All Things Considered . . .
First snowfall of the season here yesterday and it was substantial - the second worst November winter storm in Chicagoland since they started recording this stuff :-D
I shoveled the driveway - it was my workout for the day since it took me about an hour. Because the ground was still quite warm, the initial snow was slushy and wet, particularly closer to the house. There was no point getting out the snowblower even though I got gas for it and was ready to go - the slush would have just clogged it continually. I got out there before dark, but it fell quickly and I did the majority of it after sunset.
That's the moon through the branches of my neighbor's tree. It was pretty. :-) The mailman came very late yesterday - he asked me if I wanted him to come back later and help do the driveway. So kind. I continued on because I wanted to get it done before the temps dropped - it went down to about 11 degrees last night.
And it will warm up this week - by Thanksgiving it will be back up in the 50s! So it goes. Winter is definitely here.
Because of the bad weather yesterday, a lunch I had scheduled up on the northwest side was cancelled. That meant that after my early WW meeting - interesting drive over there - my day was my own. I did the first shovel of the driveway at about 5:30 a.m. It was more sluicing than shoveling - pretty much just a layer of slush that I used the shovel to slide over to either side. When I got home, I decided that it was time to get my Christmas stuff out :-) I've been trying to do it for a couple of weekends without success. So my house is decorated. That makes me all happy :-)
The awesome star lights that I have hung in my windows for probably a decade are now on their last legs. A number of the strings have gone out, and, although they say you can change the bulbs, I have never been successful doing so. IKEA doesn't sell them any more. I thought I had a couple more boxes of them downstairs, but I didn't find them. That doesn't mean that they're not there - it just means that stuff got moved around earlier this year and they could be on another shelf :-D I still need to put my old candelabras in the two front windows, and that's about it as far as anything that shows from the outside.
Inside I have holiday pillows and what I call The Polar Bear Family. I brought two of the big one upstairs, but left most of the rest put away. Going through everything gave me the opportunity to, once again, downsize Christmas. I have plenty to go to the Second Chance shop next weekend on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
This is BunBun.
She has her own little Bun-size Christmas chair that I found somewhere, and she's pretty much a Christmas fixture. I made her forever ago. She's really very cute. Her body is mostly the red fabric of her ears. Her dress and pinafore are separate pieces, and you can't see them in this photo, but she has bloomers on that match her pinafore :-D It was an old Simplicity pattern, I think. It's likely still around here somewhere. probably in the basement . . . She had a sister named Winky. Linda the Chicken Lady has her, although she may have downsized in her big move to the West Coast.
The laundry is going, and I got two scarves washed and blocked drying in the guestroom. As is customary, I fell asleep in the chair for at least an hour, and my knees seems to have stopped hurting. I'm crossing my fingers, but I've take two days off from the Dreaded Foam Roller. I will do it tomorrow for good measure just to be safe, but I'm feeling very, very hopeful there.
Really quite an excellent weekend, all things considered. :-)
I shoveled the driveway - it was my workout for the day since it took me about an hour. Because the ground was still quite warm, the initial snow was slushy and wet, particularly closer to the house. There was no point getting out the snowblower even though I got gas for it and was ready to go - the slush would have just clogged it continually. I got out there before dark, but it fell quickly and I did the majority of it after sunset.
That's the moon through the branches of my neighbor's tree. It was pretty. :-) The mailman came very late yesterday - he asked me if I wanted him to come back later and help do the driveway. So kind. I continued on because I wanted to get it done before the temps dropped - it went down to about 11 degrees last night.
And it will warm up this week - by Thanksgiving it will be back up in the 50s! So it goes. Winter is definitely here.
Because of the bad weather yesterday, a lunch I had scheduled up on the northwest side was cancelled. That meant that after my early WW meeting - interesting drive over there - my day was my own. I did the first shovel of the driveway at about 5:30 a.m. It was more sluicing than shoveling - pretty much just a layer of slush that I used the shovel to slide over to either side. When I got home, I decided that it was time to get my Christmas stuff out :-) I've been trying to do it for a couple of weekends without success. So my house is decorated. That makes me all happy :-)
The awesome star lights that I have hung in my windows for probably a decade are now on their last legs. A number of the strings have gone out, and, although they say you can change the bulbs, I have never been successful doing so. IKEA doesn't sell them any more. I thought I had a couple more boxes of them downstairs, but I didn't find them. That doesn't mean that they're not there - it just means that stuff got moved around earlier this year and they could be on another shelf :-D I still need to put my old candelabras in the two front windows, and that's about it as far as anything that shows from the outside.
Inside I have holiday pillows and what I call The Polar Bear Family. I brought two of the big one upstairs, but left most of the rest put away. Going through everything gave me the opportunity to, once again, downsize Christmas. I have plenty to go to the Second Chance shop next weekend on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
This is BunBun.
She has her own little Bun-size Christmas chair that I found somewhere, and she's pretty much a Christmas fixture. I made her forever ago. She's really very cute. Her body is mostly the red fabric of her ears. Her dress and pinafore are separate pieces, and you can't see them in this photo, but she has bloomers on that match her pinafore :-D It was an old Simplicity pattern, I think. It's likely still around here somewhere. probably in the basement . . . She had a sister named Winky. Linda the Chicken Lady has her, although she may have downsized in her big move to the West Coast.
The laundry is going, and I got two scarves washed and blocked drying in the guestroom. As is customary, I fell asleep in the chair for at least an hour, and my knees seems to have stopped hurting. I'm crossing my fingers, but I've take two days off from the Dreaded Foam Roller. I will do it tomorrow for good measure just to be safe, but I'm feeling very, very hopeful there.
Really quite an excellent weekend, all things considered. :-)
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