The Wind Blew Away

And left blue sky.  Well, some blue sky.  More blue sky than we've had, anyway. (that means the sun's shining too, ahhhh, sunshine)  The wind also gathered up the leaves that escaped my final lawn mowing/bagging a couple weeks ago and made a nice drift of them against the back of the house.  There's a solid mass of leaves under the step that I should probably rake out to keep it from becoming a mouse/vole/chipmunk winter home.  I'll get to that later today since it's SUPPOSED TO SNOW tonight and tomorrow.  Real stick to the ground SNOW, with ACCUMULATION even.  I saw on the TV news just now that a ski hill in Slinger's making SNOW and will open next weekend.  Eek.  (can you tell how excited I am about it? [here's a hint--"excited" may be a euphemism])  I might just dig out my snowshoes and poles so I'm ready when the time comes to get out and tromp around.  I'm ready for a few laps around the house or a fun hour chasing Porter in her yard.  I need to get off my duff and start training or I'll keel right over the first time I go out there.  Snowshoeing's hard work but it's fun.  I might need to gather up ingredients for a cauldron of soup later today.  I'll need lunch soup next week and there's really nothing like the aroma of simmering soup on a chilly day.  There's no "might" about it, I've got 1/4 of a head of red cabbage and the remains of the giant bag of frozen green beans from making the casserole in the fridge & freezer just waiting to be awesome.  Now all I need is a rotisserie chicken and a some broth and I'm good.  Hmm, there may be some broth in the freezer... just a minute, I'll go see... yep, now it's upstairs thawing.  Score! (and don't forget to cross it off the master list, miss i'm-so-proud-of-myself smartiepants)  Don't you love having food or ingredients stashed away for later?  I think people must be going back to canning since Walmart's canning supplies department is still up and running and it used to be all sold out and put away by now.  (it's pathetic that I use Walmart as some sort of societal barometer; forgive me, I'm weak & shallow)  God, I hope people are relearning how to can food because there's nothing quite like those rows of gleaming jars all lined up in the larder waiting to feed your family.  Speaking of canned goodies,  I carried up a couple pints of Durwood's delicious and beautiful tomato soup for his lunch.  Maybe I can cadge a little for me too.  That might even be why I brought up two.

November 24--Southern Mesopotamia, Fragment of a Bowl with a Frieze of Bulls in Relief.  Elladee crouched behind the sandstone ruins.  She was glad to be in the shade.  She reached into her backpack and drew out her water bottle making sure not to make any noise.  Nassir wasn't far behind her and he was much better at moving through the desert than she was.  He could walk along on the sandy stones and not make a sound.  She thought that her feet must weigh ten pounds each because try as she might her steps could be heard.  And she needed to get away.  If she could get to the highway she could flag down a ride into town, find a phone... and then what?  Who would she call?  Who would have the kind of clout to get her out of this crazy hot place?

Too hot, too cold, neither is good.  I like it mild and sunny but then, who doesn't?  I'm off to play a little Small Business Saturday, but only a little.  Toodles.
--Barbara Sue