it’s -5 right now.
he first thing when i got up, i let chester out because he was desperate, and then les was right there wanting out too, so i was gonna check on him in a minute.
when iwent into the living room, it seemed chilly – kevin had been up for an hour or two and i think the furnace automatically turns up at about 6:00, so it’s usually nice and toasty.
the furnace isn’t working. broken. and kevin was stuffing the various low-sugar cookies i’d made yesterday into his mouth. “are you low?” i asked him. yep. his sensor said his level was too high, but when he tested his blood, he was at 64. this is a very low number.
i called the furnace fixers, and they will be here late this morning or maybe not til mid-afternoon. the lady on the phone said they had a lot of calls last night, but people didn’t want to pay overtime so they’re all getting their furnaces fixed this morning.
i went around and lit candles, as if they would help to make it warmer, and then i realized that chester had let himself in, but les was nowhere to be seen. i looked upstairs and down, but i felt that he wasn’t anywhere in the house.
i went outside in my robe, and saw a flash of him over in the neighbor’s backyard. if i’d thought i’d be walking around out there i’d have grabbed my coat, but i walked in my slippers over to his yard and les didn’t dash off. i whistled for him, even though he was right there, because for some reason, for now anyway, if you whistle, he has a tendency to come to you. he let me scoop him up and he purred a lot, maybe because he was mighty cold.
kevin had turned the oven on to low, but i cranked it up and am gonna bake some brownies. no heat is a fine excuse to bake brownies, i think.
so, whew. i’ve been up for about 45 minutes, since 7:30, and am ready for a nap.
luckily, we have a second furnace, in the old part of the house, where the bedroom is. i turned the heat way up in there, and i think that heat is floating into the living room. not to mention, of course, the big warmth from the candles.
and soon the oven will be hot, and then the house will smell like brownies, so all is kind of good.
here’s one more picture of our walk in the nature preserve. i know you’re supposed to live in the moment, but i much prefer thinking about that moment than this one.
when we got back from our walk on tuesday we thought it’d be nice to get in the outdoor hot tub. we got in it…and it wasn’t so hot. it wasn’t as hot as showers i take. plus, the seat was a little too high, so the top half of my body wasn’t even in the water, and the wind was blowing, and it was just chilly. and the jets were a little berserk, so the water kept splashing over the edge.
we decided to get in the heated indoor/outdoor pool instead. inside, it was toasty, but the water was about the same temperature as the hot tub. hmm, did the older old folks complain about excessive heat, i wonder?
so we finally went up to the workout room and sat in the sauna. ahhhh, very nice.
on wednesday it wasn’t quite as warm outside, so we went to lunch and a movie. there’s this fabulous complex at a harbor, with all kinds of fancy shops and restaurants, and we had a lovely lunch and went to see “frozen.” this hadn’t been my first choice, but we wanted to go with wayne and aggie, and aggie had seen just about everything else.
and it was surprisingly great. i highly recommend it. if you’re not so sentimental and don’t like the schmaltzy animated stuff, you have to just kind of get through the first couple of songs, but then it becomes really, really good.
wednesday evening, kevin and i walked along the beach to get a picture of the sunset.
as it was almost gone, a woman came up to us and started talking. people are very friendly down there, i guess because everybody’s so happy not to be somewhere cold. this woman was younger than most of the oldsters, and her eyes looked a little goofy. she carried a bucket, and she launched into this very very long story about how she’s collecting shells that she’s going to make into a lamp for her sister, who may or may not be coming down to visit, and how she used this one kind of glue, not super glue, but this much better glue, to glue the shells on and then also this special kind of laquer and the’d mail it to her sister and you can mail stuff for only eight dollars not matter how heavy it is up to 75 pounds and she wraps stuff up real good and…and…
and i kept looking at her and nodding and smiling, but then i glanced over and realized that the sun was gone. so then i stopped looking at her but she didn’t care at all and kept talking. eventually she wandered off, and then some guy came up to us and i thought, i’ve had enough of the socializing. i turned around and the moon was coming up, huge and beautiful.
this picture doesn’t do it justice since i can’t ever seem to get a picture that captures how big the moon is, but you get the general idea. a couple of guys were walking on the beach and i said ISN’T THAT INCREDIBLE? and realized that i could also be perceived as a crazy woman on the beach, but the guys agreed with me.
here it is from our balcony.
thursday morning, somebody had written this in the sand. very cool.
it wasn’t so warm on thursday, either, and kevin and i went to a few souvenir shops and got some nice gifts, and had lunch again at the fabulous sea-n-suds and i had yet more oysters and we stopped at their gift shop, which also had a cement floor. the merchandise at the shop looked like it had been there since the 70s, including a couple of flash instant cameras. we both bought t-shirts even though i’d kept saying NO MORE T-SHIRTS when we saw some at the other souvenir shops. but the sea-n-suds t-shirts were especially cool.
thursday night, we went to a restaurant that the guy who did aggie’s hair had recommended. he said that it’s a place where locals go. we tried to find the restaurant, and drove on a very dark road and couldn’t find it, and finally pulled into a place called the tiki bar, with a thatched roof, which looked fun. the lady there told us how to get to the restaurant – it was basically right next door, the next driveway over.
and sure enough, there it was, with one little poorly lit sign. we figured it would be yet another divey place. people wore whatever in all the touristy restaurants we’d been to, from sweats to nice senior outfits.
the parking lot was packed. we went inside and it was a very beautiful and huge place, and there was a line, and the hostess asked us if we had reservations. uh oh.
but after a very short wait at the bar, where i got a big fruity tropical drink, we werre seated, and i realized that nobody was in sweats except for wayne and aggie. kevin had on a nice shirt i’d given him, but i was wearing my t-shirt that said SWITZERLAND in huge letters. i’d gotten a little dressed up the other nights, but by this time had given up on that.
i wondered if i went in the bathroom and turned it inside out it might look better, but decided i’d then just look like i was wearing my shirt inside out.
but it didn’t really matter, and the food was divine, and we had a lovely last dinner.
here’s the sunrise on friday morning before we left.
the ride home was looooong and i have a few things to say about that but right now i’m about to be late for yoga class.
the good news is that it’s up o 2 degrees, they’ve cancelled the wind chill advisory, and the brownies are out of the oven. i think i’ll eat one on my drive.
more later…
ok then,
mrs. in a hurry hughes.