Thursday, January 24, 2019

COLD JANUARY DAY by Gloria Alden


Okay, I don’t live in Alaska, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Idaho, Montana, Upper Michigan or any of the states further north, including upper New York State or the northern New England States, but even in N.E. Ohio it’s been darn cold these past weeks. In fact, on this past Sunday all the churches in the area were closed. It’s not just the cold. It’s also the heavy snowfall we’ve been getting. The road in front of my home has been plowed regularly and had something like salt put on it enough to keep it open to the many cars and trucks that speed down it. My son came over several days ago with his tractor with a plow in front of it and plowed out my driveway. There is still at least six or more inches there because it has continued snowing. He also shoveled my rather long sidewalk, too, and the next day I noticed he plowed a wide trail from his peacock pen to my barn which made it easier to walk over there to feed our peacocks (his, the male pea cock and mine, the female pea hen) Until recently I was letting my ponies out in the daytime, but when the snow started getting deeper and deeper, I'm now keeping them in their stalls.
I haven’t driven too much, although about five days ago I went to Aldi’s grocery store to stock up on food and other things because it was supposed to snow with the temperature really dropping. I stopped at the Dollar General next to Aldi’s to pick up doggie treats and snacks for my Maggie.
My son, who lives next door, and my daughter, who lives about eight miles away, have come over and brought me food for supper. They call to check on me, too. But except for going out to take care of my ponies, two hens, a barn cat and the peacocks next door, I’m not outside any more than I have to be. I pick up my newspaper on my way back from the barn. Maggie likes to go out, but she doesn’t stay outside too long.
After I wrecked my car last fall I had to quit delivering Mobile Meals. Eventually my son found another car for me so I again have a red Ford Focus to drive. However, I’ve decided because of the weather and the roads I’m going to wait a few months before I sign up to deliver Mobile Meals again. My daughters don’t think I should be doing it, but I’m not going to pay attention to them. I like delivering the meals, and it doesn’t take that long because my route doesn’t have that many people signed up for them.
Meanwhile except for going out to care for my animals, get the newspaper and the mail, I’m pretty much inside. Last week I did go to a restaurant in a small town about 12 miles south of me where I met my two sisters and my sister-in-law for lunch at a restaurant run by a Greek family. My sister-in-law’s parents were Greek so she enjoys visiting with them. The food is always delicious there. We enjoy visiting and were there about three hours or more. Because it was a weekday and later in the afternoon, there weren’t a lot of people there so we each left decent tips for the owner/waitress who took care of us.
So am I unhappy about the weather? Not really because I’m spending a lot of time in my nesting chair reading. Sometimes I put on one of my Andy Cooney albums and play it. I’m in love with him. At the beginning of December, I went to the Warren Civic Music Center with a friend to hear him sing. I had never heard of him before, but he’s a well-known tenor singer. I ended up buying four of his CDs and, except for the one I sent to my Washington State sister and her husband, I still have three to listen to. Because he’s an Irish Tenor who sings Irish music, I love not only his voice but the songs he sings. He wasn’t born in Ireland, but his grandfather was and he has visited Ireland a lot. He also writes music, too. Some of his music makes me want to get up and dance to it. Of course, Maggie stares at me wondering what in the world I’m doing. I consider it my exercise for the day.
So do I wish I had the money and a companion to go with to Florida and leave this winter weather? Not really. The positive aspect of winter is I don’t have to mow my yard, weed my flower beds, and I don’t have to suffer from the hot days. My house is cozy and warm and I’m pretty much surrounded by books to read in almost every room in my house. I like having friends and family around to have lunch with or go to plays with. I like the church I go to and my church friends. I enjoy the two book clubs I belong to also. I’d miss my ponies and especially my sweet collie Maggie. I’d miss my nesting chair where I sit to read. Just having warm springs, summers and fall is enough for me to have warm weather.
What about you? Do you hate or enjoy winter weather?















9 comments:

  1. I enjoy true winter weather, like we had when we lived in Michigan, but now that we are in south Pennsylvania, we get this freeze-thaw-freeze cycle that I find difficult. It's 49 degrees now and raining, but the driveway has ice patches, made slicker by the rain, and most areas are covered with ice-crusted snow topped by pooled rain water. We have freezing temperatures forecast for tonight. Last night we went out with friends, and I had trouble navigating around piles of ice along the sidewalks and curbs. The parking lot itself was clear, but the entrances & exits were covered in smooth sheets of ice.

    However, I know how much control I have over the weather we get (none) so I make sure we are stocked up with supplies, including lots of water containers in case the electricity (and the well pump) go out for a while. Like Gloria says, it's great weather to catch up on my reading.

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  2. Gloria, I enjoy the winter months as my most productive writing time in addition to reading, watching British police procedurals on TV (Jack Irish season two), and deep-cleaning and shoveling out the house. We also attend UCincinnati-CCM opera, ballet, and theatre performances twice a month.

    Take care of yourself and Maggie!

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  3. Kathleen, the rain we've been getting is causing slippery ice patches, too. This week we're to get nothing but snow. So far the snow I have isn't all that deep. Probably not much more than six inches. However if we get snow every day this week as I'm hearing who knows how deep it will be.

    Margaret, I'm hoping I'll finally finish the tenth book in my series, too, by being pretty much house bound although yesterday evening my daughter picked me up and we went out for dinner. So I am getting out a little.

    I don't know why the pictures I posted aren't up on the blog. They were nice winter pictures including Maggie in the snow.

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  4. Brr, We moved to Portland, OR to get away from the kind of cold.

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  5. It's funny - we moved back to New England from Virginia because my husband loves the snow, but the past three years have been snowier in Virginia. Cold, gray, and wet here - great weather for catching up on my reading!

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  6. Warren, my daughter who lives in California near San Francisco often thinks of moving to Portland.

    Shari, I've been to New England several times but never in the winter. Both times I enjoyed the country there. Yes, it's great weather to catch up on reading and writing.

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  7. I don't mind the cold too much if I don't have to go out in it. It is somewhat hard to keep our home as warm as we would like because of all the windows. My husband feels the cold more so than I do, so we've put the thermostat up to 72F. That's a bit too warm for me, but he is much more comfortable. I just hope that our bills don't start resembling the national debt.

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  8. Grace, I do have to go out in it several times a day to feed my barn animals my ponies, barn cat and two old hens, and to walk over to my son's house to feed his pea cock and the pea hen I bought because the peacock was lonely. Also, I have to walk out to get my newspaper and the mail each day, too.

    The living room and library in my house are fairly warm as well as the kitchen, but the sun room at the back where my Maggie sleeps at night is quite cold with a window, a door and three sliding glass doors so some of that cold air does come into the kitchen, too because the door between the sun room and kitchen was taken down years ago.. Upstairs is a little cooler, too, but that's for good sleeping so I don't mind that.

    Maybe I should mention that I have thousands of books in bookcases through out the house which helps keep my house warm. I bought my old farm house after my husband had a mid-life crises and left me for another woman which didn't last long. They divorced in two years and he came back, and I considered getting back with him, but he wanted to move to Texas and there's no way I would leave the small farm I bought as well as my animals and my children and siblings who lived nearby. So he found a widow and they married and moved to Texas and then Florida. When she died, my son and daughter-in-law flew down and brought him home to my son's house.So I visited him every morning and took yesterday's newspaper over to him. Actually, I got over being angry with him within three or four months after I bought my little farm. Being angry hurts those who are angry more than the other person. In August he bought me a very expensive gift of almost a thousand dollars. He died in October. Most people wonder what that expensive gift was. Well, it was a tombstone. Our oldest son died at 17 years old in my arms from cancer. We bought three grave sites. He's buried on the first one, and a six year old granddaughter is next to him and my tombstone is next to Megan's. It's in a cemetery in a township where I grew up and had so many relatives who are buried there, too. When Jim died he was cremated, and my son took his ashes to sprinkle them in the ocean there and the rest on the yard around my son's house where Jim enjoyed spending the last part of his life.

    I put my living room thermometer which is the only one inside up to 70 degrees during the daytime and then turn it down a little at night. My living room and library each have a large front window and smaller side windows. My kitchen just has a rather small window over the sink and in the laundry room where I have my canary and two old African ring-neck doves,there's just a normal window. That's all downstairs, but I have five windows upstairs just normal size. That doesn't count for the two windows in my large junk room where I store so many things.

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  9. I will pass. Just got back from a walk in Benicia California on a beautiful sunny day and about 65 degrees. I do like the snow, however, but for only a day or two and then I am over it. East of me, 2 hrs away in Lake Tahoe, there is a lot of snow I can go play in when I feel like it.

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