Quiet day

Woke up about 6 and was surprised it was morning--I guess that means I slept well. I had a little trouble falling asleep, maybe because I watched a pretty intense movie, the King's Man. Definitely an antiwar movie. Ralph Fiennes and the other actors are very good, but there's a lot of dying in there. I had a bit of Kahlua and cream to help calm me down. Whether it helped or not, it tasted good. I'm looking forward to being back in Beverly, seeing Molli et al., and getting this packing done. Although it seems daunting, I want to get it taken care of. OF course, the weather looks cold and even snowy. It's predicted to be 40 here one night while we're gone, but it's supposed to snow half the days and 42 is the highest it will get, reminding me of why I like being here. It will be strange not to have to walk Cameron, but I'll have no reason I have to go out in it! Someone else will probably do the shoveling for me, thank goodness. I can feel my shoulder this morning and it worries me about the packing. We talked to Barbara on the phone last night and she may come visit us (although if the weather is bad enough to affect driving, probably not). I was a bit sytmied about supper last night. We had soem ground beef to use and I had made burgers a few days ago, so didn't want to do that again. I thought of something that uses cabbage, which we also had, called Bounty Rice, but didn't have the recipe. Easy solution: ask T to take a picture of the recipe! It was yummy, comfort food of the first water. We ran a couple errands, but nothing very interesting happened.

Spring in February

Another gloomy day, but it's warm and the last few were very nice. Ray is pretty engrossed with taxes and wants to tell me all about his clients and their stories. Amelia is of course consumed with her business, plus she has her life: chickens, friends, etc. I have planted spinach, lettuce, onions, garlic, peas. The first peas I planted are starting to come up. I started some herb seeds, too. The rain today will help them along beautifully. Our guests on Sunday brought a miniature daffodil (jonquil?) and it is blooming like anything. It feels like spring here, even though it's February. There's a peach tree starting to bud in the backyard.

This house

I can't put my finger on it--what makes this house so wonderful? I would like to buy one like it in Massachusetts, but they don't exist. Of course, everything costs more in Massachusetts, so that's one factor. They also are mostly older houses, at least where I want to live, and so they are two stories, without a bedroom or bathroom on the main floor. Sometimes, they have remodeled and may have added a half bath, perhaps by taking out the coat closet or the pantry, but I like those things too. This house is on a dead-end street, not far from a major highway. When I step outside in the morning to take the dog for a walk, I can hear the traffic. It's not loud enough to be annoying, especially not inside. If you walk up to the end of the street, though, where the highway is just behind the row of houses on the cross street, it seems very loud, enough to keep me from wanting to live there. They are offering one of those houses for rent for $3000! It is newly remodeled, with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, but right in the backyard is a giant brick wall hiding a super-highway! Our house is much nicer, even though it has only 1 1/2 baths. It has a large fenced yard and we would probably try to rent it for $2000. As I walk back to the house, I admire the two giant oak trees that are in front, on either side of the lot, near the street. There's no sidewalk here, but we do have a fire hydrant right in front. It's a pretty narrow lot, room for the house and carport, with a narrow band of yard on either side. When you are backing the car out, you have to watch for the big old tree on one side and the fire hydrant on the other. Ray has done it enough now that he has a system to make sure he doesn't cut it close on either side. I'm a little cautious still. As long as we don't forget! The drive is gravel, but there is a paved walk from the front of the house that makes a right angle to the driveway. It amuses me--why a paved walkway there? The porch is low, with built-in benches on 3 sides. When the sun is low in the sky (on winter afternoons, for instance), it is nice and warm. The dog loves to lie there. I was there a few days ago, but I was thinking, "we need a comfy chair for sunny days on this porch." Sitting on a hard backless bench and reading is not for me any more, although it's great for putting on my shoes. The house is brick, low, and the front door is painted orange! How fun! It is kind of a 60s door, with 3 blocks of glass separated with bands of orange. When it's really warm, we leave it open and let the afternoon sun come in through the storm door. Right inside the door is the living room. It's small, with 2 windows on the right wall. There is a wood floor. To the left is a big front window, with a small table in front of it. That's the eating area, no separate dining room. There is a door to the carport on the left wall and the kitchen, open to the eating area and the living room, is right there. It is painted a light green, all the cabinets. The floor is dark gray or black slate squares. The counters are black, too. Amelia says they are made of paper! I don't know how they make them durable and heat-resistant but they work great. There is an island with the stovetop built in, facing the front window. The oven is over to the right, not under the stove, but next to it. It is a good big oven. In addition to the green cupboards, there is a built-in cabinet next to the side door, near the table, with more cupboards and a surface where we have the microwave oven. Against the kitchen wall is the refrigerator and the sink and some counters and cupboards. That's where the coffee machine lives. There's one more little cabinet built into the wall acroos from the kitchen, a shallow spice cabinet. You'd be surprised how many things fit there--spices, of course, and teas, and some canned goods and small boxes.

Stupid Back

My stupid back is bothering me again. I probably overdid, although it didn't seem like it at the time. I made soup and quiche and chocolate cake for friends of Amelia's who came over with their 5-year-old. I did the cooking on Satuday (except the cake early Sunday) because we had to be at church at 8:30 to sing. They came about noon and it was really very nice. But later yesterday and now this morning, my back is twinging. I took a pain pill and slept well, but I can feel it starting up again. I try different chairs and postures to see what will help. Is it better if I stand? Maybe I need to wear different shoes...

I did not sleep well last night. I was uncomfortable and awake more than once. I woke up a little after 5 and checked my phone to see what my fitbit said about my sleep. Nothing. Sometimes it doesn't record anything, for no reason I know of. Today, though, I found that I had plugged my fitbit in yesterday and never unplugged it and put it back on. Can't blame it for not recording anything! I stumbled to the couch in the living room and covered myself with a blanket, avoiding the dog who was huddled in front of our door. Some days he seems particularly needy, but mostly he sleeps on the rug in the living room. He followed me out and lay down on the small rug in front of the front door. I read on my phone and eventually went back to sleep, having peculiar dreams where I was in some sort of ceremony, like 4H awards or Girl Scouts. I was always going the wrong way or wearing the wrong clothes...possibly this relates to the installation of something in the book I was reading. Anyway, when I woke up it was full daylight and I was quite disoriented. Yesterday involved going to a store called Part & Parcel, which is run by a nonprofit, I believe it supports neurodivergent people. They sell things without any packaging: bulk flours, wooden toothbrushes. It's a little limited and usually expensive, but I like to go there first and see if they have anything on my list. Turns out, they're closed on Mondays. We did go to Cocoa Cinnamon and get Ray coffee and me tea (it's nearby). Then we went to the Coop and got most of the things we needed. Their baking chocolate is Guittard and costs over $8, so I couldn't bring myself to do that. We stopped at the New and Nearly New store and bought a couple big jars (for beans), as well as a "new" puzzle and a couple other things. Then to Harris Teeter for a few more things from the list: baking chocolate, lens solution, ice cream. Their store brand is all natural and has very few ingredients; cheaper than Breyer's! That was our big excitement for the day. Then we worked on our taxes. It looks like we will owe the federal government, but get a refund from Massachusetts. We ate dinner later than usual, watched Deep Space Nine and Bob Hearts Abishola. It was a sunny day and the temperature got to 60. Today will be similar. Yay!

Game night

Yesterday was busy in a good way. The day before I had a nice chat with Janna. It was cold and gray again, but today is sunny so far. Sunday nights are Amelia's Friday, so she and Kevin came for game night. We played Splendor (again) and I won! It's a deceptively simple game, with no violence. You collect gems. It starts slow, there's luck and strategy, and the last few rounds are really intense, because I had a plan to win, but it was possible someone else would beat me to it. We had takeout food from Dashi, ramen noodle bowls and other Japanese fare: grilled chicken and shrimp, pork buns. Kevin ordered bacon-wrapped mochi, which he does not recommend. Half of it is still in the fridge... It was a little complicated because we sang at the installation ceremony for the new lead minister at ERUUF. Her name is Rev. Jacqueline Brett. She is a gay black middle-aged woman and now the lead minister of a congregation of 700 members in Durham, North Carolina. This is a cause for celebration and many of the national UU leading lights were there. It is also one of the first big UU gatherings since the start of the pandemic. There was a guest musician named Melanie deMore, who is amazing! I'm now a huge fan. We rehearsed with her Tuesday and Thursday. She taught us parts to several songs by rote. She sang solos, conducted other groups and led the audience in energetic music. She also spoke with heartfelt sincerity about the importance of singing music from other cultures. She said that talk of cultural appropriation is "poison." "As a card-carrying black person," I will come to your school and tell you, please sing my songs. We're all human and we've all faced challenges, draw on your experience. She talked about getting a song written in Mandarin, so that a multicultural choir could sing in everyone's language. Apparently, China has no choral music tradition...? She wrote, "I will be your standing stone," for a friend with cancer. Anyway, it was a great experience, but I did not want to cancel Sunday night, so we rushed home at 6:30 and didn't stay for feasting and dancing. Dramatically, the choir director was not at rehearsal Thursday night. Her name is Wendy and she is fairly new at ERUUF and quite young. She had tested positive for COVID. They treated her with Paxlovid and she was there Sunday afternoon. We always mask when we are singing, except for soloists during performances. Ray and I tested negative yesterday before we went. Melanie directed and sang from a glassed-in chapel in the corner of the sanctuary. They said it was from "an abundance of caution." I thought probably she had tested positive as well. You can imagine the behind-the-scenes work to set up the sound system for that last-minute change. I know no one wanted this celebration to be a super-spreader event. There are also filters throughout the sanctuary. Molli and Michael visited a house in Marblehead that we thought we might make an offer on. It has the requisite 2 full bathrooms and bedrooms, a decent kitchen, a fireplace, all on one level, about 15 minutes from their house. The layout is a little odd, with the primary bedroom made from two smaller spaces, so there is sort of a bedroom and a dressing room or antechamber, and the whole thing is through the kitchen. There's a little sunken family room at the back of the house. But there is virtually no back yard, no usable outdoor space, no deck or patio. And it's on a somewhat busy street. Ray was in. Molli was in. But I said no, I want to hold out for something better. We have the flexibility to do that, although moving everything out of the house in Beverly and into storage and then into another house when we find it will be inconvenient. We still have a little time, since the closing is scheduled for March 31. So streessful!

Still cold here but so much better than there...it was below zero yesterday--and windy! I stayed inside mostly, taking the dog out briefly about 5. Ray was working most of the day. He didn't go in until noon, but was not up much before 10. He does some extensive stretching when he wakes up to try to help with his rheumatoid arthritis, and it seems better. I made butterscotch brownies--my Mom used to make them, but they didn't taste as good as I remembered. I don't have any chocolate and need to put that on my list. The coop has some, but it's quite expensive, and I may resort to the Harris Teeter. There are just a few things I "cheat" on. Ice cream, dog food. The Harris Teeter is a big new grocerty store just minutes from here.

Cold Saturday

It's cold, even in North Carolina, below freezing. But the sun is shining and the heat is working. All is well. I guess it's human nature to worry, though, and I'm thinking of Tamara and Molli in Massachusetts, where it's 10 below zero and windy. I'm hoping my old house will keep T warm enough and the pipes won't freeze. And I'm wondering what kind of house we will find that we will love and be able to afford. Last night, we went to a poetry "slam" at ERUUF. It was fun and interesting and we are working on getting to know people. That is the hardest part of being here. All is going really well in every way, except I am quite lonely and bored. I have registered for volunteer work, but the process is slow. I spend a good bit of time with Amelia at her shop, but don't want to be too intrusive.

It's all relative

It's going to be cold here tonight, down in the teens. But in Massachusetts, it's going to be much colder. The high will be in the teens and the low will be below zero. And there's not usually much wind here. It has been gllomy, rainy. Ray goes to work and talks to people. I do some online ework. Some days I go to Amelia's store and work on a project. I finished my bathrobe and it is very comfortable. If anything, pershaps too big for me. I have a pattern for a short capelet. It is sik. I am trying to extrapolate and make a larger cape of sturdier red fabric, A Handmaid's Cape, or a red riding hood. Yesterday, I cut out the pieces and pinned them together. I left the bottom uneven--I will make it as long as the shortest piece. I may need to buy more fabric for the hood, but I will have a red cape that is about knee-length. It will be lined in a lighter fabric with little flowers on it.