Deep Freeze
Jan. 22nd, 2004 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladeanWe signed up with a grocery-delivery service maybe four or five years ago. Today is the first time since we did so that, when I was putting the empty boxes out on the porch for the driver to collect when he delivers the new batch, I put on not just a coat, not just a hat, but heavy gloves and, after one trip out, a pair of insulated hiking boots. My hands were numb when I was done, though the entire process took only about two minutes. For some reason this did not bring up memories of miserably scuttling from door to bus stop, from bus to door, on my way to work in Minneapolis; nor of the way the streets downtown guide the wind to frenzies not readily attainable elsewhere in the metropolitan area. Rather, I remembered making my resentful way to school in Nebraska, cursing repeatedly the idiots who were responsible for the rule that girls could not wear trousers while in the oh-so-hallowed educational precincts.
We have a lot of troubles just at the moment, but I must say, it's a thousand times better than high school.
Having said that, I want also to note that while it is quite cold in my office, requiring the donning of a heavy sweater and a silk patchwork jacket padded with polyester, the radiator is nevertheless too hot for me to put my slippered feet on, and too hot for my cat to sleep on it, as he is wont to do when the outside temperature is merely zero rather than down even further.
It was brilliantly sunny when I got up, and cats were lounging in every patch of sunlight, making the footing rather uncertain. Now ribs and ridges of equally brilliant white cloud are coming in, heralding the return to sane temperatures, in the upper teens. I have not gone for a walk since Sunday, not being a lunatic, and the worsening of the quality of my sleep is very apparent. I think I can go trudge around tomorrow, though. It will feel balmy by comparison.
The coldest days of the year almost always occur within a week or so of my birthday, which was Sunday. David and Lydy and I went out to my mother's place, to meet her and David's mother, and we had mushroom casserole, oven-roasted yellow potatoes, stir-fried broccoli and sweet red peppers, steamed green beans, hard rolls, and a vegan chocolate cake. There was a nice variety of bird life -- nothing rare, but a larger number than usual of the little downy woodpeckers and some nuthatches along with chickadees, juncoes, house finches in new fine red staining their heads and breasts, and a few elusive cardinals. I was overwhelmed with beautiful presents. The one I specifically wanted to mention here is that David presented me with "Seven Views," a necklace that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elisem mentioned in her Art Log a while back. I hadn't said anything to anybody, but I had thought that her description sounded like something I would like very much. I am very happy to have it.
Pamela
We have a lot of troubles just at the moment, but I must say, it's a thousand times better than high school.
Having said that, I want also to note that while it is quite cold in my office, requiring the donning of a heavy sweater and a silk patchwork jacket padded with polyester, the radiator is nevertheless too hot for me to put my slippered feet on, and too hot for my cat to sleep on it, as he is wont to do when the outside temperature is merely zero rather than down even further.
It was brilliantly sunny when I got up, and cats were lounging in every patch of sunlight, making the footing rather uncertain. Now ribs and ridges of equally brilliant white cloud are coming in, heralding the return to sane temperatures, in the upper teens. I have not gone for a walk since Sunday, not being a lunatic, and the worsening of the quality of my sleep is very apparent. I think I can go trudge around tomorrow, though. It will feel balmy by comparison.
The coldest days of the year almost always occur within a week or so of my birthday, which was Sunday. David and Lydy and I went out to my mother's place, to meet her and David's mother, and we had mushroom casserole, oven-roasted yellow potatoes, stir-fried broccoli and sweet red peppers, steamed green beans, hard rolls, and a vegan chocolate cake. There was a nice variety of bird life -- nothing rare, but a larger number than usual of the little downy woodpeckers and some nuthatches along with chickadees, juncoes, house finches in new fine red staining their heads and breasts, and a few elusive cardinals. I was overwhelmed with beautiful presents. The one I specifically wanted to mention here is that David presented me with "Seven Views," a necklace that
elisem mentioned in her Art Log a while back. I hadn't said anything to anybody, but I had thought that her description sounded like something I would like very much. I am very happy to have it.Pamela
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Date: 2004-01-22 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-22 12:46 pm (UTC)K.
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Date: 2004-01-22 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-22 01:06 pm (UTC)(May this be the year when you join Laura and me in the ranks of the official MenoBabes!)
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Date: 2004-01-22 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-22 02:07 pm (UTC)You did time in Nebraska high schools before making it to Minnesota for college, too? I was allowed to wear pants, but that was small comfort. Welcome comfort. But small.
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Date: 2004-01-22 11:45 pm (UTC)I'm in the middle of trying to get my book proposal done -- this really is my birthday present to myself -- but I'll take a rain check on that soup if I may.
Pamela
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Date: 2004-01-23 05:34 am (UTC)I always loved the building at Central. My own high school was designed in the worst excesses of the 60s: nothing worked and everything was in ugly colors. And Central had that great open bit in the middle and banners hanging from the ceiling, though they were never quite as heraldic as I thought proper.
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Date: 2004-01-22 05:25 pm (UTC)I hated the no trouser rule enforced by my school, too. Our uniforms had two skirts. The summer skirt was green and white plaid, made out of cotton, starched to the point the pleats would slice potatoes. The winter skirt was hunter green and wool. The pleats weren't as serious on that one. I preferred it. Neither matched the horrid saddle shoes, though.
What is a "Seven Views" necklace?
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Date: 2004-01-23 12:03 am (UTC)Here's what the tag says:
"Ocean jasper slabs, rock crystal spheres, sterling silver"
The seven slabs of jasper hang from a fairly heavy silver chain. Oh, wait, I think there are photographs!
http://www.dd-b.net/perl/picpagepl/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/2004/01180-Pamela's%20Birthday?id=ddb%2020040118%20010-017
LJ doesn't like the whole link; I'm sorry I am so inept.
It's a very bad picture of the necklace -- no insult meant to the photographer, who was taking a picture of me, not it -- but it will show you how the necklace is constructed.
Pamela
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Date: 2004-01-22 05:48 pm (UTC)My mom lived in Omaha for most of her childhood, and she had to wear skirts to school. She was deeply resentful because the other girls' moms let them wear shorts but Gran wouldn't, and so the boys would come up behind mom, shout "Dress Up Day!" and yank her skirt up.
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Date: 2004-01-22 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-22 08:05 pm (UTC)By the way, do you ever still eat lunch there, at the Sawatdee on Washington Avenue? My firm has just moved to a building quite close, and I could meet you there for lunch sometime. When/if you can bear to go out into the cold to get on the bus again.
Oh, and . . .
Date: 2004-01-22 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-22 11:43 pm (UTC)I'd love to have lunch with you, but it's not financially feasible until March. Let's really do it, though; we haven't had a comfortable coze for ages.
Pamela
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Date: 2004-01-22 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-22 11:52 pm (UTC)Pamela
The fast road to oblivion
Date: 2004-01-23 08:44 am (UTC)Cool Runnings,
HomemakerJ