Saturday, December 13th.... I tried sending messages to those of you who sent them to me...

 Nothing worked....so everyone gets all the  info.

Heat Pumps are a lovely "idea" but here in Maine they don't work... perhaps it's the Summer Vacation Land construction of the houses (little insulation) but the heat pumps don't get the house warm... new people next door got them and have fireplaces going all day and night to keep warm.. same across the street- piles of fire wood.

I have squirrel nesting materials in my chimney and even though I call to have the chimney cleaned out... no one ever actually shows up...which I guess could be the Maine State Motto... We Just Don't Show Up.

On their behalf....most of the Actual Born in Maine Folks (really nice people) are spending the Winter in their Florida Houses. And these are the people who own heating oil businesses (and sell the business to people in Boston), do plumbing work (on frozen busted pipes) etc.  Before going to the Bahamas or on a long extended Ocean Cruises.  (my street neighbors).

I wasn't born in Maine but going somewhere else for the Winter sounds rather nice. Better than trying to hunt down several hundred gallons of heating oil.  In December.

I might suggest Son try and purchase an electric blanket for himself... tomorrow we make pizza so we will have the oven preheating etc so the kitchen will be warmer than usual.  We'll both stand close to it.

I have my down lap blanket and heating pad and British Soccer Matches to watch... I need to reheat my coffee one more time and then settle in for an hour or two... nice and warm... son says we have enough oil to heat the house  "as usual'' for a week.    Was fact checking the post and read this line just as the boiler kicked in....rumbling noise....

After a delightful phone call with my Master Gardner Pal....I set the oven to preheat and mixed up my package of Jiffy cornbread.... to eat alongside my homemade Vegetable Bean Soup.

Oven preheated to 400 and is now baking my Jiffy Cornbread... for 20 minutes.  Then I will be heating up a nice bowl of vegetable bean soup and having LUNCH.   Pretty close to the actual time people eat lunch.

I watched a Christmas Movie last night...I don't recall the title...it's a guy who wishes he hadn't gotten married... in his new "life " he lives in a huge house and has a fancy red sports car in the driveway- never even gets into it.  Has a driver pick him up for work and drop him off each day.  Runs into the woman he didn't marry...sees the kids they didn't adopt......still not adopted.  Sort of a Modern Business Scrooge.

What sort of Life do you think you would have liked better than the one you actually lived?????

Daily Notes here in Freezing Cold Maine. 23 degrees and the Sun is shining..... Friday, December 12th.

 A local shop is having a craft show of some sort.... the people attending will be making these cards. Or boxes...hard to tell what's what......whenever she posts images they seem so "familiar" to me- I think, did I draw and color that????????  No.  Sort of like my index card art?????

1.  The company that delivers heating oil to my house...has gone out of business???? Or just the Propane Delivery has gone out of business?  Will the Oil Guy come and fill the tank without office workers sending a service ticket????   I think the answer is No.

Will we freeze to death??? My Son says we have for sure a week's worth of oil and perhaps two weeks... The South facing Sun Porch looks nice and warm....... it's not warm.

2.  The office is closed and they fired the office workers..... the owners are in Boston.

3.  The stove is electric....I can turn on the oven and stand close to it... And I have a heating pad....For couch sitting and reading....and that down lap cover.  Or two of them....

4.  Son is shoveling and chipping ice out front off the porch steps....(the back deck is dry and ice free- sunshine)

5.  I DID (finally) get a recording of one of my favorite old Hallmark Christmas movies....Watched it...Now if the other one will record...Christmas Joanne will be happy.  That's it from here....I have a full shelf of Library books....a full jar of tea bags and sugar.......an electric pot to boil water....a brand new oven to bake Sunday Pizza in...........wool socks...sigh....like I have always said- Living in Maine is Difficult. Not for the Faint of Heart......really only worth it in the Summer.

Daily Notes for December 11th......Ice. Covering the walks, porch steps etc.

I do not like when the curser wants to be center ...

So this post will not be very long.....woke up to ice covered everything and Son went out to buy salt. There are areas getting Sun  and snow has melted but the porch steps etc right by the front door close to the house is in the shade...shiny....Shiny equals Ice.  Son asked why I bought a north facing house... 

South facing back deck is dry as a bone.

This tree was a bit more detailed...I changed my style as Time moved on..I see something.... recall it and use it- not always sooner and mostly later.  I slept well but the right side of my neck is stiff and aches a bit.. So this post will be short.   I have Soccer and a TiVo movie to watch..I am seriously hoping the movie itself matches the title on the TiVo listing...it hasn't on a few more things that I recorded.

Son says this is what happens when a company decides to slow down and then stop operating...no longer any attention to detail... wow sounds like a certain man living in a white house.

An email from a former Library co-worker who retired and so kindly offered to drive Gary and I to his very last doctor's appointment... she waited in her car reading a book...it was a very long wait. I needed the doctor to be the second on the Hospice drugs my husband needed to get thru the night.

Nothing is ever easy... we had to wait forever it seemed.

She found a lovely place in Canada- (she is Canadian) and sent an e-mail with a map and all so I know where she is...exactly.. and a picture of her house and car.  This was always her plan when she retired.. 

 

Daily Notes For Wednesday, December 10th.... Snow overnight.

 White ink on a brown paper card.  I recall making these and enjoying the process of the white needles on the trees... I think I made 8 or 10 cards.  I still have a few blank cards--I think-- and the white ink pens but the ink inside might have dried up by now....  I sat at the table and worked on a card and felt peaceful. A gift to myself in the making of them....and added the tiny red heart at the last minute.

1.   I've set all the ingredients for my Simply Soup which I will be making soon....onto the counter top. The last time I made the soup I had purchased a few fat Brussels Sprouts and sliced them into the soup.  In the olden days I usually had a small cabbage in the crisper...not these days.  I have one carrot and one stalk of celery...and nothing else in the drawer.  Onions don't go in the fridge.

2.  A friend sent me a recipe for the soup she was making...garlic and leeks and some other items I don't buy or use... I would never make a soup containing two cloves of garlic...I dislike the stuff. She knows this.  Keeps suggesting it.  She sent the images of these cards to me....

3.  Daughter and I are traveling to the bank today to order more checks for my household bills. And there is something else we are supposed to be doing.....but I may have forgotten what it was... things that are recent don't "stick" but decades of old stuff is readily available...a reason my Son wants me drinking more water.

4.  I watch the very last 15 minutes of the movie "Rudy" ...... yesterday before going to bed.

5.  I continue my quest to record favorite Hallmark Christmas Movies and ACTUALLY GET The RIGHT ONE RECORDED.... The listing and the actual lineup are different.....I keep getting the same wrong movie each time I try for the one movie I actually want to see.

6.  My Lunch Buddy was in line behind two women buying FIFTEEN POUNDS of butter.....Christmas Cookie Baking.... I initially typed Five but then my friend corrected me-- 15 pound sized boxes of butter.