Daily Notes on Monday December 15th, Son is out shoveling snow. 15 degrees

 This tree is a collage of Library date due slips under the tree........ I actually had fun making this years ago.  I brought home all sorts of scrap paper from the Library.....I found the trash basket unlessly interesting.   That's who I am down deep....

1.  Sun is shining but having little effect on the temperature.  Today is the day of reckoning...will they deliver oil or not...  it's the last gasp for this oil company we have- to keep us as customers.

2.  A delightful movie on Hallmark last night... ice skating, shopping, cookie baking...all the bells and whistles of a Hallmark Movie.  The  regulation "misunderstanding " was also there at the end.  

3.  My personal misunderstandings never end or progress as the ones on Hallmark do,,,,,

4.  Football was cold and rather good yesterday.. Mahome's knee injury on the same knee as the first one-  It looked bad but he was sort of walking, with the help of two big guys, into the  building etc. But those Football Guys like to Tough it Out on camera.

5.  Well, I need some hot oatmeal and  a nice cup of decaf to get the morning going... Son is out shoveling the driveway...he exchanged a daily walk for daily snow shoveling.... so far we haven't had really heavy wet snow...but we do get ice on the walk=ways...so the rule is..... I don't venture OUT.

6.  Today...I hope I can find something riveting to do with myself....I did uncover stacks of drawing paper etc in the sewing room- when I went there to look for something.....not sure what.  I also drew on five or so index cards and plan to add color today....until I can find another "amusement"  of the artistic variety.

7.  I have Soup (heated in the microwave) and cornbread for lunch....oatmeal in a few minutes for breakfast.   Coffee...each of these items heated up with electricity which we have....I recall living in States other than Maine and having Heat arrive the same way Electricity arrives......it's days and weeks like this that I wonder WHY we stayed here????????  

*. OH my gosh- today is dentist......in 15 minuts/

Still Very Cold and Snow Covered here in Maine....

 You haven't had this one yet.

Well, it's a COLD white Sunday here in Maine... Snowing.

1.   I did make Corn Bread to go with my Vegetable Bean Soup (homemade). and it was delightful.  Son was gone so I studied the line drawing he had made of the icons on the stove...while trying to recall the one for the oven...I finally did.  Bosch... so icons and not words.

2.  Yesterday was a good day until late evening and the college shooting....the pain and suffering of those parents worried it was their child injured or dead.  I cry everytime I think about it- like now.

3.  Today is Sunday Pizza and American Football.   

4.   I watched a Lifetime Christmas Movie yesterday...It's Hallmark with kissing etc.  Lots of ETC. I set the TiVo to record that movie and a few others.....For later.... 

5.    Well, aside from having a very stiff neck today- tension....I am doing fine...and I am now going to select today's Rom Com book and turn on the heating pad and take two Tylenol and settle into the couch.  Turn over the worrying about Oil Consumption to the Engineer...  They will either come or not.. I have zero effect on the outcome- which is why my neck muscles are so tight they ache.

6.   Bad Things come in--wha tis the number????  Well, heating pad, couch , book and re-heated breakfast coffee.......These are a few of my favorite things....... oh, and of course YOU!!!!!!

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.