Locked up in the house due to the weather is no fun.  I wouldn’t be going anywhere most days anyway, but it is knowing you can’t that bugs me.

There isn’t anything much to do but watch TV.  And I watched the wrong thing--if I wanted to be cheered up.  Nova.  About the tundra and permafrost thawing--which is releasing methane from millions of years ago that has been trapped under the ice.  It is adding CO2 faster than the earth can manage.  Causing the permafrost to thaw faster.  And here I was worrying about CO2 from cars exhaust.  Which is substantial.

It has been causing explosions in Alaska and upper Russia since the year 2000, that leaves huge holes in the earth and sinkholes that exude more methane. Cheerful news.  But if I turn on the news, it is just as awful.  

I am ready for spring.  My cousin Ann is already talking about planting spinach.  I’m going to buy my spinach at the grocery store! Or beg her for some.  I will plant tomatoes if my son Scott sends me Jet Stars.  Nothing else here is very dependable.  Except the little yellow one.

And okra.  But last year, something ate my plants when they emerged.  Rabbits probably.  I planted again, same thing.  No okra.  I’ll try again.  Ann is a true gardener.  She does it all.  I give the okra away.  It is my attempt to pay my friends and neighbor for sending me meals.  I still have okra cut up, dredged in corn meal and frozen from two years ago.  I don’t think I’m going to fry it unless someone calls, says “Come to dinner, and bring fried okra.” 

With war on the horizon in Europe, my friend Carolyn and I were discussing how it was living through the last world war.  The world lives on oil, and it will become scarce.  This generation hasn’t had to carpool.  Everyone has a car with one person in it. A huge waste of gasoline.

Back then, everyone had chickens, a cow and hogs.  You can exist on dried beans, milk, eggs and bread if--you have hog fat or oil.  When the pandemic set in, I bought dry white and brown beans.   A lot of them.  Flour, cornmeal, dry milk and oil. Canned goods.  Pat has hens, so eggs were available.  All of that was just “in case.”  Everyone else was buying toilet paper--obviously they didn’t know about news paper and the Sears catalog.  Gran saved chicken feathers to make comforters and beds.

You need a saw to cut wood to build a fire.  As I think back, families shared tools.  All tools were run by hand, not gas or battery.   I still have my dad’s whet stone to sharpen knives and tools with.  Every kid who was able to walk had a job to do in the house.  And as soon as they could get a real job, they worked.  And gave the money to their parents to help pay the bills.  No air conditioning.  Heat was from wool clothes and blankets.  You lit wood in a fire-place or wood stove.

We may be getting ready to do some of that again.  I can do it if the city will give me water and electricity.  Otherwise, I’m going down the tubes.  Carolyn is going with me.  Come Lord Jesus.  I’m tired of war.

 My computer has been “down” all day.  I checked the wiring and sure enough, the charging cord was broken.  Actually, chewed.  I’m sure the ladies who vacuum got it again.  It’s happened before. 

I pressed the ends of the wires together and “ta-da” it is working!  Craig said he would buy me another one tomorrow.  But for now,  at five-thirty in the evening, I am running.

Sleet has been coming down most of the day.  It is way below freezing here.  Which I don’t like at all.  The mail man was putting mail in my box on the street and I Yoo-hooed at him from the porch and asked him if he would bring it to me???

He did!!  There are still good people in the world.  I thanked him over and God blessed him.  I still haven’t gotten all my income things from 2021 and want to get my taxes in.  Sometimes mail just disappears forever.

The problem with a day like today is that all there is to do is eat. Which is counter-productive.  Or play solitaire.  Which I can’t do with my computer down.  I can’t do stuff like that on my phone.  The screen is too small for me.  I bet I am paying too much for phone service.  The only thing I do on my phone is text and call.

Tomorrow is another day, and the weatherman says another front is coming in with more of the same.  I probably won’t blog if my computer is still down.  Maybe Craig will get me a charging cord.

The problem with all of that wonderful food people bring me, is that I eat it.  And my weight has started to rise.  I am normally thin and my metabolism is a raging fire...so I seldom gain weight no matter what I eat.

But Jeanette makes her quiche with heavy cream--no wonder it is so delicious.  It’s her fault!  I’m going to have to space it out.  Maybe every third day for breakfast instead of every day.

One thing that makes stabilization of weight easier for me is that I don’t like sweets.  I don’t like the sensation of sugar in my mouth.  

I’ve also been eating chili with cheese and Fritos.  Justifying all that cheese with the reasoning that I don’t use milk and need the calcium.  I don’t even buy milk.  The Fritos can’t be justified.  But like I said yesterday, we humans want to eat something that tastes good to us.

The problem with gaining weight that you don’t need--is that your body will adjust to a new weight-point that it likes.  And if you continue going up, your metabolism will reset your point upwards--it’s hard to reset once it gets comfortable.  Your new body-point resists being messed with.

All of that just to say, I’m going to have to change my ways.  I don’t like that. I want to eat what I want to eat.  That’s the problem for all of us.

People need many things.  Shelter, water, clothing protecting them from the elements..etc.  But the two things that we humans want are--love and something to eat that tastes good.  Same as your dog.

 My friend Jeanette made me two huge quiches, so I have breakfast covered.  So very tasty and good.  She toasted the button mushrooms before she added them to the mix.  Anything with mushrooms is stellar.  Ann, Becky, Jeannine all bring food.  Thank God they love me.

Real love is difficult to come by.  It’s easier to say, “I love you.”  But love is not a phrase, or a feeling.  It is exhibited by behavior--over time.  It doesn’t evaporate when conditions change.  If someone loves you, they stick with you when you can’t reciprocate.  When things have gone south.

The difficult thing is that sometimes a person’s love behaviors aren’t the thing that we need.  I finally told Ken that I never wanted flowers.  Or candy.  Or something to wear.  He had tried to express that he cared--in the way men are taught to do.  However, I’m not the girl who needs those things.  Please don’t waste money on stuff.  Just help with the things that need to be done.  That’s my love language.  When he “got” it, and realized that it was really true, he was relieved to know what I needed.  

Help me.  That’s it.  That’s all I need.  I’ll take care of the rest. 

 I’m almost finished with “Baa Baa Black Sheep.”  I’ve learned a lot about WWII in the Pacific.  Pappy was given the Congressional Medal of Honor. They thought he was dead, but he was in a Japanese prison camp--for two years after crashing into the ocean.

If you were captured and declared a prisoner of war, they reported you.  If you were listed as a captive instead, they didn’t.  He didn’t know about B-29’s until they flew over the camp he was in.  

He didn’t know about the A-bomb until he read about it on the way home after being released.

I knew he was a drunk.  That’s all.  But in reading the book, I’ve discovered that he was also a human being who knew himself very well.  It’s interesting that we only hear about the bad, and sometimes make an unfair evaluation of a person.  He is an excellent writer.

He was a Marine.  He loved to fly.  He holds the lifetime record for shooting down enemy planes.  And he finally conquered his demons.  I bought the book in ‘68, I wish I had read it then--during the time my life was surrounded by Marine fighter pilots.  I would have had a better idea of what they did back when I was living through it.  Every Marine I knew was a fighter pilot.  I didn’t know they were unusual.

 My friend Jeanette was cleaning out her bookshelves and I was rearranging them for her.  One book caught my eye and she said, “Take it.”  I am reading “Baa Baa Black Sheep.”  

I had bought a copy of that book in 1968 when it was published.  Pappy (Gregory) Boyington was sitting outside a bookstore in Santa Ana California signing books so I  bought one.  He asked me how I wanted it signed and I told him.  He said, “I know Ken...”  

Pappy was the World War II ace in the Pacific, a Marine fighter pilot.  I never read the book.  I didn’t have time back then...and to tell the truth, I didn’t know much about what fighter pilots did....even though  I was married to one.  If I had read it, I would have had a better idea of what flying a Corsair in combat was all about.

They were the airplanes that were left over from World War II that Ken flew in Korea.  Prop planes...replaced after Ken flew 27 missions and was hit 7 times.  They went to jets.  F-9’s.  Ken had been in the first class of jet aviation--I think Corpus Cristi?  So he was immediately qualified for F-9’s in Korea.

Anyway.  I took the book home with me from my friend’s house, and am reading it, and wish I could tell Ken “Thank You” for what he went through.  The Corsair was able to take enormous flac damage and keep flying.  They ran out of gas, lost parts of their planes, and kept getting back alive.  At least, some of them did.

I am halfway through the book and can’t lay it down.  Ken never talked about it---so I didn’t know.  Sadly, I gave the book away that was signed by Pappy. I wonder where it is?

Jeanette brought me two huge quiches.  I sliced them into 12 pieces each, wrapped them in Saran and froze them.  Breakfast for many days.  It makes me very happy.

I am going to late lunch with friends in a little while.  And when I get home I am going to make tabouli.  All I think about lately is food.  I seem to be hungry all the time.  I have a raging metabolism and burn up whatever I eat.  And luckily, I don’t like sweets.

The grocery stores have many empty shelves.  One of the clerks said it varies from day to day.  Yesterday they had beef pot pies, and no turkey or chicken.  The  clerk said they hadn’t had chicken or turkey pot pies in weeks.  The truckers are having a hard time keeping the supply chain going.  Packers have had a hard time keeping the chicken plants staffed.  I like my chicken pot pie better anyway.  But I have to cook it.

We are all tired of this.  But I think it is here to stay in some form or another. Like the flu.  I always get my flu shot and can’t remember having the flu, or even a cold, in twenty years or so.  Knock on wood.  Sometimes they don’t even know what to put in the shot.  I think they measure the flu variant on what Australia is doing.  They stay a season ahead of us.

February is half over.  What happened to it!!??  Where did the last two years go anyway? 

 

Happy Valentine’s day.  I am going to celebrate by going to the grocery store.  I haven’t been in three months.  But there comes a day that you just have to walk the aisles and figure out what you need. 

I should keep a list, but according to my nature, that’s impossible.  I would lose it.

I have paper everywhere.  I just went through a stack of it and separated out my tax stuff and shredded every thing else.  It felt like I lost fifty pounds.  I stack stuff up for the entire year and when I finally go through it, I wonder why I didn’t throw half of it away the day it came in the mail.

I did find dozens of notes I have written to myself about things I needed to do, needed to blog about, needed to buy.  It’s useless.  I don’t know why I feel the compunction to write things down.  I just misplace them.

I did accomplish something last week.  I took the large recycle trash can to the garage.  It has been sitting in front of the fridge for four years. I put it there when I moved here across the street and never moved it.  When I moved here, I had Tony build me a cabinet with a pull out recycle bin that I never used because I had to open the cabinet door to get at it.  Lazy, lazy...I’ve repented.

Be thankful.  It will make your day better.  We tend to dwell on what is wrong rather than thank God for what is right.

I regularly thank him that my pain is in my back and not in my hands--so that I can type.  Do I like the pain in my back?  Of course not.

I am so thankful for my neighbor Jeaninne.  She brings me something to eat at least once a week.  Taco chili soup today, and enough to freeze for another day.  She puts corn in it, which I love. 

And my friend Jeanette showed up at my door yesterday with tortillas, “I figure you are low on these by now,” she said.

Pat called to invite me to lunch today.  She works in Luther--a thirty minute drive for me.  But how wonderful to have a date to eat with someone.

Becky called last night to check on me.  She sent a picture of herself and her new (first) grandson.  She had him all to herself while his parents went to an event.  He was sleeping.  She was grinning.

The weather is 67 degrees.  February, and a beautiful day.  Thank you God for all the wonderful blessings you send my way.

Jeanette gave me a book she bought at a garage sale years ago.  It was written in 1920 for children’s teachers to explain science to them.  Science about the air, the kitchen, the way to heat your home, how to dig a well, how to take a picture, plant a garden, etc, etc.  

It has been so interesting.  And it brought back memories from my Gran’s farm.  She had an ice box.  There weren’t refrigerators.  In the summer she would tell me over and over not to open the ice box because the ice would melt.  But ice was fascinating, Oklahoma summers were hot, and when you opened the ice box door, cool air surrounded you.

Every page of the book makes me chuckle.  There is a chart giving you points for things you should do for your health.  Fresh air got 19 points.  Taking a bath once a week got 5.

People didn’t bathe every day.  Unless you had been working cattle, and even then, you had your work coveralls and boots you took off and washed your hands at the pump. (Well-water, no in-house running water.  Out houses stocked with Sears Roebuck catalogs for toilet paper and a basket of corn cobs.  I’ll let you figure that one out.)  

Anyway, I have been chuckling my way through this book, just remembering how it used to be.

Chili, cheese and Fritos for breakfast.  I ran out of Pizza and quiche.  Jeanette made the quiche for me.  De-de-dee-licious.

I am going to have to cook pretty soon.  I used to make a potato, sour cream, sausage and other stuff dish that you baked.  But now, I can’t stir it up.  I am a wimp.  Last time I made it, Scott was here and stirred it for me. 

You remember when your granny said she had arthritis in her hands and you didn’t have a clue what she was talking about...someday you will get to learn about that.  There are lots of fun things awaiting you out there in the future.

If our bodies didn’t betray us, we would be content to live forever.  

My grandson Ben came by Saturday and spent two and a half hours visiting with me.  It was lovely to “remember” with him.  He is very thoughtful and rational and smart.  A nice interlude.

I’m getting tired of idiots.  When you don’t have much to do but watch TV, you learn how stupid the world has become.  People don’t read.  They play video games.  They can’t carry on a conversation, they don’t know how to think.  Face to face discourse has become a thing of the past.  It’s sad.   

I was eighteen and didn’t know that I didn’t know how to tie a bow.  

As I was getting dressed to go somewhere, I tied the bow on my dress and the loops went every which way.  Ken said, “You want me to show you how to do that?”

I didn’t know that I didn’t know that there was a way to make the loops go side to side and the ends go down.

I stood still as my 25 year old husband tied the bow on his 18 year old wife’s shirt.  Perfect.  Who would have dreamed that a Marine knew how to tie a bow.

This morning as I was tying the bow on my drawstring pants, and the loops went perfectly sideways and the strings lay down, I thought of that moment and the millions of bows I have tied since.

It’s moments like that that I really miss him.

Today has been cancelled due to snow and sleet and ice....!!  

I got up this morning praising God because I have power.

I don’t know if the newspaper came.  There is no way to see it.  I don’t think it’s worth stomping out there in my boots to find out.

The paper person probably looked out and decided he would take the day off.

I made myself some hot lemon-ade, turned the TV on, and am hunkering down.  I’ll have a surprise-a-meal for lunch.  I should label the stuff I put in the freezer, but that would take the fun out of it.

Get your shovel out and start digging.  I think I have everything I need to just wait--for spring.  It will melt eventually.

At least, I think it will melt???

This is post 2343.  Unbelievable.  A thousand miles starts with the first step.  I wonder if someday, some great-great-great grand child will read any of these.

Jeanette gave me a book I’m reading that was written in 1920.  One-hundred and two years ago.  It is about science from a child’s point of view.  The first chapter tells how to heat the house you live in with coal. It says that maybe a hundred years from now people may use electricity in some way, but it is doubtful because it would be too expensive.

It says you have to have a basement to put the heater furnace in.  Some houses in Pryor, maybe three or four, have basements. People from the east who didn’t know about the water table in Oklahoma built houses in Oklahoma with basements.  They are filled with water now.  Nobody builds a house with a basement in Oklahoma if they have good sense.

We did our wash in tubs.  Hung clothes on the line by pinning one garment’s shoulder to the next to conserve clothes pins.  Everyone had a clothes line.  Everyone ironed.  I have an iron and ironing board I haven’t used in over six years. I don’t know why I keep them?  

We don’t have to have a recipe to make cornbread or biscuits.  We just whip them up.  Bread was the staff of life.  Now it is junk food.

It’s almost five o’clock and I just realized that I forgot to post.  My day didn’t go in order since I had a dermatologist appointment this morning.  Another of those wheels up landings Ken talked about.

We are going to get hit with ice and sleet then snow tomorrow.  I filled my car up in case I lose power and need to go get warm in the car.  Becky bought me a small generator for Christmas.  Just enough to power my phone and an electric heater.  It has a re-power plug for the car.

Maybe I can plug my electric lap robe into it if we lose power.

I’m thinking of the 2020 October storm that tore up all the trees and left all of us on this street without power.  It was awful.  You could hear the limbs on the trees cracking as they broke and fell all day long.  Unable to bear the weight of the ice.

I would stock up on something if I knew what to get.  I think I’m good.  Will fill up the bathtubs in case pipes break.  I’ve been there before.  It’s not pretty.

The worst snow storm I’ve been in was in Virginia.  Our car was completely covered up to the roof.  I have a picture of me shoveling snow off the car.  Don’t know why, you couldn’t back it out of the driveway!!