Driving in Snow

Yesterday I practiced driving on snow and ice. I went downtown to volunteer at the Boise Rescue Mission's River of Life. There was not much traffic on Thanksgiving Day, which is good and bad. No other cars to crash into, but also no other cars to loosen up the road. I helped serve a couple hundred lunches and felt grateful that I am not homeless in Idaho. Three of the other volunteers were a couple with their 10 year old daughter. The daughter worked really hard and seemed really brave to me and I thought about all the times I meant to take Lauren to serve Thanksgiving to the homeless. I never did take Lauren to do that, but I still think it is a great experience for anyone to learn what they take for granted.

On the way home I stopped and took pictures at the parks.





I was amazed that the ponds were already frozen enough to skate on. Geese continue to fly over on their way somewhere else, but the seagulls are still hanging around.

I was headed out the door with my pie and Cruiser shot for the door. He keeps forgetting how cold it is outside. I stuck my foot out and he crashed into it, which stopped him. Sorrel boots are much more effective for this than other shoes.

Then I went to Mary Kay's and then to Mary Kay's mom's for Thanksgiving. My pie was a big hit and Mary Kay's mom actually took it around and showed everyone the little apples I put on top of the lattice crust. I used the Honeycrisp apples, which worked out well, and Meyer lemon, which happened to be at the grocery store a week ago. Honeycrisp apples are a bit sweeter than Golden Delicious, so I used less sugar, and the ones I bought were huge, so I only had to peel 4 apples to fill up a pie. I am OK with peeling apples, but sometimes I really wish for the fancy cutter that cuts the lattice strips perfectly even.

The battery in the thermostat at Mary Kay's mom's house went out yesterday morning. Mary Kay's 83 year old mom was out driving around at 5 am Thanksgiving morning looking for an open store that sold batteries. I was glad she found them and to be sitting is someone else's warm house.

The toughest drive was home in the dark where it is harder to see the icy patches, but the worst part is driving down the alley to my garage, because it is still full of snow. As I look at other people's cars outside and covered in snow, I think it was really smart to get a house here with a garage, snow alley or not.

I did some on-line research on my car's 37 degrees warning light. It does not mean there is anything wrong or anything to do and Toyota got rid of this light with the 2006 Prius. The best suggestion that I found to deal with the light being on all winter is to stick a piece of tape over the light. Which would be more annoying, the piece of tape or the warning light? I think the tape, so I resolved to just ignore the stupid light. Mary Kay's nephew offered to go out and start everyone's cars before they left last night, which reminded me again that I am now in Idaho, but I don't think it makes a bit of difference if my car is warmed up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Even More Snow

This is the cowboys that I finished last week,


And the next one,


Mary Kay tells me these are Hawthorn berries. Since it has been so cold and gloomy, all I could think about when I painted the orange berries was Bob Ross saying, think happy trees!

It snowed two inches last night and the news today was all about the weather. I called and canceled meeting Laney for coffee and she understood. She had been on the interstate this morning and it was nasty. I went for a walk to take some pictures and get out of the house. People cleared their sidewalks and cars wore tracks in the snow, but the cleared sidewalks and the tire tracks iced over and it was easier to walk in the snow. I figure I won't bother clearing my walkway to the front door.


This guy has the wrong car, too,








I did clear a bit of the back patio so the cats could walk around. They did go out for a bit, but they want me to leave the back door open in case they need a quick escape, and it is just too cold for that. The sun was out all afternoon, which was really nice, even though it was still cold.

Note the November average low for Boise is 32.4° and the average high is 47.5°.
Today the high was 24° and the low predicted to be 3°. Boise had a late Spring and an unseasonably warm October and I think everyone, including me, was expecting a late Winter, not a super cold early one.

The next enlightenment topic is Kindness. The author's selection is a poem by Stephen Crane called "Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War is Kind." This is a cynical poem about war and, as far as I am concerned, off topic. I prefer the Aldous Huxley quote noted by the author in the text. On his deathbed Huxley was asked for his advice to mankind and he answered, "All we need to do is be a little kinder to each other." As we all struggle with the difficulties and emotions and disappointments of the holidays, remember to be kind. This includes the harassed grocery checker, the sister-in-law that sends you out for sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving morning because yams are not good enough, and that grandmother on the road that is driving too slow. This does not include North Korea. War has nothing to do with kindness or unkindness.

More Snow

It finished snowing last night, but stayed pretty gray all day. This is first thing this morning and it was too dark, so sorry for the blur,





Later, Spit stayed under the table, where it was at least dry,



I went to the Mall to buy a hat and to the grocery to buy apples for the Thanksgiving pie and to practice driving. The roads were pretty clear and dry and everyone drove carefully. It is supposed to snow and be super cold tomorrow and I am supposed to meet someone for coffee, but I really do not want to drive when it is snowing.

I finished the latest painting and will start another one tomorrow. I also finished another application for an Idaho state job, but I am discouraged with them. My score for an HR job was 95, but that job is now filled and I did not even get a call for an interview. The job that the manager I interviewed with told me about shows I did not meet the minimum requirements. I guess they did not buy my creative interpretation of my grants experience. I applied for another one over the weekend that should get me a 100 and I am going to call about that one once the application date closes and make sure there is nothing wrong. I now have 3 jobs with the state of Idaho that are pending a score.

It's Snowing!

When I woke up Saturday morning it was snowing.


As soon as this snow melts I will put those steamer chairs in the garage.

It is really beautiful and yesterday morning I was amazed like a kid seeing snow for the first time. I was out all day yesterday trying to take advantage of the warm weather, that is weather above the 2 degrees predicted for Tuesday. I called my friend Christelle Friday night about meeting her for lunch on Saturday and in my message I said I was worrying about driving to lunch in the snow. On Friday night she wondered why I was worrying about snow when there wasn't any snow yet? Sure enough, Saturday morning it was snowing. She called to tell me that story Saturday morning and give me driving tips, and Sarah, my neighbor, called soon after to check on how I was doing with the snow.

By the time I got to lunch it was raining more than snowing and the roads were wet, but not icy. Saturday morning Mary Kay invited me to a pot luck dinner and said she would pick me up and drive me. By the time she arrived the snow was gone and it was no longer raining and I felt like I wasted a free ride. I turned on the Christmas lights before we left and it sure was pretty to drive up and see them lighting up my house at night. Sarah told me she and Joe enjoyed them, too.

Not too long after I woke up this morning it was snowing again and it has been snowing all day. Sarah said they predict an inch of snow, but I put my trash cans out at noon and it looks like more than an inch of snow is sitting on them in just five hours. I walked over to buy a newspaper in my new coat with a hood and understood why people have winter caps with bills. Even with my hood pulled over above my face, the snow as still blowing down on my cheeks. When I got back Sarah and Joe were doing yard work in the snow and cutting down the sad, withered tomato plants.

One thing about snow outside, not only does it look quiet, it is quiet. I have not heard anyone since Sarah and Joe finished their yard work, not a person or a dog or a car.

Neither cat would go out yesterday. They seemed to know the yard was just the wrong color. Both went out a bit this afternoon. Spit just went out for a minute and looked at me brokenhearted. Cruiser stayed out for a few minutes, but it was the snow falling on him that he could not figure out and did not like. Both are fairly calm now, although they are sticking close to me.

The snow inspired a long nap this afternoon and afterward a cup of hot chocolate. Even though I have been heavily in to the giant bag of trail mix with cashews and M&Ms from CostCo, I am still losing weight. I figure I can lose another 5 pounds this winter if I lay off the trail mix, so I put it away for the holidays.

I am waiting for the sun to come out, or at least a break in the snowing, to take more pictures.

Children

I started reading The Artist's Way and read about the basic tools. They include writing 3 pages first thing every morning. Three pages of whatever, stream of consciousness stuff. The author calls it a mind-dump, removing all that crappy thinking we all have before the day starts. This sounds like a really good idea. Then there is the artist's date. 2 to 3 hours just you and your artist self (kinda like you and your inner child) doing something the artist self wants to do and replenishing our creative resources. I already get to do this lately, but I thought some of the things the author counted as replenishing were interesting. She counts cooking and any regular, repetitive action, like knitting, as replenishing. I always thought baking bread was nurturing (even more so when it actually rises and is edible) but I did not think of it as nurturing my creativity.

This morning I saw snowflakes falling, although they melted before they hit the ground. I let the cats out this afternoon before it started raining again. They both usually roll around on the patio first, they roll one way, then back, then stand up and do it over again. Poor Cruiser, this afternoon he put his face down to roll, thought better of it since the cement is so cold, put his face down to roll again, thought better of it again, and finally just stood there so I could scratch him.

More rain is predicted tomorrow, then snow Sunday and Monday. Monday's low, 17 degrees, Tuesday's high 21 degrees, Tuesday's low 2 degrees. 2 degrees! That is really cold for November in Boise. At least by Wednesday the sun is supposed to come out. The cold doesn't bother me as much as no sun. Someone this afternoon said that Farmer's Almanac predicted that this Winter is going to be super cold with Boise under a foot and a half of snow. This is what Farmer's Almanac really says about the Intermountain region:

Winter temperatures will be above normal, especially in the south, with the coldest periods in late December, mid-January, and early February. Precipitation will be below normal, with near- to below-normal snowfall. The snowiest periods will occur in early and mid-December and early and late February.

I'm hoping the Farmer's Almanac is right, although they seem to have missed the super cold Thanksgiving week.

I am half-way through the next painting, which is going much faster and is bright colors. For the rest of winter I am only painting bright colors and sunny days.

The holidays are coming and I am missing my daughter, so I am picking my own enlightenment topic today, Children, with a piece from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran,

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

I can't say it better. I think it is interesting that my daughter and I used to do a lot of replenishing our creative resources things, like baking. We used to make bread shaped like a teddy bear (which always rose and tasted great) and every Thanksgiving we made an apple pie.

Food Storage

When I got up this morning it was already over 50 degrees, which felt really warm. I put the flannel sheets on the bed along with the extra blanket and the down comforter a month ago and if I don't turn the heat down to 60 degrees at night I am too hot. It didn't seem like the heat even went on last night. By tomorrow the temperature plummets 20 degrees again and we have rain/snow predicted for three days. Boise seems to have regular huge temperature swings.

There also does appear to be some real wind in Idaho. The Idaho Housewife posted some pictures of trees and signs blown down around her place in Northern Idaho and winds were 87 MPH around Orofino.

I think I finished the last painting and I'm not that happy with it, so I thought I better hurry and start on another one. I did drawings for three more, transferred two to paper, and started one this afternoon. I worked on the last painting for a few hours over too many days and I think it shows. It looks too labored and without spontaneity. I will post a picture as soon as the sun comes out again and I can photograph it.

I got the large painting of Hazel framed and hung it up on my wall in my living room for now. She looks awesome. She is my entry for the Idaho watercolor society show at the Idaho State Capitol building in February.

The Artist's Way arrived and my first meeting with the artists that want to do the workshop is December 2. We are supposed to meet twice a month. Some of the people involved seem to be pretty nutty, but I am hoping the do-it-yourself workshop is at least motivating.

With The Artist's Way I ordered my own copy of The Dhammapada and The Best of Idaho cookbook. I am feeling very well rounded.

I was reading about that Zombie show on-line and the leading actress talks about having an emergency pack, although she calls it a Go-bag. Then I watched TV this afternoon and they are talking about food storage. I think that is weird, I have an idea that I should be prepared for something, but I don't really know what, and it turns out there are lots of people preparing for something, but they don't really know what. I probably have enough stored to feed myself for 6 months, but I am overwhelmed by trying to store for a year. What do I really need for a year? On TV today I was reminded to ask the Mormons, Mormons know about food storage.

If you are interested, here is a page of links, courtesy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:
http://bekkel.tripod.com/links.htm