The joys of January

The New York Times had an article last week about how wonderful January is, because you don't have to go to any parties (the implication being that in December you have a lot of parties to attend). As someone who did not have any December parties to attend, this comparison was lost on me. 

Also, and I wrote this in a comment to the article, the main thing that happens in January (in Colorado) is shoveling snow. For those who enjoy shoveling snow, January in Colorado is fab. Also February, March, and even April. May, once in a while.

But that's life in a cold climate. I used to love it. As I get older, I still enjoy cold weather, but it's harder on me. Harder to shovel the snow, harder to breathe the icy air. Harder to negotiate icy sidewalks and driveways. Does this mean that I want to leave Colorado? Where would I go? I certainly don't want to live anywhere hot. Probably I'll just stay here, coping. It's not that bad.

Also, just now I went out to take these pictures and three magpies flew by! Magpies, that's why I moved here! They even sat in a tree for a little while so I could take their picture. Magpies don't mind the cold -- they like it.

I went back inside and told Teen B about the magpies and he said oops, there's a dead magpie in the backyard, Baby Kitty killed it, blah blah blah. The kids do not appreciate my love of magpies.

Said kids went back to school last week, but only for four days, and now we are having a three-day weekend, thank you Dr. King, so we have another four-day week ahead. I think all weeks in January should be four-day weeks. Teen B has come down with a cold of some sort, and I assume I'll be next, because I have a slight headache (though it could be caused by the stupid bands on my braces), so I'm trying to think of what I could do to make the coming week easier. I'm going to go to the grocery store this afternoon, maybe in an hour. Have to plan some very easy meals for this week. I don't usually cook on Sunday, but this is a funny week. We ate out Friday instead of Saturday (ahead of the storm), I cooked Saturday, might as well cook tonight. Let's see, how about...

• pizza grilled cheese tonight (Italian bread sandwiches with mozzarella, tomato sauce, and pesto)
• chicken soup (sans chicken) for Monday
• salmon & broccoli & leftover couscous for Tuesday
• macaroni & cheese (my mother's recipe) & mixed veggies for Wednesday
• Brenda's sticky tofu & rice & leftover broccoli for Thursday
• I don't know what for Friday, maybe leftovers
  

There, that looks like a good plan. Lots of comfort food, and not very difficult to make. Now I just have to get to the grocery store. And back.

***

OK, I'm back. I got everything I needed except tofu (sometimes our grocery store completely runs out of tofu, very frustrating), so instead of Brenda's sticky tofu I think I'll use up those Beyond Meatballs that are in the freezer. Brenda's sticky fake-meat meatballs, we'll call it. Should be lovely.

I don't think it got up to 11 today, as they predicted it would. According to weather.gov it's 3 right now out at the airport (-3 on our front porch -- we have a very chilly front porch). Tomorrow's high is predicted to be 6, with a few several more inches of snow. I didn't shovel today. I should have -- I feel bad -- but we only got an inch or two more. Yesterday afternoon, after I had shoveled, there was a knock at the door and a middle-school-age boy stood there, offering to shovel my sidewalk and driveway. I said, "Well, no, I already did it," and he looked behind him and said, "Oh, OK, sure," which I felt was a comment on my shoveling job, but I DID shovel. Anyway, today I didn't, but I'm sure tomorrow I will. It doesn't say when it's going to snow tomorrow, just that it is. Sometimes they're very specific, like, 80% chance of snow between 5 and 7 pm.

I can't remember anything else I was planning to write about today. It was a week. I had some depressed days and some better days. I did a little writing and a little work on a genealogy project and a little filing. I made dinner. I vacuumed, dusted, did laundry, took out the trash. That kind of stuff.

Looking at my resolutions, I should note that I did stretching videos two or three times this week, so that was good, since it isn't very good walking weather (freezing, icy, snowy). I'm trying out different YouTube videos. I found something called AIM Fitness for Adults 50+, that has some good videos. It's Canadian, so they're calmer than American YouTube videos. Peaceful, even. A good time to do a short video seems to be right before breakfast, while I'm waiting for my cereal to get soggy. I get the kids off to school, feed the cats, fix my cereal and let it sit, put away last night's clean dishes, start a load of laundry -- and do a 10-15 minute video.

I did not manage to do a hike last week, and now I'm already worried about when I'm going to do that this month. Maybe next weekend. January is so problematic. If Rocket Boy were here, we would go for a hike. 

On the plus side, I started taking down the Christmas tree. So far I have removed my mother's old ornaments and my glass-but-not-animal-shaped ornaments (my ornaments go in very specific boxes). I thought I might get all the ornaments off but leave the lights on a few more weeks. The problem is, Baby Kitty likes to chew on the tree and it's bad for him. I probably should just get it down.

I did not take a load of stuff to Goodwill. Too cold, too snowy, etc. It's too cold in the garage to sort through the stuff I've stashed there. I have to leave the door to the garage open at night -- all day, actually -- so that some heat from the house will get in and the pipes won't freeze. This means it is always cold in the living/dining room/kitchen AND the furnace runs most of the time, trying to warm up our little house. As someone on my neighborhood listserv said, this is not the week to be worrying about saving the planet. It's the week to worry about your pipes freezing.

***

In the week ahead, I have two distractions: my parent group on Tuesday and a dietician appointment on Thursday. There's a concert I could go to on Tuesday night, but I don't think I will, even though it's going to warm up to 35! Whoo-hoo! Positively balmy. 

I read an article in the NY Times today about how people feel the cold differently, depending on what you're used to, and how meteorologists predict the weather differently depending on people's tolerances. So, for someone in Texas, 35 degrees would be cold, and the meteorologists would post warnings about it, but for Colorado it's a warming trend. Something to do with your body learning how to deal with the cold and warming (or not warming) your extremities based on whether it believes it will be able to keep your core warm. Every winter I can feel my body relearning this. 

Also, they said in cold climates people would own more sweaters and things. I am actually quite lacking in cold weather gear -- no boots that fit, no hat that fits except my pussy hat and I don't always want to make a political statement when I go for a walk. I don't even have a winter coat that fits -- I mostly wear a big sweater, that doesn't even have fasteners. I just sort of wrap it around myself and hope for the best. 

The twins don't have proper winter gear either -- they go off to school in hoodies and sneakers. I've given up buying them warm coats -- they won't wear them. What is wrong with us? you'd think we lived in Texas or something.

It's supposed to be in the 50s by next weekend. What will my body do then?