Abigail the Snowstorm

I never heard the name of yesterday's storm until neighbor LJ stopped over to see how the snowblower ran when I was shoveling the salty slush off the driveway this afternoon.  He's a nice man.  I didn't have to go out to shovel last night because the renter did my driveway when he did his.  My turn at the snowblower yesterday left him with a much easier job.  I was out before sunrise this morning and the battle with the plow drift wasn't easy but I just took smaller nibbles of the frozen drift and eventually got it to go away.  When I was finishing up the sun was turning the clouds pink so I hurried in for my camera but it had already begun to fade when I got back outside.  I like the fact that the pink moves into the western sky so I can take pictures 180 degrees from each other and still get pretty pink sky.





I went to the grocery for Chex Mix makings and to Fleet Farm for nuts for it and English Toffee and enjoyed being out in not much wind and lots of sunshine.  Such a huge change from yesterday when it was about 30 degrees and snowing and blowing like crazy.  According to the National Weather Service we got about 6.5" of snow from Snowstorm Abigail.

Does anything smell better than a big bowl of cereal, pretzels, and nuts baking in a slurry of butter, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder?  Maybe sauteing onions, bell pepper, and garlic comes close or frying bacon but right now it's taking all of my self-control not to take my 5 oz. Dixie cup into the kitchen for a refill.  I figured I could allow myself that much per day--of course I had another mittful when I went to take the picture--but once it's cooled off I'll package it up so it won't be sitting out there being all tempting, and heating up the chicken spaghetti for supper will dilute the fragrance of it.  Maybe that'll help.  I have no earthly idea how many points to charge myself for this stuff so I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist.  I plan to make a batch of butter cookies and one of English Toffee in the next couple days, both of those items will be sorely tempting but I'll pass some out or hide it or put it all in Durwood's bedroom... I'll think of some way to diminish the damage to the numbers on the scale.

December 14--Girolamo da Cremona, Biblical Sacrifice (from Illuminated Book of Religious Music).  Old men in long robes are the ones in charge of sacrifices.  They control the fate of society with a combination of ritual and fear.  They are learned.  They can read.  They use their education to solidify their power.  Young men are too impulsive.  They are too rebellious and they ask too many questions that challenge the old men's beliefs.  The young men are dangerous.  They are also susceptible to women's wiles, something the old men have regretfully left behind.  Impetuous and lusty, the young men are held up as examples of how not to be.  Women are barely considered at all.

Okay.  I promise that I am going right into the living room to sew the horns onto the sides of the pink puppet's head and then sew the head to the body and I am NOT going into the kitchen for more Chex Mix.  I will leave my Dixie cup right here so I'm not even tempted.  Cross my heart.
--Barbara