Holy Moses It's Cold

It's a nice round 12 degrees out there right now.  Twelve degrees!  And it isn't the crack of dawn.  I forget how the cold seeps inside even though we have new-ish siding and windows and roof.  I lay in bed this morning feeling it radiate off the wall and window and yes, I did check to make sure that the window is closed tight.  It is.  It's just damned cold out there.  Cold and sunny.  I do love the sunny, all things are bearable when it's sunny.  Did you Cyber Monday?  I did a little.  I really hate the whole Black Friday Small Business Saturday Cyber Monday thing (it seems like retail manipulation to me) but there were deals and it was dead quiet (emphasis on the dead, my sole customer was a staff member who came in to fill his tank, not a dime into the till *sigh* how they keep the doors open and keep paying me I do not know) at the dive shop so I surfed--and fell into the Cyber hole.  I do feel good that I now have only one more thing to think about buying (maybe) for one of my immediate family.  I say maybe because I might just sew up an extra gift for that person.  I was flipping some pattern books I have and saw something that's been scratching at the back of my mind and it'd be just right for that person. (nope, no hints for you)  Three other things are winging their way to me even as we speak, well okay, they're on trucks.  (sheesh, you guys can be so picky about word choice; i'm a writer, i'm flamboyant, i exaggerate)  I'm still on the fence about whether to put Fifi the flamingo out there, I'd like her to be there, I'm just not sure I want to put her there, all that work of getting out the sawhorses, clearing Durwood's van out of the garage, plugging Fifi in to see how her lights are lighting, maybe having to remove a string (or 3), take out those staples one by one (don't drop any), staple new lights on, secure the prop, drive tie-downs into the ground, tie Fifi to the tie-downs, drape all the weightbelts on her base to keep her from falling or flying away... *pant, pant, pant*... makes me tired just typing it all.  But I'll probably end up doing it.  I usually put her out around our anniversary (Dec. 4) so I've got a bit of time to guts up.  At least until the weekend, especially if it's going to be rainy and crappy, you know that's when I'll decide to go out and do it all.  The more miserable I can make myself the better it seems sometimes.  I'm evidently trying to prove how hardy I am, to whom I don't know, but I always till the garden when it has rained so my shoes and the tiller become anvils with caked on mud.  I used to go out in thunderstorms with the ladder to clean the overflowing and clogged gutters (now we have leaf guard things on them) nearly killing myself in the process.  I've told you before, I need a keeper.

November 27--China, Pipa.  The notes of the song interlocked like the hexagon cells of honeycomb carved on the ivory back of the lute.  Jin played the wood and ivory instrument every afternoon seated on a stool before the fountain.  She played the colors of the flowers in the garden, the songs of the birds and bees, and the sun in the sky.

Time to sew.  But first a little breakfast.  Enjoy your day.
--Barbara