Rebound? Soon I Hope in Everyday Ramblings

It is like a badly maintained ice rink out there even though it has been above freezing since this morning. One can’t drive on it even with chains and four-wheel drive. It is very quiet. I went for a walk around the neighborhood on Friday afternoon after the budget meeting I was so anxious about. That is the last time I have been off the property.

A guy up the block managed to get four stir crazy teenagers to the store midday but on the way home, on the slight hill here in front of my place he slid into a parked car. He got chains on after and pulled the car away so now it is parked next to the one he hit.

About half my students have lost power for some period of time during this “weather event”. Luckily, not Kes and Most Honorable or Mrs. Sherlock.

Poor Mrs. Sherlock let Frieda out back this morning, but it was too slippery for her to get back up the stairs on her own, so she was out there in her yak tracks assisting her eleven-year-old poodle up onto the back porch. I feel for the dog walkers. The dogs are enjoying it. A young retriever was having a blast rolling a tennis ball down the hill while her person was slipping and sliding all over the place.

I haven’t been able to feed the birds today. I feel bad about that.

Yesterday morning it was still mostly snow and so I had groceries delivered. That felt quite decadent but otherwise I would be down to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was uncomfortable when the two people that shopped and delivered my food were an older black woman and her adult son. She was older than me. My order was perfect. I left a big tip but I tell you having them out there working so hard for some retired modestly well off white woman… ugh.

Generally, though I have been feeling fine, teaching, working on League stuff, reading. I wrote a poem for the Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue. I have watched a couple of episodes of Vera and listened to a number of episodes of A History of Rock n’ Roll while exercising that turns into dancing and back to exercising again.

We have a great many trees down. It makes sense as we have more trees here than in any other city this size in the U.S. A couple of days ago I saw a scroll of 46 trees down across the area. And those were the remarkable ones. We are making the national news with this.

It is raining lightly. We may thaw enough to get out a bit tomorrow afternoon, but I am passing on the coffee guys tomorrow morning. Public transportation, the part that is actually working, is an absolute mess. We have a huge deficit in the funding for our local department of transportation because of revenue loss on the gas tax and they are not treating anything but the most major roads.

My big ambition for tomorrow, besides teaching my classes and working on the budget is getting the garbage out and getting the mail. Such a charming and exciting life. I am procrastinating on the budget a bit, so I need to get back on that horse. There is this kind of cabin fever disorientation where I feel like I am drifting some. Floating on the snow and ice. Skimming through the days.

As it is warming up the rhododendron leaves that surround my place that have been shriveled, sad, and drooping are starting to rebound.

I am looking forward to doing the same.

Last updated January 17, 2024