You never know how much doing something sucked until you don’t have to do it anymore. Ask my dogs who are small and have therefore been hip deep in snow while peeing. I’m sure there’s some satisfaction in feeling the snow melt away under you, but even better would be no snow in your private parts. Which we have now thanks to several days of melt. Well, there’s still some down in the woods and up on the hill in front of the house, but since we don’t have to walk there . . . bliss.
Also, February is over tomorrow. Really, nothing but good times ahead.
What made you happy this week?
I’m happy that I got my first COVID vaccine shot. Also, I’m deeply touched by the numerous helpful volunteers who made the vaccination site work. An oncologist delivered my shot and my follow up appointment was made by a student from a college near where I live. Here I’d been fussing because I had to drive 1.5 hours to the vaccination site and this young man drove as far just to help people like me.
A look outside the windows and there isn’t a speck of stinkin’ snow anywhere. Even if we do get some in March it will be gone in a day. Hoping! Our town floods one of the playgrounds for ice skating in winter and yesterday someone posted a picture of melting ice at the rink, so soon it will be baseball season. I wonder if they will be allowed to play. The difference being bundled up in winter and more relaxed spring/summer.
We’re doomed.
Yes, but we won’t freeze to death.
We won’t have to thaw our arms before we eat them.
See? Nothing but good times ahead.
My husband got his first vaccination yesterday!
We had more snow this week, so we won’t be seeing the bare ground any time soon. One of my amaryllis has a second bud stem and it’s just starting to bloom – last one of the season but a nice pick-me-up for early March.
I spent most of the week finishing a garden plan in CAD. First time since I started the Horticulture program that I felt overwhelmed to the point of momentarily quitting. However, I pushed through and submitted it on time – definitely a case of ‘good enough’. As a reward, I bought myself a couple of plants that have been on my wish list.
Looking forward to a long walk with the dog today and a video chat with my BF.
I submitted my essay on time, freeing up my mind, which
unfortunately is otherwise blank.
I was able to schedule my first covid shot for next week.
Re-read Fast Women.
With better weather, I was able to go to my weekly workout
at the hospital, rather than doing a virtual. My trainer is
brilliant–I complained about my hips hurting, and she
immediately came up with a new exercise to strength
the muscles nearby.
Had lunch yesterday with a friend in a restaurant.
Snow is nearly gone here!
Dear Jenny and Arghers, including lurkers,
I want to give you All a very very heartfelt THANK YOU, this past year you have been helping me be reasonable cheerful. Your comments, your recommendations about authors. Thanks
My parents (b0th 90) got their first shots yesterday. Maine is opening vaccinations to 60+ on Wednesday, so I can at least get in line. All good.
I saw a red fox trotting across the snow at dawn yesterday, a sight to keep in my memory banks for ever.
Thought I was lined up for two job interviews last week, but neither happened, so that was a bummer. But I see a lot more jobs around, so I live in hope.
More daylight is always good, I’ve started waking up at 6, so I am some time alone, which I need.
I was really angry yesterday and feeling helpless in a patient-advocacy setting after a website posted a really terrible “educational” article about my rare disorder, based on outdated information and myths that have since been disproved. It stomped all over the messaging that patient advocates are struggling to spread about the disorder (supported by, yanno, actual cutting-edge science). And it was posted in the context of “helping” patients. Save me from unasked-for help!
But now I’m happy, because after asking them to take it down, they finally did today!
It’s still frustrating that patient-advocates have to waste time fixing stuff like this, over and over, but it feels good to know that I was able to make the really bad messaging go away.
Keep up the good work, Gin. Your passion and tenacity are inspiring.
Thank you!
I got my garden started . I planted broccoli, lettuce and celery. I haven’t planted celery before so this will be fun to see if it is successful.
My biggest happy is that yesterday I got my dad’s COVID shots booked. My mom is significantly younger so she’s in the next group. He goes for his first shot next Saturday which is my birthday so I’m calling that a good omen.
We still have all our snow and added a bit more to the pile. I was shovelling the sidewalk and the shovel handle snapped just as I was throwing a scoop of snow. I watched it go sailing through the air totally dumbfounded. It was a brand new shovel with a strong wooden handle. Guess I was wrong about that!
Today I made appointments for my aunt who has chronic kidney disease to get her COVID shots. That is also a relief.
It’s been a sunny, mild weekend, and I’ve spent it in my garden. Even had lunch there, and a very late breakfast today!
Started the week with another sunny day, which I spent going for a walk – and a picnic! – with the friend I’m bubbling with. She wanted to explore the area I used to live, just south of town, so we bumped into a couple of former neighbours, and my ex landlords were gardening at the cottage I used to rent, and gave us a tour of the garden. Lovely to meet people and have conversations; and it always delights me how much my landlords enjoy living there, and the garden they’ve made out of the one I created there. And Pam was wowed by all the snowdrops – there are carpets of them along the lane.
It’s cold and rainy here. My mom, 80, got her second Covid shot Friday. You never know how stressed you really are until some of it is lifted. It left us both exhausted with relief.
I have Cara Cara oranges. They are what sunshine would taste like if you could package that.
My sewing machine is back from service and I’m celebrating by making a chair cushion I’ve been thinking about for a year.
And that has given me the kick in the pants I needed to do some cleaning and clearing in my craft area. I dislike having to do it, but the clean slate makes me happy.
It’s been too wet to think about my garden, what with the melting snow and then rain, but my snapdragons, which are supposed to be annuals, are nice and green. They are so festive, all that boisterous color, just thinking about them makes me happy
I wish we had gotten enough snow to stick. It’s remarkable how different a hundred miles south can be. Instead it’s raining all day and we have giant puddles everywhere.
I’m still eaves dropping via text on my son and his cousin on physics and it delights me. I remember reading Montaillou and realizing that people really did linger under the eaves of houses and listen to what was being said inside…
That was fast, yet slow. Just commenting to H that when we were returning from Miami last February, little did we know we wouldn’t be able to travel. He reminded me we usually do a big trip every two years so we will be right on time next February. Or will we? Would love to go back to Italy again especially after watching Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy. The food and coffee is so very delicious.
Just coasting along in life, no COVID and waiting for the vaccine. Asthma is kicking up so…being watchful. Otherwise, same old and I am reading again. Really quite happy about getting into a good book.
We had granddaughters (they are in our bubble) all day and sleep over. We bought a panel of masks to sew. G and I made a test/trial mask, downsized for a child. Worked out quite well. She was thrilled to sew it by herself with a little help from Grammy. Made another mask for R. I changed the instructions to an easier format. The panel had little examples of mix and match masks which are just the right size for their Barbie dolls. The dolls have masks. It was a happy, happy day for us.
I’ve noticed various different things springing into life this week in the garden – the snowdrops are largely over, but we have daffodils, some surprise crocus that I really do not remember from last year, the first peek of blossom on the ornamental plum tree, and all sorts showing buds in various states of emerging.
And let us not forget the massive ball of frogspawn that has appeared in our pond.
Also, it looks as if my anemones might actually survive to flower. I have always previously failed at growing them myself – though I love them – and stuck some bulbs from the supermarket into a couple of pots last autumn, without much hope. Was then a bit taken aback for them to bud and sprout leaves a couple of weeks later (I expected them to overwinter dormant, and *maybe* come up in Spring). They flattened and looked very sorry for themselves in a very convincing indication of complete death-by-frostbite during the snow/freeze we had not long ago, but have now risen again and have multiple flower buds to the point where the colour of the flower is showing (the bulbs were mixed colour).
So I am hopeful…
We’ve had some lovely sun and non-Arctic temps the past few days, so we’ve been able to go for decent walks, which always makes me happy. 🙂
Found out that my employer is going to pay everyone for the 40 hours of work we missed during Snowpocalypse 🥳 That’s 2200 employees. I am stunned. Thought for sure we would all be scrambling to use PTO. Wow.
My happy this week was both getting to see some of my great-nephews/nieces and returning home.
They live on a small farm with horses, cows, chickens, ducks, peacocks, sheep, goats, and cats outside. Three dogs, parrots, cockatiels, bunnies and Debbie the ferret indoors. It was loud and chaotic in a fun way and then I got to come home to peace & quiet. Heaven.
We still have snow, but at least some of it has melted off the roof.
I made my delicious chicken artichoke casserole, which makes so much that we not only ate it for dinner, I froze 4 portions, put aside a portion for my sister, and still have at least one meal’s worth in the fridge. And now the dishwasher is working away, so all signs of carnage from cooking are gone.
That sounds like a recipe I made for many brunches when I lived in Minneapolis. My friends may have been tired of it, but since the recipe started with 2 whole chickens, there was no way I could eat it all myself. I even made friends with the grocery store cashier when he looked at what I was loading onto the conveyor belt and asked, “What are you making?” I invited him to join us, but he declined. I made sure that I took the second batch through his lane so that he could get a picture of the whole menu. And we remained pals until he finished school and quit the grocery store job.
I can’t remember most of what made me happy this week, because after I found a great couch at the consignment shop on Friday, my brain melted. This couch is exactly what I didn’t know I wanted and I even bought the throw pillows they had used for the display. I had originally bought a chair that I saw online, but when I sat in the chair, it wasn’t comfortable. They credited my account and I went around the showroom sitting on everything in sight. There were 2 couches that looked possible and the one that looked better also was more comfortable so the decision was almost painfully easy.
I then started stressing about the fact that they didn’t deliver to my neighborhood and the sales woman said, “Of course we do!” They will call tomorrow to set a time for delivery. When even the small stuff takes a huge amount of effort, it is a huge relief when things are simple.
A surprise source of happiness was when my brother told me that there was unused expense money left over when my parents’ trust was dissolved and we all will be getting another three thousand dollars. Whooppee!! This will pay for the really comfy chair that I want to find to go with the couch.
I started by looking for a coffee table and instead will now get something I need much more and all without, if my luck holds, going into my savings.
March is coming in like a lion, aggravating in an emotional and stressful way. However, today brought some relief from the situation, and I have hope that the lion will turn into a lamb long before month’s end. I know this is murky but i can’t be any more clear about what’s going on.
Snow pack is still there, but there will be rain and higher temperatures tomorrow. I’m hoping most of it will go away before the cold snap on Tuesday freezes all the runoff. There’s a wind advisory as well.
Having so much trouble being happy. D**n politics. Wretched tRumpers. Maybe Bob is right?
One more attempt: My amaryllis, like Susan’s, is blooming, big, bright and beautiful.
Always good to check in here.
Did you see the gold statue of Trump? All those evangelicals and a golden calf. That’s comedy gold, that’s what that is.
Seriously. How do they not see the irony?
My friend’s comment was, “I hope they are preparing to wander for 40 years in the electoral wilderness.”
Tomorrow, March 1, would have been my parents’ 75th wedding anniversary. I drive past the church where they were married, right after the war, most days. Tuesday, March 2, would have been my father’s 100th birthday. My mother’s twin sister is still living and my cousin sent a picture of her yesterday — even though they were identical twins, they had slightly different personal styles and so it was a slight surprise to see how much my aunt suddenly looks almost exactly like Mother (her hair has been allowed to go to its natural color and is a bit longer than she’d been keeping it). Aunt Ruth will be 99 in April.
Weather has turned sunny here, which is nice. And today I resumed regular Sundays with my cousin, and we watched FINDING YOUR ROOTS, the last two episodes we hadn’t seen when lockdown began. One of the guests was Nancy Pelosi. She has a wicked sense of humor! I was tickled that when she first thought of running for Congress, she consulted her youngest, a 16-year-old daughter, who said, basically, “Mom, get a life!” What that daughter unleashed . . . . I love the show and I love Henry Louis Gates, but most of the time I have no idea who the celebrities are; not my field of expertise.
And when I got home our tenant had decided that tonight was the night to try out Trader Joe’s Blood Orange cake mix. It’s pretty good and definitely different.
March 2nd would also have been my father’s 104th birthday also the date that he died. Which means he must have been a toddler during the first pandemic and yet there was never any mention of it in family lore. I can see where too much life happened, the depression, WWII, Korea and many firsts.
I also love Finding Your Roots and look forward to it every season. I can’t imagine all the research done to go back in time following paper trails, town and church records, newspaper accounts to track relatives. At the end of each episode he will do a DNA of his guests to see if there is a genetic match to other guests and ethnic groups. I was surprised to see that he is related to Nora O’Donnell. Also not surprised to see Larry David related to Bernie Sanders, you can see the same features on both.
Henry Louis Gates has a TEAM, that’s how he does it. There are more resources online all the time — I have recently been submerged in the ones that identify my g-g-g-grandmother’s family, which my partner in genealogical crime thinks is a family no one has documented from primary sources before — and I agree, because I’ve been researching genealogy since I was sixteen, and that couple has been a brick wall, like the ancestors of my Irish potato famine emigrant and my probably-illegitimate-but-I-know-his-mother ancestor and my her-father-died-April-1807-daughter-born-October-1808 ancestor.
Of course I know Henry Louis Gates main role is that of a host. I just love the way he interacts with the guests and puts them at ease even to the point of giggling with them at times. And let’s not forget that he does get more serious, too. In my family there has been name changes over the past two centuries and of course they have splintered all over the country. From farmers to railroad workers to military and policemen/women (Irish/Scottish, I mean that in a good way). Good luck with your continued research.
I spent the weekend with 30 people at a friend’s holiday home. We’re in New Zealand, so it’s summer with very few covid restrictions. It was a glorious setting at a deserted beach and we swam and kayaked and walked and talked. I felt like one of the luckiest people on the planet.
So very jealous. But happy for you.
On the good news side:
I am getting my first vaccine shot tomorrow. I am still in shock that they are letting me do it and did not cancel it on me. Theoretically I could be as free as we get these days by mid-April?!
I mailed several people stuffed toys.
Wearing a KN95 masks works just fine in public.
My big ol’ work project this week is done and I did NOT have to sound the alarm for tech support, even if I had to redo it from scratch because tech went wrong.
I contacted the crush a few times and he actually briefly responded back! (However, I am feeling ticked off right now because I found out a bunch of our friends all did a show together and I was not invited…and he was in it. Grrrrrrrrrrr.)
I pulled out my saw and cut a chunk out of a shelf that had been waiting a few years for me to install. In one fell swoop I doubled the available space in the weird little end cabinet in my kitchen. (It is set into the wall and the space inside is an L.)Honestly, I’m annoyed at myself for waiting so long, but I’m ridiculously pleased with the result. Now I’m eyeing my pantry, which could be made much more efficient.
My mom (81) got her second shot on Thursday and I get mine this week (through work), so that is good news. Now trying to get my Dad and a neighbor taken care of. Both are somewhat technically challenged. Plus my dad lives in central Virginia, which doesn’t seem to have a plan at all.
I’m imagining Karen with a huge chainsaw making the world a more efficient place.
I too live in Central VA and I concur with you. I periodically receive emails from the Department of Health saying we have you on our list which I interpret as “Please do not call us.” My county had a single vaccination clinic a month ago. There are no chain pharmacies here. Not feeling the love.
Pan, 13 year old cat, is recovering from surgery to remove two lumps about his mouth. He’s doing well, even eating doesn’t look painful anymore. Today our vet called. Both lumps, even the scary black one, are benign. Right now I seem to be feeling how scared I was for him which I didn’t when I was making appointments and carrying him to the vet. I was thrilled when she called. I know I’ll probably have to face his death but not today and oh I hope, not cancer.
More cheerful note I’m pretty sure I figured out what was making my homemade nougat too soft. Now I just need an even slightly good excuse to make a new batch. Could do it for Pan but it would need to be prawn flavoured 🙂
Very glad to hear about Pan! And I reckon figuring out the nougat is all the excuse you need for making a new batch. Science is nothing without experimentation, right?
I love Finding Your Roots. I also found Who Do You Think You Are? on some streaming platform. It’s not quite as academic as Finding Your Roots, but it gives me a bit of a genealogical fix. Right now my sister, father, aunt, and a cousin are discussing over email a mysterious relative that my sister has found that none of the others have ever heard of. I would bet that my sister is correct, but it is upsetting some of the older generation that existing genealogies may not be entirely correct.
I went to read this lovely article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/interactive/2021/this-incredibly-charming-painting-emerged-disturbing-ideology/ because of the painting of a walking dachshund being all vivid motion made me think of you, but the first ideology was just icing! The second manifesto leans grim, and also leads to fascism, so, yanno, not so much.
I thought that was fascinating, too. The original idea of art as movement was interesting, so much a precursor for abstract art, I thought, but also as a parallel to Aristotle’s character is action. The second manifesto was vile, but that’s fascists for you.
Our snow is melting, but there is still plenty left. Woke up to 39 and rain, but the temps are supposed to drop during the day and switch to snow, and be 7 degrees by the time I wake up. So mixed happy/not happy, really.
Still, I always feel a sense of relief when February is over, like the hump of winter is behind me. In upstate NY, March can be brutal, but at least you know the end is in sight.
I’m happy because Furbidden Fatality is finally out in the world and people seem to be liking it (seriously–switching from paranormal romance to cozy mystery is really nerve wracking). And I can finally get back to writing book three, which is due (gulp) a month from today.
So now I want some cozy paranormal mystery romance. Sounds tasty to me!
There are a ton of paranormal cozies out there. But cozies tend not to have much romance. It’s sad, really.
Kind of struggling to be happy this week. But I spent 3 hours outside yesterday and made some gains in the backyard, so that’s good.
I’m happy that I will be getting my second dose of vaccine on Thursday, months sooner than expected. And I may then be able to go visit my parents next month, who have both been vaccinated but are in their 80’s and very cautious.