1 February 2008 First thing I heard when I woke up was somebody on the scanner saying "tell him we aren't going to plow that driveway before the snow stops unless there's a medical emergency or something -- the street crews would just plow it shut again." It was snowing vigorously then; I don't see any coming down now (9:48), but distant objects are seen as if through light fog, and the weather map shows a big green mess rotating right over us. National radar shows green over the whole east coast, with our blop a detached bit on the other side of a clear circle -- pattern looks like a big hurricane. Not a breath of wind -- and when I went to check the wind sock before typing that, I saw that the falling snow *is* visible; you just need a dark background to show it up. And when I went back to the national map, it now looks more like a noreaster, with our blop an eddy off it. Weather Underground says the "winter storm" will end by seven this evening, and tomorrow will be partly sunny and just below freezing. Snowing obviously now. 5 February 2008 I've never seen coots on the lawn before. The were all over the point this morning, and at 5:19 they are still out there -- walking around in the park and pecking like chickens. There's one in the garden, pecking where I throw the garbage, so I guess I'll empty the tidy later. Evening: One game of Crystallize doesn't count, right? Remembered to go to Handwork Circle, forgot to take my keys. I'd gotten used to having the keys in my coin purse and the coin purse in my pants pocket, but I've got the purse on the ironing board planning a new one, so I put stuff in my pocket loose and stashed the keychain in my lingerie drawer. I wonder whether I'd have noticed the missing keys if I'd shifted stuff from one pair of pants to another. Did get a tad of work done: the waist casings on my striped briefs were coming unstitched in spots -- I'd sewn them with a three-ply thread for the sake of the color -- so I decided that since my sewing machine was still set up for knits from finishing, a few days ago, the T-shirt I started last August, and because they were all clean at once, I'd re-stitch the whole waist on all of them. But it happened that the last two pairs didn't need mending. One had already been re-stitched, and I'm not sure about the other. 8 February 2008 The water is about level with the thumbtack now. Dave says that there is ice stuck to the post to suggest that it's gone down some. He also said that the coots are still walking around in the grass and pecking, but now it's under six inches of water so that they are putting their heads under. Then he chortled "just like chickens, except they don't scratch." That describes the action well, but I don't think chickens would be very happy out there. And I think six inches would be enough to float a coot. The ones that are floating are also pecking, but don't upend like a duck. I wasn't surprised to see the creek out of its banks yesterday morning, but I was surprised to see how much the lake rose during my nap. Still not as high as it is today. 12 February 2008 The ice is strong enough to support a fisherman. I've missed a few fluctuations in the weather. It was pretty nice when I walked to the board meeting at the church yesterday -- a tad warmer than Sunday, and practically no wind. I was groggy all day yesterday, and slept the whole afternoon. Good thing we had only two loads of wash, and I had everything hung before lunch. Despite sleeping until ten. I'm overdue at Aldi's, but Dave is game for another supper of bean soup. And there's one meal of my first batch of cornbread still in the freezer. I ate the second batch first because it was burnt and I didn't want to freeze it. The new pastor seems to have been misled by the name of the Fellowship committee. "Intergenerational Activities that work" was under us on the agenda, but we're really in charge of the kitchen. Perhaps it should be called the "Martha Committee". Which would look rather odd when there is always a man on the committee. We tried to make the current one chairman, but he begged off on grounds of imminent baby. It has until Thursday to come out voluntarily. Easter breakfast is coming up Real Soon Now. Crystallize would be a much nicer game if you could skip the first six levels -- and all the "bonus rounds". But I haven't been playing Spider! 13 February 2008 When we came home from our point-eight walk, I pointed out the goose tracks on the front walkway to Dave; he said that they couldn't be goose tracks because they weren't webbed; I said that coot tracks couldn't be that big. Then a few steps further, we saw a trail looping past the workshop, where I'd seen a coot when I was clearing off the car before driving to Aldi's. They were very indistinct because of the deep, loose snow -- but coot tracks *are* that big! Stocked up on frozen meat -- we were down to a bag of breaded veal patties and two hamburger patties. Still can't find the stir-fry vegetables; I'd been using those any time I wanted frozen mixed vegetables, and the "medley" won't do because the carrots are in big chunks. Fried meatloaf for supper, because I didn't wake up until ten past time to start cooking. I think I'll put brown rice in the rest of the fresh hamburger and call it porcupine loaf. We ate it with the last of the sandwich rolls, one red wheat and one oat. Leaves two slices of white wheat, a quarter loaf of red wheat, and most of a loaf of Bunny brand "white whole wheat". Maybe I'll bake tomorrow. The creek is full of geese, and we saw more circling for a landing when we walked past the park on the way home. Snow is nice and dry. Snowed heavily while I was walking to the church for Handwork Circle yesterday, but there wasn't a breath of wind, and it was a bit warmer than the day before, so it was a very pleasant walk -- until I got within sight of the building and remembered that I'd left my church keys in my lingerie drawer. (They are *now* in the little bag of stuff that I have with me if I carry a bag at all.) So I tried the door, noted that Kindermusik must have been canceled, decided that on such a poor night for driving nobody would come anyhow, and went home. And found a big hole in the heel of one knee sock when I took off my insulated boots. Some coots were hopping around in the snow right close to the house yesterday morning. We woke to the sound of Al accelerating from the living room to the bedroom and back again, and when we got up, the tail sticking out from under the curtains was switching vigorously. The coots seemed to know where they were going; they'd run very fast, sometimes flapping the wings, then plop down into the snow and sit for a while -- often near other coots -- and then off again. In the afternoon, we saw a homo sap walk out onto the lake and drill a hole. 27 February 2008 I'm not only off the no-Spider wagon, I'm not trying to climb back on. Ice is strong enough for fishermen again. There's a film of snow falling on top of the 8.8 inches we woke up to Tuesday morning. Dave skipped our brisk waddle yesterday, but it wasn't at all bad walking to Handwork Circle. A light snow was falling and that put a little non-skid on what had thawed and frozen today. On the way home, I had to dodge a car and a snowplow. They arrived simultaneously, of course. By good luck, this happened right next to the only shoveled patch of sidewalk, so there was a place to get out of the street without getting up to my shins in snow. And I not only remembered to go, remembered to take my key, *and* remembered to wear a shirt! And Lynelle arrived to prepare for a lesson just when I decided to tip out early, so I didn't have to check all the locks. (There are a *lot* of doors in that place.) Last week, I put on my jeans and coat to take out the garbage, Dave did a double take and said "Oh, right, you're going to the church." Awk Scrickle! So I hastily checked my workbag, decided I could sort it out there, and about half-way to the church remembered that I was still wearing a pajama top. Didn't sort the bag, either. The first thing I took out was a sock that had been halfway through the toe shaping for weeks, so I finished that and wore it home. And it's really, really, time to take everything out of that bag and not put everything back. There's a lot of sandbar showing; the dam must be open again. All the high water appears to have deposited a lot of sand. I bought eight ounces of powdered ascorbic acid the last time I went to the health-food store. 28 February 2008 Sometimes it isn't the pain that hurts. I had a culinary day to day: I made bean soup, made raised cornbread, a loaf of bread and three hot-dog rolls are rising, and I went grocery shopping. So after supper I folded up a dish towel, took the remaining still-not-quite-brown cornbread out of the 300F oven, put the towel down, picked up a spatula to cut the cornbread into three quarters so I could flip it over, grabbed the handle of the skillet to keep it steady . . . On the way to Owen's and again on the way back, I had to wait for a coot to slowly amble across the street. Their feet really *are* that big. You ain't gonna catch any of these guys tipping over. 4 March 2008 But you might catch one belly-flopping into a puddle only to discover that it's too shallow to swim in. Had three teeth repaired yesterday. I can think of ways to have more fun spending a couple of thousand dollars. Dr. Hollar was apologetic about numbing my whole face, but it wasn't a *patch* on the most-trivial shot of Novocaine in the fifties. Only real discomfort was that I had to have gravy for lunch on account of it not being safe to chew. (Half a cup of oat flour, a cup and a half of milk, sesame oil, cheddar cheese, paprika, and soy sauce: not bad at all.) I have to go back for the permanent veneers on the 25th. For two of the teeth. The top tooth, he molded on some putty and cured it with ultraviolet. I'd made a couple of very coarse loaves of bread, the second one almost inedible, so I was pleased when Sunday's pizza dough turned out smooth and elastic, and the loaf I made from the excess dough was well formed. But I'd started a tad late, so I proposed that we go for our walk between the salad course and the pizza course. Which we did; before we left I took the pizza and bread out of the the oven and set it for 500F. When we got back, I popped both in and reduced the heat to 300F. Half an hour later the pizza was done, if not brown, and we were ravenous so we ate it. Several hours later, Dave came to the sewing room (where I was reading Usenet) and asked "Is the oven supposed to be on?" I shrieked "Burnt Bread!" and streaked for the kitchen. Turned out it *wasn't* burnt, but the crust is very, very thick. Really good bread in the middle, though. -- Joy Beeson http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/ http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather) west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.