Category: General

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Winter speaks!

I have to interrupt all the Mali stories and pictures to mention the most wintry of weather that we’ve had so far this year (at least while I’ve been home!) They predicted all sorts of nastiness – I think we got about half of what was predicted, thank goodness, and that was still bad/beautiful enough.

Ice with a layering of snow. It is absolutely gorgeous! But I feel for the poor trees and animals. Lots of limbs have been cracking off and so many are drooping with the burden of the ice covering. The deer and squirrels have been all over the yard, crunching through the ice crust (well, not the squirrels as they sort of just skip along the top of it), but the eating options are pretty scarce.

Every breeze sends the branches clacking and clicking. The sun is shining forth for all it’s worth, but there isn’t much heat in it to help defrost the ice – and temps in the teens aren’t helping either.

Our electric was out for more than four hours yesterday – enough to get the fireplace burning and the candles out, but everything was in fine order well before we went to bed. It is pure luxury to be able to admire the scenery from the comfort and warmth of the house….

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New Year

2007 is off to a great start!

I am usually pretty lousy at keeping my financial records up to date, but with the impending trip to Mali, I figured I better get everything in order before I leave so it is ready to go to the accountant when I get back. So, this afternoon I finished entering all the necessary data. Feels good to have that done. All I need to do now is set up an appointment for February.

I’ve started piling for the Mali trip. One of our empty bedrooms really is empty since we used that single bed to make a king-sized bed in the other bedroom. In place of the bed, there are now various piles of necessary ‘stuff’ – like a hat, travel towel, lightweight long pants, flashlight, hand sanitizer, etc. The local group – six of us – is meeting tomorrow to go over lists, ideas, suggestions, etc. to make the packing process go smoothly and to insure there are no “Oh, I forgot!” moments. I’ve warned my love to expect orderly chaos in that room …

Speaking of my love, he surprised me big time with a wonderful Christmas gift: a hot tub! We’ll choose the final product and placement details after the Mali trip, but we’ll be putting it off the current deck, down three feet and sunk into its own decking. I’ve got my towel ready!

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Hot Water

I was in heaven today. Or at least, close to it.

My friend L had called last week to set up a time to meet before the holidays. We hadn’t seen each other for a while and the prospect of getting together with her was a pleasant one. We met for breakfast and then I went in to the Quilt center for my hours of volunteering.

Afterward, I wound my way through the countryside to her residence. All sorts of lovely Christmas and holiday decorations were scattered around the house, in and out. We exchanged small gifts, filled plastic cups full of ice and water, dropped our clothes and headed for the hot tub on her back patio.

Hot water is a wonderful thing! Hot water with pleasant conversation and sips of ice water is even better. I have this thing for sitting in hot water. I think it stems from my mother making her baths so hot she looked parboiled when she got out. She certainly soaked all her tensions out. And that is my goal, too, whenever in hot water.

The outside temperature was almost balmy and the sun was out. We didn’t solve any major problems of the world, but did discuss a bunch of them.

After sufficient pruning up, it was back to the real world of rush hour traffic and figuring out what to have for dinner (I forgot all about the eggplant – darn!). For the brief time in L’s hot tub, the world was good. I’m still feeling the soothing effects – think I’ll head in early tonight!

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Busy Week

It’s been a busy week in Lake ……… sorry about that – got carried away! It HAS been a busy week, but when I try to remember what it was I was so caught up in, I have trouble spotting any one thing that took all my time. Lots of little things, important at the moment, that needed doing. Now all I remember is the time lost.

Some of my busyness was in free-arm quilting two more quilt tops. I’m feeling more comfortable doing it – and have a better control over the machine now, too. Here’s a shot of the third one – of course, the back shows my work. #3 quilt finished

Some of the time spent was computer related – getting things working correctly again. And that always takes more time that you ever anticipate. My love says I have expectations that are waaaaay too high and that I should just be glad things work when they do! I won’t go into my harangue about computers.

Two more women joined our little troop going to Mali in January! Our merry band of seven should have a grand time with each other, much less our journey. Starting to seriously think about mosquito netting and hand sanitizer and camera supplies.

The camera is the thing I’m concerned about the most. Mine is old enough that they have discontinued making the cards for it and when you can find any they are really expensive. If I can be sure of the ability to upload my pics off the card while at an internet cafe, that would be fine. Otherwise, I’ll need some other means of storing pics – either an expensive chip or maybe another camera (those one-use wonders would work if I bring a lot). Decisions…..

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Breathing

This past week has flown by!

Thanksgiving was a pleasant blur of travel and activity: in Columbus for my family gathering, in Cleveland to meet and greet the youngest son’s in-laws-to-be, and in Youngstown for a bit of time with my love’s sister and sister-in-law. All comfortable gatherings filled with good food and friendly banter.

The only downside to the whole affair was that I brought home a cold. I find that I really like to breathe using both nostrils, so the challenge has been to find something that helps that process to happen while not either putting me to sleep (except of course, at night, when I want that to be my mode of operation) or keeping me wired. We had some old meds in the cabinet that have worked; the trick is in duplicating them with the newer reformulations that have happened in the med world. So far so good…… breathing is still happening regularly.