A DIFFICULT START TO A NEW YEAR

 

Change! The older we are, the more difficult seems the adjustment. Despite the fact that people we know and love pass from our lives with increasing frequency, other unhappy circumstances exist that are beyond our control. I could do with a visit to JoAnn’s. A quick walk-through always gave my spirits a lift, and nothing takes its place. And it was so easy to visit JoAnn’s because it was right there in the little shopping center where I bought my groceries and got my hair done. The hair salon closed, too, and now the center includes an Auto Zone. “Nuf sed,” as Ina would say.

On Wednesday (Jan. 14), a lovely springlike mid-January day, we went to the farm and winterized the house. It remains to be seen if we really needed to winterize this year, but Mike doesn’t want to worry about it, and this is a valid reason to do it. The sun shone brightly in the southern sky. The afternoon high temp was 47.

Typically, we winterize the house in November ahead of a cold snap, but knowing that a mild winter was predicted this year, we left winterization until late in the hopes that we could have our Christmas celebration there. It didn’t work out due to the windstorm of Dec. 17 which blew down pine trees and left us without electricity for a full week. And with some preparation, we could probably manage all right without electricity. It might even be an educational retro experience, but without electricity, we have no water, and that’s a deal breaker. 

Ordinarily, we would not even try to visit the farm in January due to snow and cold. This year, there is no snow. The distant mountains show only a patch of snow here and there. It’s a bit scary since it means we’re in a drought.

Winterizing was all we did at the farm. Mike suggested delimbing the tree in the north field and/or cleaning the eavestroughs, but in the end, we decided to return to town. After all, he is still recuperating from a mild stroke and the flu, and as it was, it was after 3:00 when we arrived back at the town house. I had work to do in putting away pantry items and other things that I brought back, and Mike washed the Jeep. KW