Friday Chillday

It's been a chilly week for us. Nothing at all to what the people in Maine and Oregon see, let alone Canada, but still, when the sun dips below the horizon, I find myself shivering -- and even though thats a classic Zen concept (When its cold, shiver; when its hot, sweat), I don't get much consolation from that. I pull on the ratty green knit watch cap that I've had since I lived in South Dakota thirty years ago, and I zip up the grey sweatshirt jacket as high as it'll go. When I was a kid, I used to wonder why my uncle's car was cold for so long when he would take us for a ride (for much of my youth, my father didn't own a car); now that I realize where that heat is coming from, I'm still occasionally surprised by that. I know that some cars will not turn on the vent air when in the heat position if the air's not actually warm yet, which intellectually I know to be a good thing (why doesn't plumbing do that? though of course the concept is different -- plumbing has to move the cold water out of the way before the warm water can get to you), but I still think Why isn't this thing warm yet?

That bread turned out well -- sweet, good for French Toast or just snacking. I am thinking I might just buy a copy of the book (I'd borrowed it from the libe). I found several used copies, here; since I don't have to return it for two weeks, I'll likely bake one more thing from it, and decide whether to buy or not, based on those results. So far, though, pretty good. It's easy to follow and produces good results. What more could I ask? As it is, we're just about through the challah -- tomorrow we will have french toast and bacon, coffee , and possibly a couple of cream rolls I made the other day with some heavy cream that I'd picked up for an unknown reason. I want to get a new biscuit cutter -- the one we use is a very thin one that bends easy. Of course, given that I roll out dough on the counter, and not on the massive bread board that my wife inherited from her Italian grandmother (this jewel is about two and a half feet wide, and about three and a half feet long), its probably good that I can't press too hard into the countertop. And as for buying one, Real Simple magazine has an interesting alternative.

The GP is continuing to improve. The swelling in her eye has dropped now to the point where she can close her eyelid again. No guarantees, but we're pleased. My daughter made a deal with her uncle, who is, among other things, a sculptor; he's going to make an image of the GP. I think he's a little bemused by the idea, but he's game.

I've been a little surprised at the paucity of comments on this blog lately. One person sent me an email -- I think she used the 'send me an email' link - saying that she could not post comments, which surprised me. I hope others aren't having that problem. It makes me wonder if everyone is still in the holiday rush, winding down and cleaning up. I know we are -- our tree is still up, our lights are in but in jumbled masses. The big project for this weekend will be to de-ornament the tree, and get it out the door for trash pickup on Monday. My wife is always very good at putting the ornaments away, and two years ago she got several large white boxes where she clearly marked on the side what was in each one. That was in response to a combination of events; one being getting finally tired enough of the ratty boxes we had been using to do something about it, and the other being the inadvertant tossing of a tree skirt that we really liked, when we were gathering up junk. I still miss that thing, and though we got a replacement, it hasn't been the same.

I got a newsletter from my company where a financial advisor raised the bar on retirement -- not only did she not think that people should retire before sixty five, which is pretty much the norm these days, she thought that waiting till seventy or seventy five would be a good move. Seventy five! And yet, if it were possible to change careers (which, I think, it is, subject to certain caveats), thats not out of the question. Lord knows I won't be playing golf!