Archive for January 2014
Special Day
This day used to just be January 31st on the calendar, but a year ago someone came along and claimed it for her birthday, and in doing so, made my friend Katie a Momma. Little Lilia achieves the milestone of her first birthday today. Everybody send her love!
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Delilah sends her love, too. (And a snowy-nose kiss.)
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Happy 1st Birthday, Lilia! …Yah.
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Winter Sunset
They’re all good, the sunsets, but on a crisp winter evening when you have a chance to be outside at the precise moment it drops below the horizon, it feels like it’s the best one ever seen. It was particularly nice having the tall grass soak up the low sunlight as it bent over in the wind. Fierce as this winter has been thus far, we haven’t gone completely without a few occasional precious days.
A pleasant day amid a rash of harsh weather becomes all the more precious.
It’s funny how our perspective changes when the reference point is shifted. Compared to the dramatic extremes of polar vortex winds and temperatures, a day in the 20s(F) without a lot of wind becomes a remarkably nice day.
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Cyndie’s Day
When I saw my wife coming up the driveway in our truck late yesterday afternoon, I steadied myself for what I anticipated would be a days-worth of angst. Her text to me was typically understated: “It’s been a really crummy day.”
Both Cyndie and I have come to see that there are often specific lessons for us in the challenges that unexpectedly entangle and derail our daily affairs. Sometimes we don’t know the impact or lessons these challenges offer for the other people involved in the events, but we believe each individual has something equally specific available to them, whether they recognize it or not. If nothing else, like getting results from taking a placebo, looking at it that way helps us to embrace the angst of our challenges as having purpose.
photo provided by Cyndie
When I came inside after clearing the drifted snow from our front steps and walkway, Cyndie was preparing comfort-food for dinner. I prepared myself to hear about her day. I was pleasantly surprised. On one of the most dangerous of cold days, her car suffered a flat tire –a shredded tire, really– miles from any commerce. It is the very reason travel is not recommended, and many schools around the state call off classes, in these weather conditions: you don’t want to get stuck while trying to travel to your destination. Yet, there she was, alone in the severe wind-chill with a tire that needed to be changed, and her car perched dangerously on the edge of traffic.
As I dove into the dinner she set before me, Cyndie began to describe the number of good things that seemed to come out of a situation that completely destroyed her plans for the day and will ultimately involve costly repairs. First, I heard about the number of people, citizens and law enforcement, who stopped to check on her welfare and offer help while she waited several hours for the tow truck to arrive. Then there was the tow truck driver who safely executed the near impossible task of changing that tire in the dangerously cold wind. Finally, her discovering the auto repair business I referred her to, that I had found in a hasty online search for something close to our home.
Courtesy Auto Repair is not only conveniently located, it sounds like it will be the perfect resource for us. The owner provided double the service, first guiding Cyndie through all the factors involved with her tire failure, (diagnosing brake issues that are likely contributing to the early failure of her tires –another tire was also splitting apart), then also helping get our truck fixed up, too.
Cyndie had first tried the truck in the morning before setting out in her car, but it failed to start. Later, when she got her car to the repair shop on a spare tire, he asked if she had other transportation. When he learned about the truck, he offered to have one of his employees give her a ride home, and then check the battery. They jump-started the truck and the driver followed Cyndie as she drove it back to the shop so they could give it a complete inspection.
photo provided by Cyndie
After she parked it at the shop, it already needed to be jumped again. The battery was shot. After doing a multi-point inspection, the technician mentioned the windshield washer nozzle was frozen up. The owner insisted that the tech flush the lines and drain all the questionable washer solution out, refilling it with a fresh solution. This guy is thorough.
Cyndie was able to leave with the truck in good working condition and with parts on order for her car. If she just focused on how the flat tire in dangerous conditions had wrecked her plan for the day, it would be a lot worse than just “crummy.” As it is, there were enough good things happening that we are almost glad for the hassles she experienced yesterday. We are extremely pleased that for all the undesirable outcomes that could have resulted from the risks of the ailing brakes and failing tires, she was able to pull over with the relatively minor incident of one flat.
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Rescue Effort
It is just a little cold here this morning. Minus 21°F on the thermometer, don’t know what the wind chill is. It actually looks pretty calm outside, compared to yesterday afternoon when we were experiencing some intense gusts and a heavy, steady wind. It created frequent mini-tornadoes of snow.
We stayed up later than usual last night to take in the Grammy Awards broadcast. For some reason, Delilah decided to wake us up earlier than usual. Nothing like a bad night’s sleep to make you feel less than your best self in the morning. On top of that, I spent the afternoon clearing snow –which felt like a bit of a doomed task with the wind beginning to blow and fill in everything I had just plowed– and once again I got the ATV stuck, which required extra shoveling effort to dig out, so most of the muscles and joints of my body are in ‘complain mode.’
Growing old is not for sissies. If it’s this tough for me now, what’s it going to be like when I get old?
At one point yesterday, when we were lounging around the warmth of the fireplace before I ventured outside to work, from my perch on the couch I spotted Delilah fix her gaze on some prize up the spiral staircase. It must be a cat, I thought, and off she went, seeking closer inspection. She seems to desperately want to make contact, probably as much as the cats would fervently prefer to have her not. As she headed up, I tried alerting Cyndie, who had disappeared into the basement in search of a cookbook, and I pondered aloud whether it was Pequenita or Mozyr up in the loft.
As the scrambling and hissing commenced up there, I spotted Pequenita emerge from the safe zone of our bedroom and start up the stairs. That meant it was Mozyr who Delilah was engaged with and had cornered up there.
Mozyr has been behaving more and more like his old self recently. On days last week when I was working, and Delilah would be out in the kennel, both cats were taking advantage of the dog’s absence when I got home, wandering around the house and snitching some dog food from her bowl. Mozyr has become our bathroom pal again, hopping up by the sink, and sitting on the edge of the bathtub when I shower. I take it as a good sign that he chose to venture out from the confines of the bedroom and climb the stairs to the loft when Delilah was around. It gave him a chance to act out toward her and express how he feels about having a dog sibling forced upon his world.
When the commotion settled down and we were able to bring Delilah back down the stairs, it occurred to me that Pequenita’s behavior could be interpreted as coming to Mozyr’s rescue. When she heard the confrontation, she came running and put herself in harms way by diverting Delilah’s attention, smartly doing so with a convenient escape route back to safety. In fact, that helped our effort to convince Delilah to leave Mozyr alone and come back down with us, as Pequenita sprinted her way down and to the other side of the gate.
The brave cat to the rescue, once again, and Moz seems no worse for the wear.
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Making Room
When the weather is nasty cold outside, and hours of daylight are short, one way to deal with it is to work on indoor projects. We have a project waiting for us in our basement that is finally seeing some progress. Interestingly, that progress came as a result of the fracturing of the triangular window beside our stone chimney.
In order to raise the level of interest for a builder to travel to our home to replace the broken window, we tossed in the construction of a storage room in our basement as added incentive. It worked. The replacement window is now on order and when it comes, the builder expects to be available to work on creating a walk-in storage room with built-in shelves in the space where the entertainment center once was.
When we moved in, I did some initial demolition in that corner, taking out the shelving to open up the angled space as much as possible for temporary storage. The only parts left were studs with drywall attached to them. Cyndie masterfully stowed a roomful of stuff into the small space of that corner and then hung curtains across the front to cover the cut-out spaces once filled by a television and speakers.
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In preparation of the builder taking down the studs and putting up new walls to make a more functional storage space, I pulled off the drywall and removed all the screws from the studs. Friday night, Cyndie and I removed all the stuff that was stacked behind that wall and piled it up around the basement. It is a real optical illusion of space to see that little corner empty, but the contents now appearing to consume the entire rest of the room.
We need to rearrange things now to create a clear working space for the builder, with a path for him to bring in materials, and then we will be ready when that window shows up and our project reaches the top in his queue of work.
That done, I guess it’s time to go back outside and play in the snow! How nasty can it really be out there?
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After
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as if I knew
what comes next
after last night
the last night of life
that every night is
whether or not
attention is paid
bone deep
bitter cold
memories linger
longer
than usual
dredged
as they were
unexpectedly
unabashedly raw
lacking the lust
but wanting
for more
mornings
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Good Timing
The almost whimsical decision we made to commit a large percentage of our limited cash reserves toward a geothermal furnace after our first winter has turned out to be an extra blessing this year. The extreme cold this winter, combined with the current multi-state shortage of propane has driven the fuel price up dramatically.
Last year at this time it seemed as though the old furnace was gulping down the propane. The co-op came by to fill our tank several times last winter. When they showed up a few weeks ago, we didn’t really need any, but I suppose the driver decided to top it off anyway. Now I don’t think we will need another delivery until next year.
Factoring in the inflated price of propane that we would have had to pay this year, our estimated payback time on the new geothermal system is now even shorter than we first calculated. Even though the up-front costs are substantial, the comfort of mind and reduced fuel costs are immediate. Knowing we will have accomplished savings that offset the expense after just a short number of years provides its own dose of warm feelings.
Every year that you wait to make energy-saving improvements is time you lose toward accumulating the benefits. I am extremely grateful that we were able to find a way to take the plunge for a new geothermal heating and cooling system soon after we moved here. The subsequent propane shortage this winter has made that decision all the sweeter. Definitely, good timing for us.
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Double Whammy
I have been warned, multiple times, that the horses would try to chew the bark off the trees that are in their paddock. Yesterday, when I arrived to feed the horses in the afternoon, I spotted a breach in the “metal fabric” we had wrapped around the trunk of the big willow tree. I could see a piece of it hanging out, so I walked over for a closer look.
Even though there is still some material over the trunk, one or more of the horses have succeeded in scraping off the outer bark over a large area. I was never really sure whether that last metal protection I selected would ultimately work, but I got lulled into thinking it was sufficient because they were leaving it alone for the most part, up until now.
It is possible that the metal fabric could still be a viable option, if I can devise a better way of securing it. I’m not sure. My other thought would be to try some heavier woven-wire fence around the whole mess, but I’m still stuck trying to secure the joint where it would meet in such a way that the horses can’t just peel it open again.
As if that wasn’t distressing enough, as I walked around the tree to survey the damage, I discovered a gaping split from a frost crack that started near the ground and rose up over my head on the main trunk, on the side opposite from where the horse(s) damage is occurring. It looks devastating, but from what I have read about this affliction, it doesn’t necessarily doom a tree.
That willow is a glorious sight as you come upon it in the summer. It would be a real shame to lose it. I won’t give up without trying to do something to save it, but right now the horses are at the advantage. We could try locking them out of that paddock until I can get to it over the weekend, but then the system we have been using to give them their twice-a-day feed would need to be altered, since that would make only half of the barn overhang accessible.
Actually, the solution I wish for would be to have them just understand to leave the tree alone, that it’s for their own good. It would sure alleviate a lot of hassle for me. Then I would only have the frost crack threatening the tree, and that problem is pretty much out of my control.
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Happy Faces
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Here are two happy faces that just dowsed their thirst after we cleaned their water station on Sunday. Our animals can be a lot of work, but gosh darn, they’re worth it.
Say hello to Cayenne and Legacy.
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Relative Something 