Mid-November

Past the halfway mark in November and still no snow. It's getting really weird, to be honest. I was wrong when I posted last week that the latest date we've ever had a first snow was in December. That was Denver's latest date. Our latest date is tomorrow, Nov. 17th. And it's not going to snow tomorrow, so we're going to break the record this year. There's a slight chance of rain and snow showers this coming Thursday/Friday, but only slight. We could really use the moisture, whether or not we get actual snow. What state am I living in, anyway? I remember when November was a really cold month.

I bought myself a new winter coat from Lands End a few weeks ago, a Squall 3-in-1 winter parka in spruce. It's something I promised myself I would buy when I lost enough weight. It consists of two pieces -- you can wear either one separately or both together. The week I got it, we were having some cooler weather, and I tried out both parts of it, loved them both. But this week I was too warm even just wearing my hoodie. 

Also a few weeks ago, after getting down my winter clothes, I decided I didn't have enough long-sleeved shirts, and so I started ordering used ones from eBay. I ended up with a beautiful collection of 12 shirts (see photo), five of them new. I already had two green shirts, three blue shirts, a dark red shirt, and a brown shirt, but now I also have a black shirt, another blue shirt, two purple shirts, and another dark red shirt. I'm so happy with them! All the colors I love. Except that all this past week it was too warm to wear them. I've been wearing my short-sleeved shirts instead. 

Tomorrow the high is only supposed to be 59 (today's high was predicted to be 68, but it got into the mid-70s), so I am going to wear a long-sleeved shirt. But 59 -- that's really still so warm for November. It's a strange year.

A lot of special things happened this week, some planned and some unplanned. On Tuesday, Veterans Day, since Rocket Boy had the day off, he and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. There was a free exhibit about elephants, so we saw that. I learned a lot about elephants, most of which I've forgotten, but it was interesting. We had a late lunch in the cafeteria, and then we headed for home, because Rocket Boy had a 3 pm appointment to get his new ankle brace, and he wanted to drop me off at home first. But we ran out of time and I had to go to the appointment with him (I stayed in the car and dozed), and by the time we got home it was like 4:30 pm and I was cross with him. So that wasn't good.

But that evening, some wonderful person posted to our neighborhood listserv that the northern lights were visible right that very moment. I went out onto the front porch -- Rocket Boy was just about to drive away to go to Subway -- and I looked north and saw a greenish glow. "The aurora!" I shouted, and he stopped the car and got out and we looked and looked at the faint greenish sky. "We should drive north," he said, but I said, "No, let's just go up to NCAR, you can get a pretty good view of the sky from up there." So we went up to NCAR, as the kids and I have done in the past, trying and failing to see the northern lights. ALL of Boulder seemed to be up there too -- the road was lined with cars, with people standing next to them looking, looking. We parked in the parking lot and looked north. At first we couldn't see anything, but then we saw a red glow. And it moved! and changed! At one point, Rocket Boy and Teen B saw actual curtains of red. I didn't see that, but I saw the moving red glow. Finally it quieted down and we went home.

It was supposed to be visible again Wednesday night, but we had total cloud cover that night, so there was nothing to see. We're so lucky we saw it Tuesday night. Teen A was out (probably with his girlfriend) and missed the whole thing. I texted him, but I guess he didn't see it or didn't go outside. Well, he's young, he'll have more chances to see the aurora, maybe.

Among scheduled things, I saw the oral surgeon last Monday and she said my bone graft looked great and I'm ready for the implant. So, since they had an opening the following Monday, I said sure, let's do it, and that means tomorrow morning I have to drive to Westminster and have the implant put in! I'm a little nervous, but it should be fine. They don't put the fake tooth in, just a titanium screw with a hole in the top where the fake tooth will fit in once I get it. I have to wait until the implant bonds with the tooth and then I can get the fake tooth (but my dentist will do that part).

Speaking of dentists, I saw our new dentist this week too! They had a cancellation and I grabbed it and had my "new patient" appointment and a cleaning on Thursday. Teen B will have his first appointment this coming week, on Tuesday, and we're still waiting on an appointment for Teen A. I love our new dentist SOOO much, and I was delighted to find that my old favorite hygienist (from our previous dentist) now works for him... but I'm worried, because he seems old, as do some of his employees (including that hygienist, who is probably about my age). What if they decide to close the office down in a year or two? From my research he seems to be about four years younger than me. If he works until he's 70, that would be nine years. That would be long enough to get the twins launched at least. I'd just really like some stability with dentists here. If he works until 65, that's only four years, but it's better than nothing.

A last-minute fun thing -- we went to the fall musical at the other high school, even though our next-door neighbor doesn't go there anymore (we think). Teen B expressed interest, so I bought tickets and we went, on Saturday night. And it turned out our next-door neighbor was playing in the pit orchestra, so that was fun, although we didn't see him. The musical was "Bright Star," which was written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. I didn't think the story was very impressive. It was actually very confusing. I had read the plot ahead of time, on Wikipedia, but Rocket Boy and Teen B hadn't, and Rocket Boy got hopelessly confused. I had to spend a good part of the intermission explaining to him what just happened. But the music was good, lots of catchy songs, performed very well by the actors and the pit orchestra. 

This coming week we have potentially two concerts to go to: the orchestra concert on Tuesday and the band concert (which of course Teen B will be IN) on Thursday. I like to go to all the concerts, but I don't know if anyone will want to go to the orchestra concert with me. But we'll definitely go to the band concert. Actually, it occurs to me that Rocket Boy might not even be home in time. This week he has to start going to the base for work every day, 8am-5pm, which means 7am-6pm or more, if you include driving time. The band concert starts at 6 pm, and Teen B has to be there by 5:30, so we'll leave home at 5:15. Well, if RB wants to go to the concert, he can come on his own. 

So, anyway, yes, Rocket Boy is planning to go into the office every day this coming week, so that will be very weird. We'll see how it goes. It means I'll have lots of time to myself, which I've been craving, but it also means I'll have to do all the cooking and cleaning and whatnot. I should plan some simple meals. 

I didn't do well with cooking last week at all. I had planned to make meals out of a Hare Krishna cookbook that RB's brother gave us, because he keeps pestering me about whether I've cooked anything from it. He's 73, in late-stage schizophrenia, and I think he's becoming slightly demented. He calls every day, sometimes multiple times, and mainly just wants to know what we're having for dinner. He also tells me what he's having for dinner. I've learned to accept most of his calls, because they don't last long, and all we talk about is food. But anyway, I thought it was time to make use of that cookbook, just so he'd stop pestering me.

• Monday I planned to make "Stir-fried Hokkien Noodles with Asian Greens and Tofu," but I simply could not find Chinese black beans or asafetida powder in any of our grocery stores, so we had a frozen pizza instead.
• Tuesday I again planned to make "Stir-fried Hokkien Noodles with Asian Greens and Tofu," but as mentioned above, we didn't get home until 4:30 pm, so I didn't have time to go out looking for those weird ingredients at specialty stores. So (after the northern lights trip), Rocket Boy picked up Subway sandwiches for himself and Teen B.
• Wednesday I pulled myself together and made "Rice with Green Peas and Almonds" (minus the almonds, which Teen B doesn't like) and "North Indian Curried Cauliflower and Potatoes" which I was distinctly unimpressed by. Rocket Boy thought it was OK, but I prefer all my other curry recipes to this one.
• Thursday I made "Couscous with Vegetable Sauce," which was actually not bad. It was just a bunch of vegetables cooked with curry spices, served over couscous, but the vegetable combo was very good. Zucchini, a bell pepper, a turnip... it called for pumpkin, but I substituted a small butternut squash... a can of chickpeas. I don't know what the secret was, but I liked it.
• Friday we just had leftovers. 
• And Saturday we went to the musical, so we didn't go out to dinner.
• Tonight we're going to do our usual Saturday dinner out, maybe at Chili's. And then Monday I start to cook again... 

I feel like I should keep trying to find the weird ingredients so that I can make the "Stir-fried Hokkien Noodles with Asian Greens and Tofu," because otherwise what am I going to do with the Hokkien noodles that I bought, not to mention the baby bok choy? So maybe tomorrow I'll venture up to north Boulder, where there's an Asian grocery store. Or, after my oral surgery appointment, I could try to find the one in Westminster. Hmm. I'll see.

I didn't do anything political this week. At least the shutdown is over. I'm pissed at the Democrats who caved, but at the same time I'm glad people are getting paid and SNAP benefits are back on, and all that. 

And I didn't do much writing. A little bit. I'm keeping up with my plan to keep track of the weather and at least make notes on how the different days of the story would have gone if it had taken place this month. Like, for instance, today (November 16th) one of the characters, Remi, was having a birthday party at the park, but his mom didn't reserve the shelter because she figured no one would reserve it in mid-November. I went over to the park right at 1 pm, when Remi's birthday party was supposed to start, and sure enough, the picnic shelter was deserted. No one had reserved it. So Remi got lucky, and I made a note of that when I got home.

Of course, as Teen B keeps telling me, Remi doesn't exist, nor do my other characters. But it's still fun.