Denuded

Did you hear about the theft at the museum? The burglars took every painting of  unclothed people. I guess you might say that the museum walls were denuded.

Tomorrow is also a day.

Bits and Bits

The temperature seems to be stuck at 32 degrees -- and it's raining, just a light rain, but water nonetheless.   Everything not generating its own heat is becoming coated with ice.  It looks a bit like this:

I took this photo a couple of years ago during a similar weather event.

I'm hoping the rain stops soon.  Right now, the ice is not heavy enough to break limbs and utility lines. We need it to stay that way!

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Since I elect not to venture out in this sort of weather, I'm catching up on some household chores that were put off during my Christmas/New Year activities.  How one old woman and one old cat can disrupt the desired order is beyond me.

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I've got a loaf of bread baking in my bread machine (love it!) and the house smells wonderful. Warm bread, butter, and some flavored honey that was a Christmas gift will be on my lunch plate.

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Tomorrow is also a day.

I Didn't Freeze...

... during the Arctic Plunge, but some of my water pipes did. 

Foolish me!  I went to bed Sunday night without leaving a dripping faucet, and arose Monday morning able to draw water only from the cold water tap in the bathroom (which is an interior room.)  Fortunately, both hot and cold water were flowing from all taps before sundown and I suffered no burst pipes. 

Last night was even more frigid, by about 5 degrees, but I heard the drip, drip, drip of water in my kitchen sink every time I stirred from sleep.  It was nice to be able to wash my face in warm water this morning.

Unlike many parts of the U.S., central Arkansas was blessed by the absence of freezing precipitation during the worst of it. We have much for which to be thankful.

It's January, with all the attendant work required following the end of one year and the beginning of another. I worked in the church office all day today. I made serious inroads into my work load, but still have much to do before month-end. I know I'm nuts, but I love all that record-keeping stuff.

Stay warm, and keep your powder dry.

Tomorrow is also a day.

Bits and Pieces

I've been colder than a well-digger's boot today. There's something about the construction of my house that, when it's quite cold and the wind blows, it matters not where I set the thermostat; I'm simply not going to feel warm.

I remedied the situation somewhat by cooking up a big pot of hamburger/veggie soup with plenty of hot chili flakes as part of the seasoning. That, and several pieces of hot cornbread, baked in my heaviest iron skillet, at least warmed my innards. My nose and toes are still chilly, but my core temperature has risen by a degree or two, I'm sure.

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I recently finished reading a book.  A book-book.  Big deal, you say?  Since acquiring my Kindle, which I have kept loaded with freebie reading material from Amazon, I haven't had many book-books in my hands.  I had almost forgotten how heavy a book can be (not necessarily a good thing for arthritic wrists and hands), or how enjoyable it is to feel ink-on-paper under your hands (a good thing).  

This particular book was P.D. James' The Private Patient (Faber and Faber Limited, 2008), loaned to me just after Christmas by a friend. I've always found P.D. James' mystery novels very interesting. She really knows how to spin a tale, and how to captivate the reader with her opening words. As example:

" On November the 21st, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death."

I'm a big fan of British mystery novels, anyway, and Baroness James has a way with words that is vocabulary-expanding, to say the least.  I take perverse pleasure in having to occasionally resort to a dictionary to get a full understanding of her descriptive language. 

Baroness James  (more information here) is now 93 years old.  I hope she lives for many more years, but time is not on her side.  I always grieve the passing of authors whose work I enjoy; I think they should all live longer than I do, and continue to be published until my dying breath.  It that too much to ask? 

That's all the bits and pieces for now.  

Tomorrow is also a day.

New Year - New Look

A Happy New Year to All!

I traveled to my sister's home in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, to spend New Year's Eve and Day.  She had invited a dozen or so of her single female acquaintances to join her for a Global New Year's Eve party, during which we would toast the arrival of the New Year in various parts of the world.  We had a glorious time, with delicious food and an ample supply of bubbly with which to do our toasting.

I was happy to have been included on the guest list for this event. Sister's friends proved to be delightful. All are retired from the work-a-day world but still very active in a wide variety of activities: writing, art, music, charitable foundations and the like.   Several of them had, in pre-retirement years, lived abroad: Pakistan, Kenya, Honduras, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and other places that I can't at this writing recall.  I had a wonderful time listening to their stories.

New Year's Day was spent in leisure activities including a lovely visit with some of my own dear friends who moved to the Village in late October last year.  

I arrived back home after dark, but in time to attend our Wednesday evening church service, the first service of 2014.

All in all, a wonderful day.  Thank you, Sister, for a lovely time.

Tomorrow is also a day.