This puzzle is surprisingly difficult. I’m also distracted a lot lately, so I work on it sporadically.

Well, on top of the god-awful news we are dealing with on an hourly basis, we are a part of the huge storm that will be crossing the country dumping 12 – 18 inches of snow on Sunday and Monday. What the heck? The last two or three winters have been relatively mild. But winter is back with a vengeance. In addition to the snow, we will be dealing with single digit temperatures.

Yesterday, I did a lot of chores around the house, as well as outside. Sort of a whirlwind of activity. So was Don. He ran errands, bought groceries and salt for the driveway. Now, he’s going to our recycling center and buying a few more things that we need.

We are most definitely in the midst of storm prep.

I finished my 4th reading of A Gentleman in Moscow. It just gets better with each reading. One of yesterday’s errands was a trip to the library, where I picked up two books that I’d had on hold. First, Michael Connelly’s newest, The Proving Ground. I was waiting in the queue for 4 months. And Robert Macfarlane’s newest: Is a River Alive?  Macfarlane is one of my favorite nonfiction writers. He writes about nature.

We’re not quite battening down the hatches yet. That will be at the end of the day tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

This is the sky the morning after the last snow. We were out early shoveling and snowblowing, The one saving grace? The spectacular sun and clear blue skies. No filters on this pic – this is exactly how it looked that morning.

Like much of the country, we are in the middle of extremely frigid temperatures and this trend doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon. My hands are still ice cold as I type this. And there’s talk of another storm that’s going to be spreading across the country – west to east – which might bring lots of snow on Sunday into Monday.

No, thank you, Mother Nature. We have enough on the ground.

I keep telling Don that this winter is starting to remind me of the “Boston Winter.” That’s the winter Don was away in Boston and I was holding down the fort here. I had to buy a rake for the roof because there was so much snow there. I shoveled a path for Scoutie that turned into a tunnel, it was so deep. The day I remember most was when we had yet another heavy snowfall and I had to shovel the driveway because I had to be in Hartford with Scout the next day. After working and working and seeing hardly any results I just stood there and cried. It seemed so hopeless. I waved the white flag of surrender and asked my neighbors for help. They came to my rescue.

I’ve been thinking of Scout a lot lately. It doesn’t seem possible, but she left us in February of 2016. She’s been gone 10 years. I miss her every day.

That means my Dad has been gone 10 years as well. And mom? 11 years. And Riley, 14 years.

The years go by so quickly, something I am reminded of all the time as I realize how limited our time here is.

I can’t write about the horrors in this country. It’s too hard. And I’m desperately trying to cling on to some semblance of hope.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

It took a long time to clean up after Don took the tree outside. I’m afraid we left it too long. Even though we wrapped a sheet around the top of the tree, it didn’t extend to the widest section, so needles and bits of branches kept dropping to the floor and on tables, furniture, etc. I vacuumed for a very long time on Saturday. Meanwhile, it snowed all day, so we had to go out and shovel and snowblow.

We vowed to take it easy yesterday. And we did. What we didn’t expect was more snow falling – all day long. I don’t know how many inches are on the ground. At the end of the day Saturday, there were 5 inches on the ground. So I imagine there is now at least 8 – 10 inches.

So it’s back outside today to do more shoveling and snowblowing.

This one was taken from our bedroom window. This has been the snowiest and coldest winter we’ve had in several years.

Yes, as of last night, the temps have dropped and we will have frigid temperatures all week long. Yippee.

And to top it all off, I woke up at 4:30 this morning. And I went right into my worry, dark mode. I slipped out of bed and came downstairs to make some coffee. I imagine I’ll take a long nap this afternoon.

I have some sad news to share. I was thinking of longtime reader of this blog, Chris K., over the weekend. If you remember she had RSV and had to recover in a nursing home for a while. I checked and the last comment she made on this blog was September 20, 2024. So I did some searching and, unfortunately, I found her obituary. She died on October 11, 2024 – just a few weeks after her comment. The obituary says she passed away suddenly after a brief illness. Heartbreaking. I wanted to let you know as many of you had interactions with her in the comments and she was a big part of the conversations on this blog. Here is the link to her obituary. What an extraordinary person she was. Rest in Peace, Chris.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.