March has come and gone. It was a really busy month here. The kids were all horribly sick one week but still:
We took a visit to the lake.
A diary of life in rural western Pennsylvania
March has come and gone. It was a really busy month here. The kids were all horribly sick one week but still:
We took a visit to the lake.
Tomorrow starts a fresh new month! But that's getting ahead of myself. Today it is still January, for a few more hours. Grey, bitterly cold January.
How did I do with those goals? Pretty well.
The bad news, the walking. I only made 26.24 of my 31 mile goals. The reasons for this are obvious to me; we were really sick for a week (see the .15 mile day when I was counting walking out to feed the geese damn it) and had two major snowstorms. It's not the cold that bothers me, but when it snows a LOT the sidewalks in town get cleared as much as people can be bothered. So, I would have to cross the street at least once for every block, zig zag around and use my cleats to walk on icy slate sidewalks. Also, my husband has gone back to teaching and it is still dark after dinner. So what has been decided is that we will be getting one of those $300-ish folding treadmills that only weigh 50 lbs and can fit under the sofa. Keeping things in perspective, the goal for the year is 365 miles so it will even out.
Globes! I did two!
This one which the kids dropped and needed a LOT of repair work and this one:
This one only needed cleaned and the globe re-set on the base. After getting some Facebook advice and taking a close look at the countries I was suprised to see this only dates back to the 90's! The base fooled me! I love it.
Reading. Folks, I read THREE books this month. That has not happened since I had children. The last book of the month ended up being this:
This is not my copy from growing up but one found at Goodwill (aka our small town bookstore). My goodness , that was such fun. It's lucky for my husband that I waited until now to re-read this childhood story or I would have lobbied HARD to name one of these children Charles Wallace. As an adult, oh, the terrible decision making by adults that go on but, whatever. Any story that actually starts with "It was a dark and story night" is going to be a winner. I mean, imagine your 12 year old self reading this:
It's a keeper.
There are other things to report on but I'm pretty pleased with this month. February will be about fixing my typewriters and getting them in working order, finishing the Tom Hanks book Uncommon Type and walking 28 miles. The typewriters will be fun to tinker with. My oldest Royal could use another cleaning and the bell doesn't "ding", the newer 50's one needs cleaned and the keys look waxy like the plastic has off-gassing, it also needs a new ribbon.
After those typewriters are working and this book is finished, the month will end with me sitting down at one of the machines and plinking out a letter explaining how his book caused me to cry, like a baby, at a preschool swim class. Thanks a bunch, Mr. Hanks.
Tomorrow I'm going to try making French Onion soup, something we haven't had in years. Lots of soups here lately for lots of cold weather.
When I woke with with an ear ache this morning on top of everything else it seemed a trip to the doctor to sort things out was in order. So I called, only to be told that I would not be seen as they "were trying to keep sick people out of the office" but there was an antibiotic called in.
I'm complaining, I know. Our little family has been sick for months it feels like and I'm just so stinkin' tired of it.
The good thing that happened today is I saw a friend that I have not seen since November (because both of families have been sick constantly). She stopped by and we exchanged late Christmas gifts as we stood apart from each other out in the driveway visiting for a few minutes in spite of it being 20 degrees outside. I guess that's considered risky behavior now but it was the nicest thing.
It seems like this has been a really long winter and it's only January.
We had venison last night, a slow cooked shank dish with chestnuts and dried apricots and spices from a Hank Shaw cookbook. It was heavenly but spicy. The deer came from my dad and the chestnuts from my cousin (the are my grandfather's trees).
I finished my second book of the year. Standing in front of the shelves all I just really wanted something comforting and chose this one. I haven't read it in 20 years but it was like spending two nights with an old friend.