t done much since being off and I’m ready to go back to work on Wednesday. The clouds returned today along with a low temperature just above freezing. The high today will barely get out of the forties. Rain is forecasted for tonight and tomorrow and thankfully the temperature will remain above freezing. 🙂

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      Bob,
      My father went to that World’s Fair. He was 12 at the time. My grandmother had a couple of souvenirs. I don’t remember how I learned to skate. It must have been trial and error. I could glide forward and backward but no jumps.

      It stayed nice the whole day. I stayed home as I just didn’t feel like going out, but I have no choice tomorrow. I have trash, and the dump is closed Monday and Tuesday.

      Cold weather is coming!

  2. Birgit's avatar Birgit Says:

    The week after Christmas is called ‘between the years’ here. I don’t know why. It’s nice and quiet except for the usual idiots who test their firecrackers days early. Nothing on TV and it’s probably difficult to explain why it’s fun to watch the videos of the annual computer congress which just takes place.
    We’ll leave town for a few days tomorrow, back in 2019.
    Enjoy your eggnog! I did yesterday when my stomach could bear it again.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      Birgit,
      I like that, between the years. It makes perfect sense. Most times the New Year around here is quiet, no firecrackers. I used to celebrate the new year, but I haven’t in a while. I do stay up to welcome the new year.

      I’ve enjoyed my egg nog!

  3. Caryn's avatar Caryn Says:

    Hi Kat,
    It’s been a slacker week around here, too. Though I did stir myself to throw the relevant ingredients into the bread machine so I could have toast with breakfast. It was less effort than going to the grocery store for bread. Less expensive too as I would have bought other things at the grocery store.
    Today started out very wet and foggy. Well, I thought it was foggy but most of the fog turned out to be condensation on all my windows. There was ground fog but not that bad. The ground was really squelchy. After the sun came up, a front blew through and cleared out all the fog and clouds. The day ended up mostly sunny and not too bad temperature-wise. I even managed to take the dogs on a couple of walks. I felt so active. 😀
    Enjoy the evening.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      Hi Caryn,
      Today isn’t much better than the last few days though I did put away most of my Christmas presents. I guess that gives me a small sense of accomplishment. I’ll do some more tomorrow.

      Today has been overcast and cold. I didn’t go out, but Henry did. He really likes staying out in the cold. If Gracie had been out as long as Henry is, I’d have thought she’d escaped somehow. His fur is really cold when he comes back inside.

      I put off the dump for another day. Now I’ll have to wait until it reopens on Wednesday. I will put the stuff in the car today to get it out of the house.

      Not much else going on for the whole week.

      Have a great evening!

  4. olof1's avatar olof1 Says:

    We were supposed to get snow during the night but we got rain instead. It was also supposed to be cold now in the morning but it still hasn’t dropped below 32F. I’m pretty sure it will soon though and it will at least make the roads less muddy 🙂 🙂

    I haven’t done much this week either. I’ve been to the store and I have baked bread but that’s it. I’m a bit behind with the laundry but I can do that later today

    I too have a couple of ice skates hanging on the wall as decoration, they must be over a hundred years old by now. I haven’t tried them though 🙂 🙂

    Have a great day!

    Christer.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      Hi Christer,

      We will have rain later in the week, no snow predicted. We haven’t had any yet.

      I have to do laundry and put Christmas away. I don’t know which I like less. Maybe Christmas as it is so final and the night goes dark.

      I have no urge to ice skate. For me, avoiding snow and ice means no falls, or at least I hope so.

      Have a great day!


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