So Cold

I got an early morning text from DS saying that he had forgotten to tell me that LC and OJ were marching in the holiday parade this morning and did I want to come. I said that I would consider it but might stay home and stay warm. It was a ripe 19 degrees and windy so staying home was very tempting. But I'm a good Meemaw and started digging out my longies, fleece pants, turtleneck, Irish wool sweater, foot warmers, boots, and mittens. I got down to the parade area and found a parking place about 2 blocks from the start so I walked over to the block right after the start, planted my chair, sat down, and started shivering. I pulled up my hood and took this picture of frozen me but my fingers got so cold that it's the only picture that I took. I just couldn't face taking off my two layers of mittens again. I got to see OJ and DS with the Cub Scouts and LC and DIL1 with the Girl Scouts and then I packed up my chair and headed for home to get warm.

It's been so cold lately that I was down to enough hot chocolate mix to make only one more cup so I mixed up a batch. It's easy. You put 12 Tablespoons of cocoa powder, 1 cup of nonfat dry milk, 1 cup of fat free nondairy creamer, and 1 1/2 cups of Splenda in the food processor or blender, whir it up until it's mixed, and you're done. Three Tablespoons of mix in a mug of hot water only costs 2 points. It's great when I need a chocolate fix or when I'm frozen to the bone like I was this morning.

One of the Christmas cactus buds is nearly blooming. Three of the other ones look like they may mature enough to bloom and three or four more are just little nubbins and may not amount to anything. But I've got this one just about to pop.

 

Once I thawed out I sat down to write this afternoon. I tried to get some conflict going but I don't think I really managed very well. I'll try again tomorrow. Here's my binder with all of the pages that I've written so far this month. I'm up to 34,570 words. Woohoo!

The next page in How To Draw People was a stick boy and girl now with clothes and actions. I realize that I should have given them faces. Their blank faces make me sad. You can tell how old the drawing book is because all of the girls and women are wearing skirts. No pants for them.

 

So I went back into Seuss-isms to draw the sinking house that the little yellow-orange guy is escaping by holding onto a rope dropped by an unseen savior from a pink tree. The sea that the house is sinking into is green. I love that Dr. Seuss was never bound by the way things were supposed to look. I want to acquire some of that for myself.

 

What did I toss today? Very old cream of wheat that was in a Tupperware in the cupboard. I kept the Tupperware.

It is now 15 degrees and it's still windy. I think if I'd have known the wind chill this morning I would never have left the house but I'm glad that I went. I couldn't figure out why I've been so tired this evening but then I realized that sitting in the frigid cold and wind for a couple hours can really take it out of a person.

--Barbara