The snow has gifted me with many things this year: an interesting, drama-laden, knuckle-breaking drive home; the wonder of precipitating an indoor snow storm in my kitchen; the ability to create a snow angle when I opened my front door; the healthy glow of shoveling 13" deep snow; not to mention the calorie burn of shoveling so much snow not just at my house but at my 101 year old neighbor's house, too; the changing of a flat tire in snow; and the warm snuggles of cats and dogs.
Now, I get to enjoy a shoveled porch, walk, drive, and section of street; a heated sofa to ease the sore muscles of shoveling all that snow with a garden shovel - who needs a snow shovel in Oklahoma? - and a hot pot of lentil stew, fresh baked bread, and spice cupcakes with chocolate chai frosting. I don't have to go anywhere today or tomorrow or the day after, although the day after that, I'll have to get the flat tire fixed and put back on my car in place of the spare there now and go back to work.
I hear we're supposed to get an ice storm for New Year's.
Yanno, I think I prefer the snow we just had to ice.
In fact, I do prefer snow to ice.
It's snowing inside my kitchen!
I finally made it home from work (a 15 minute drive that took 2 1/2 hours of drama-laden, knuckle-breaking suspense and will result in nightmares and PTSD flashbacks) and put the kettle on for hot tea. And where the steam of the kettle meets the cold air, I have snow flurries - inside my kitchen. There's a snow drift building up between the dishwashing liquid and my Eggy Whip beside the kitchen sink.
It's not enough to have 11 inches (did you hear that - ELEVEN INCHES) of snow in the middle of my front yard, now I have blizzard conditions building up inside my kitchen.
I really need to speed up saving my money to get the wiring fixed in this house. It needs to have working heat if this cold weather trend keeps up around here.
That or I need to sell the house and move to a warmer climate.
I dislike cold weather. I despise snow. I loathe snow on top of ice. Those feelings are mild when compared to finding a snow storm inside my kitchen.
Of course, now that I'm home, I can set about warming things up some.
I turned the sofa on (what, you don't have a heated sofa? How sad for you.), set the stove to bake the bread that's been slow-rising inside it all day, heated water for tea (and was appalled at the resulting indoor blizzard), and set the space heater on. In an hour, it should be a toasty 50*F in here. Except the sofa, which will be much warmer.
I have movies, a remote control, books, notebooks, pens, my laptop, hot tea, and snacks all in reach, so I can camp on the sofa until it warms enough to go to bed.
Did I mention I dislike cold?
My friend Meredith haz my mug.
Don't trust quotes you may get from Al's Auto Salvage in Oklahoma City.
First, Xoco went into heat the day she was scheduled to be spayed, so no spaying yet.
Second, I had to drive to Texas on a busy holiday week to get my sister's banking information so I can start sending her money until her husband either finds a job or gets old enough to collect SS. Since he's 3 years away from collecting SS, that means I'll probably be sending her money for at least 3 years. I gave her a lump sum for the car, but haven't been able to afford the title transfer yet - that'll have to wait until I get my tax return. The lump sum will catch them up on bills.
You'd think my sister would be glad I bought the car from her, but the whole time I was there (overnight), she kept going on about how I didn't "love" the car as much as she did, and wouldn't I rather just fix my Hyundai instead? And then she'd mention how she thought of that car as hers for the last 10 years (it was Mother's car) and how hard it was to "let go" of it to some stranger (what am I - I thought we were sisters!) who wouldn't love it as much as she did.
And then, after making me drive to her place to get the banking information, she almost wouldn't give it to me because she "didn't trust the online banking transfers". Well, sorry, but I'm not mailing check via the Post Office when I can safely transfer funds from my bank to hers and know she got it and have a nice traceable trail for that money. I've sent her checks before that she says she never got, and when I point out they were cashed, it's always, "Oh, yeah, I guess I did get it." Direct transfer will stop those games.
Gah! Sometimes I wish I was as rich as my family seems to think I am.
Black Friday is known for its deals and steals. What items are you hoping to find in the stores this Friday?
Sponsored by Best Buy. Find holiday gifts for everyone on your list.I don't shop for anything other than groceries between November 15th and January 5th. My biggest holiday during that time is Cookie Day. The past couple of years have been plagued with disasters preventing many of the long distance cookies from reaching their destinations and I'm hoping that streak ends this year. I have some old favorites and a couple of awesome new ones to make.
This is a little gallows humor that I whipped up and sent to Scott Kurtz and my friends at Penny Arcade when we all knew that Aeofel was dead, but couldn't tell anyone else in the world.
This is the closest I've gotten to the place Guinness is born.
