At What Temperature Do Humans Shatter?

Are we there yet?  It's damned cold out.  There, I said it.  It's supposed to rocket up to eleven degrees today.  Eleven.  One more than ten.  Twenty-one lower than freezing.  And we live here.  It's too late to move too.  Most of the people we love are nearby (except for DD & DIL2 and a few random aunts, uncles, and in-laws), my job is here, and I know where all the stuff is, stores and such, but, oh Nellie, it's cold outside.  Actually it's kinda cold inside, my feet in my slippers aiming at the corner of the room are feeling the cold radiating in through the walls.  Perhaps our 36 year old insulation needs beefing up?  This is only the beginning too.  Oh well, at least I'll have something to blog about for the next... five months and, lucky you, you get to listen/read.

I had four customers at work yesterday.  Some actually bought stuff, well, two did, the third one will pay later (I sent an invoice with the item) and the fourth one made a list so her sons will know what to buy for Santa to bring.  That left me lots of grandbaby hat-knitting time.  I finished the Barley hat and cast on the Candy Cane hat and made good progress.  They're both supposed to be newborn size but they look big to me so I carried up my copy of Knitting Rules! since I knew she had a chart of hat circumferences in there--both are bang on for newborns.  Whew.  Next I'm going down a needle size and see if I can't squeeze out a hat using the leftovers from the little sweater I knit for the shower (which is of course larger than newborn) so it'll have matching things (sometimes I'm such a dope).  But first I'm going downstairs and work on sewing those curtains.  I stripped the bed and put out fresh towels so I can fling laundry around while sewing too.  I like to multitask.

And I can keep listening to The Aquitaine Progression on the Kindle Fire.  I was wrong yesterday when I said that I thought it was written by someone using Ludlum's name but the technology references are all old school (no cellphones and few computers) so I looked up the original pub date and it's 1984 so it's a real Ludlum.  No wonder it's so engrossing even if it is old school.

December 6--India, Princesses Gather at a Fountain.  It was baking hot at midday.  Shala wished she could lie in a stream of water flowing from the mountain on the horizon.  In winter snow fell up on the slopes covering the gray rocks in blankets of cold whiteness.  She craved the cold of winter.  Even the birds were silent in the midday heat and even the poorest of the poor found scraps of shade to lie in until the fiery sun began to sink to the west.  One of the dogs began to growl.  The fur rose in a ridge down its back and Shala slid her feed to the ground.  A piece of meet landed on the ground distracting the dog, then Benji's smiling face rose from behind the reeds.

Remember on Wednesday when it was 40 degrees and raining?  We won't be seeing that for a while.  Bundle up.  Stay warm.  Drink hot chocolate or, better yet, have a hot buttered rum.
--Barbara