An unexpected line of snow
squalls blew through early this morning. I was surprised
to see a dusting of snow on the ground when I awoke. By
the time I got up and made breakfast the sun was shining
brightly but the traffic lingered until lunchtime. Boy
was I ever grateful not to have to be on 495 commuting to
some awful soulless job not worth three hours spinning on
black ice. It took me long enough just to get to therapy
and back again with Elm Street all dug up and a huge
funeral processing slowly down Main Street added to the
residual traffic offloaded from 495. Yikes.
I made the decision to stay in all
day reading Two Roads to Dodge City when the sky
darkened suddenly and the trees across the parking lot
became invisible through the whiteout. Pretty intense
stuff but not accumulating. It's not so much that I've
become a weather wimp as that I've become accustomed to
staying home. Three months of not driving will do that to
you. Besides, why risk black ice when I can stay home and
make miso soup?
Wilbur slept all day curled up on
the futon in my study with nary a peep. Usually he's all
over me whenever I sit down. He likes to drape himself
over my shoulder while I read or type at the computer.
He's been sleeping more lately. Since cats normally sleep
close to 20 hours a day, oh wait, that's male lions in
the wild, I'm not sure how much domestic cats sleep but
it must be close to that. Thanksgiving night and well
into Friday he slept on my bed without even twitching a
whisker when I got up to go to the bathroom or rolled
over or yanked at the covers. At one point in the middle
of the night I decided I'd better check to see if he was
breathing. I petted him and he made a sleepy "eep" sound
but remained curled up in a ball.
Of course my heat was off all day
on Thanksgiving day and part of Friday, which may have
something to do with it. I had the zone valve and the
thermostat replaced about two months ago when the heat
failed to come on the coldest day so far (ha! it is way
colder today). So when I called the condo maintenance
people on Friday - the emergency number because the
Friday after Thanksgiving is apparently a holiday for
them - they grudgingly sent the same guy who installed
the zone valve. Well, the zone valve had popped off the
pipe. He hooked it up again and the heat came on. I think
he was embarrassed. I could have fixed the darn thing
myself had I but ventured down to the basement and
looked, but the heating system is considered common
property. Anyway, the lack of heat probably explained
Wilbur's sleepiness. But come to think of it, when we
went to Marblehead, DJ had been sleeping in her new cat
bed all day and did not even respond to my voice the
entire time we were there. Maybe it was National Cat
Sleeping In Day.
If I'd had any doubts that winter
is here in earnest, they're gone now. Forget winter
starting on the solstice, it starts the day after the
World Series ends and ends on Opening Day. Meanwhile I
have piles of books to read and stacks of soup recipes to
try.
