Saturday, January 9

Slept til 8 a.m. this morning, then got on the treadmill and did weights exercises after breakfast. By the time I was ready for the day, Mother and Sis were here. We began the day by gathering materials needed for making screen door greeting cards. Sis wanted to make two birthday cards for her daughters.

I noticed when I came downstairs that Hubbie had set up a space heater in the living room (where we craft). He said the central heat wasn't performing right...the heat was coming on, but kept going off before it reached the set temperature. So Hubbie called the repairman. He came quickly, and found that condensation had frozen in the drain pipe from the heater, causing the heater to automatically shut off. The repairman unclogged the drain pipe, then wrapped it so it won't freeze again. He said ours was the fourth frozen drain pipe problem that he had to deal with today.

After that, Hubbie checked the propane tank and found it had only 20% propane in it. Because it is so cold, he was afraid we would run out before the end of the weekend, so he called the propane company, and they came and filled the tank. They routinely come by and fill the tank, but because of the extreme cold weather, we used more propane than usual this month.

This unusually cold weather causes all sorts of problems, but thankfully, these two were readily solved.

After lunch, Sis did two really cute cards (I'll snap pictures of them for tomorrow's blog). She only needs to put the finishing touches on them in the morning. While she was doing that, Mother put together a Dutch oven of autumn stew for supper. I moved back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, helping Sis and Mother with their projects, and Hubbie watched a basketball game.

The autumn stew was delicious and warming at supper, served with canned biscuits and choice of strawberry preserves, cherry preserves, peach preserves, pumpkin butter, or honey.

After supper, we played several games of Skipbo, with Mother and I winning two games each, and Hubbie winning one. Then Mother and Sis went to Mother's house, and Hubbie and I watched a couple of one-hour shows on TV.

It was a pleasant day.

Friday, January 8

Got up late, again, and then did a treadmill and resistance exercises session. Didn't accomplish much else for the rest of the morning. Mother came over around 11 a.m., and we visited until lunch time.

After a lunch of the leftover soup from last night's supper, Hubbie and I went to the WDCS to get a few groceries for the weekend. It was dangerously cold today, so we were surprised to see a guy going into the store in a t-shirt and no coat, while I looked like Nanook of the North in several layers of clothes, my heaviest suede and fleece-lined coat with hood, hat, and gloves.

When we got back from the store, I baked an apple pie for Sis. I do this every year for her birthday.

Sis arrived around 2 p.m. Fortunately, she didn't have to detour around the propane tanker accident. Even though the tanker spilled over 9,000 gallons of propane, causing the evacuation of 31 homes, the spill was cleaned up by 1 a.m. this morning. It was expected that it would take 24 to 36 hours to clean up the spill, but several hazmat teams came from surrounding states and dealt with it much more quickly.

Spent the afternoon visiting with Sis, and then we had a supper of Parmesan talapia fish, baked sweet potatoes, and English peas, with yeast hot rolls. Afterward, Sis and Mother went to Mother's house, and Hubbie and I went to the visitation for the Master Gardener who died this week.

Back home, we watched TV, and I answered an e-mail from a friend who lives in Missouri. This is the friend we tried to visit while we were in Branson in October, but were unable to see because she was in the hospital.

Thursday, January 7

Got up late again this morning, but did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, I spent time photographing the birds in the yard from our sun room window (see previous blog).



I didn't accomplish much else for the morning. For lunch, we had scrambled egg substitute, with leftover hash browns, and whole wheat mini bagels topped with cherry preserves.



After lunch, I hemmed a couple of pairs of fleece pants, and gathered laundry to wash. Then I cooked a chicken breast to use in a new soup recipe for supper. The recipe calls for chicken broth, white beans, canned diced tomatoes, and onions, garlic, celery, and carrots, as well as Swiss chard and pasta. But I tweaked the recipe by adding half of a chicken breast and a variety of spices. Since I was unable to find fresh Swiss chard, I substituted fresh spinach. Served with bran muffins, it was a hearty and very yummy and warming meal on this getting-colder-by-the-minute evening.



Our little town dominated our capital city TV station news this evening, when a reporter came here and interviewed a resident (a lady we know) about the extremely cold weather. Also, a tanker truck hauling propane gas overturned on the steep and winding road leading into town, and leaked thousands of gallons of propane. Several businesses and homes were evacuated.



Later this evening, Hubbie and I watched the BCS National Championship college football game between Alabama and Texas. Hubbie rooted for Alabama, but I was neutral. Alabama, of course, won.



Mother stayed home today, though I don't know what projects she was involved in. Hubbie went over there and checked on her, and I talked to her a couple of times via intercom.



Bright spot: got nice birthday cards and notes from two friends...one yesterday, and one today. I'll see another sixty-something birthday on Sunday, and Sis, who has a birthday this month, too, will be here to celebrate both her own and my special days this weekend. She is ten years and ten days younger than I am.

Br-rr Winter

Even though we didn't get the predicted one to two inches of snow last night, the remainder of what fell a few days ago persists, because the temperature is so frigid here in the south.
The birds are great predictors of approaching cold weather, because they furiously feed to keep their little bodies warm. We make sure to keep the bird feeders filled for them. I snapped images of the two cardinals as they were cleaning up seed from the ground this morning. Because I shot the images through the glass windows in the sun room, using a telephoto lens, a high ISO setting, and no tripod, the photos are very soft-focused.

Wednesday, January 6

I got up around 8 a.m. this morning, but skipped my exercises so I could get ready to take Mother to her 10 a.m. appointment with her ophthalmologist. Mother is healing nicely, the doctor said, and so she was given a new appointment for January 28, at which time she'll be examined and given a prescription for new eyeglasses.

Otherwise, we spent this cold, lazy day watching DVDs. We started with one I bought for a dollar at a silent auction, and I'm glad I didn't pay more, because part way through it, the disk quit working. We threw it away. We enjoyed what we were able to see of it, which was a recording of a Branson show.

The second feature was the musical "Into the Woods," starring Bernadette Peters. In this two- and-a-half-hour show, several fairy tale characters interact in a plot that weaves the stories together, and Little Red Riding Hood, Repunzel, Cinderella, Jack (of the Beanstalk), etc., learn that "happily ever after isn't always happy. " This 1991 film is unrated, but is not aimed at children.

Supper tonight was cheeseburgers/turkey burgers on whole wheat buns, with baked potatoes and no-salt canned whole kernel corn.

Afterward, Hubbie escorted Mother home to make sure her door opened. Then we settled in to waste more time watching TV. The first movie we saw was called, "Held Hostage," that I'd recorded on DVR from the Lifetime Movie Network. Masked men break into a woman's home, hold her and her daughter hostage, and then in the morning tape dynamite to their legs and demand the woman rob the bank where she is the manager, or the daughter dies. Based on a true story.

The second movie we saw was, "Australia," a PG-13 film starring Nichole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. A prim woman travels to Australia from England in the late 1930s to join her husband, but finds him dead when she arrives. She and a cattle drover the husband hired, along with a strange crew, set about driving the cattle across the hostile landscape. A cute boy, known as a "half cast" (an Aboriginal child fathered by a white man), wins the woman's heart, and she vows to take care of him. This movie is long at two-and-a-half hours.

Tuesday, January 5

Slept well last night, but got up late, anyway, on this frigid morning. After breakfast, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises. Once I was ready for the day, I did routine household chores until lunch. Mother opted to stay home this morning, but she came over after lunch to take apart and put away the jigsaw puzzles.

Hubbie and I had leftovers for lunch....a pork chop sandwich for him, and homemade tomato soup for me...and then we traveled to a nearby town to our favorite electronics store to get a new telephone with answering machine. We learned that our old phone's answering machine wasn't working when I got a letter from the nurse at my cardiac doctor's office, setting an appointment for me. At the bottom of the letter, she noted that our answering machine was full. But when I checked it, I discovered it just didn't work at all.

We found an inexpensive phone very similar to the old one, so it was simple to set up after we got back home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing this and that, before having a breakfast-for-supper meal of Ziplock bag omelets, with hash browns and bran muffins. I made the muffins after we got back from the electronics store. Later, Hubbie peeled potatoes and shredded them in the food processor. Mother cooked onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms, and added the mixture, plus shredded cheese, to egg substitute for her and me, and regular eggs for Hubbie. It was a very satisfying meal on this cold winter evening.

Mother went home after supper, but returned within minutes, because she couldn't get the door to her house open. Hubbie went to check on it and got it open, then walked Mother home. The extreme cold probably caused the problem.

Mother can't win for losing this week. Sometime during Sunday night, someone apparently traveled too fast around that curve near her house, skidded on the snow-slicked road, fishtailed, and knocked over her mailbox and post. Hubbie tried to set the post and box back up, but it's wobbly, so he'll have to wait til the weather gets better to repair it. In the meantime, he has asked our mail carrier to leave Mother's mail in our box. During inclement weather, the mail carrier does this anyway, since he knows Mother is elderly.

This evening, we watched our favorite college basketball team play to an unfortunate loss.

Sad news: the obituaries in tonight's local newspaper announced the death of one of the Master Gardeners. This very nice lady was only 55 years old. We've known for a few months that she was terminally ill with cancer. She and her family went to Florida to stay during her illness, and we hadn't heard anything about her since they left. But just yesterday, I thought about her, and wondered aloud how she was doing.

Final arrangements for the funeral are not complete, but the services will be here, so I'm sure Hubbie and I will attend.

Monday, January 4

Had trouble going to sleep last night, so I slept late this morning. Hubbie was already up by the time I came downstairs at 8 a.m.

After breakfast, I did a treadmill session and weights exercises. Once I was ready for the day, I did lots of nit-picky chores, mostly setting the house to rights after the holidays. Mother stayed home this morning, basically doing the same thing that I was doing here.

For lunch, Hubbie and I cut up veggies for chef's salads. We added pineapple chunks, mandarin orange slices, Craisins, and pecans, as well as deli turkey and cottage cheese. It was very good served with flat bread crackers and hot tea.

Mother came over after lunch, and we planned the menu for the week. Then Hubbie quartered two heads of cabbage to be boiled. We had some of it with our supper and the rest went into the freezer. Mother took care of the cabbage while Hubbie and I ran errands...to the bank, to the pharmacy, and to the WDCS for groceries, where we shopped for Mother as well as ourselves.

Supper was leftover blackeyed peas and Parmesan potatoes (again, and for the last time), and of course the cabbage, plus yeast rolls.

Mother went home after that, and Hubbie and I settled in front of TV. We started with a movie called, "Shutter." In this 2008 PG-13 film, starring Joshua Jackson and Rachel Taylor, a newly married couple move to Japan where the husband, who is a photographer, has a business opportunity. Upon arriving, a woman runs out in front of the car the wife is driving and is hit, but is no where to be found when the police arrive. After that, strange ghost images appear in photos that the husband and wife shoot. Creepy plot twists.

The second movie we saw was, "The Glass House," rated PG-13. A teen and her 11-year-old brother lose their parents in an auto accident, and then they go live with the parents' best friends, who turn out to be not the ideal guardians.

Sunday, January 3

We slept late this morning, and then were surprised to see about an inch of snow on the ground. After breakfast, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises, and then hopped into my clothes to go outside and take pictures of the white stuff before it melted away (see photos in previous blog). As it turned out the snow stayed around all day, so I needn't have been in such a hurry to get outside.

By the time I took the pictures, uploaded them to my computer, and downloaded them to my blog, it was already lunch time.

We had pork chops baked with onions and apple juice, along with leftover blackeyed peas and Parmesan baked potatoes. After lunch, Mother continued with her jigsaw puzzle, while Hubbie and I put away the ornaments from the Christmas tree in the sun room. Then we put away all the other Christmas decorations around the house. Mother helped with this task.

The only thing remaining is the Christmas village on the mantel. I leave this up through January, as a winter scene.

After that, I helped Mother with the jigsaw puzzle, and we completed it around 4:30 p.m. Usually, we complete five or six puzzles during the holidays, but this year, we only had time to do three.

Mother went home shortly after we finished the puzzle, and Hubbie and I watched TV. One of the movies we saw was "Danika," a 2006 R-rated thriller starring Mareisa Tormei. The character, Danika, who has paranoid fears for the safety of her children following her husband's infidelity with their nanny, begins having both nightmare and daydream premonitions of deaths and disasters.

First Snow of the Season

The weather prediction for our part of the state was for a possible dusting of snow today, but when we awoke this morning, we saw that there was an inch or more...just enough to provide a photo opportunity. I snapped these images in our yard.