did I mention it's cold?

Tuesday night’s sunset. It was prettier in person, a little pinker and not so gray (also the only picture I've taken in days).

It’s very foggy this morning. Looking out my window to the east across the empty half acre between me and the street all I see is white. I cannot see the street, I cannot see Jimmy’s house on the other side of the street or the empty field that surrounds it. I can barely make out the ghostly image of the black walnut tree on the corner of Jimmy’s property. This reminds me of a night when I was a teenager being brought home from where I don’t remember. All I remember is that it was so foggy the driver couldn’t see where to turn to get onto my street and I had to get out and walk in front of the car until we came to the turn. It’s supposed to be mostly sunny when the fog lifts.

I don’t remember what day of the week I wrote the above. Two hours later the sky was clear blue and the day wonderfully temperate after the harsh polar vortex. I did not venture outside once last Saturday or Sunday, went out briefly with the dog two times on Monday. Tomorrow, Saturday, another dip down to 25˚ but then after that more normal winter temperatures for a while, maybe the rest of the winter which would be nice. I realize moaning about temps in the 20s when the rest of the country is suffering from this arctic front with snow and ice (both permutations of the word) makes me seem like a weenie especially when the folks in that northern city are out in it in force to express their displeasure with, to record and obstruct, the violence and brutality of federal masked men armed to the teeth with military gear kidnapping people off the streets, targeting children at their schools, breaking down doors and dragging people out of their homes without verifying their citizenship or legal status all under the guise of getting criminals and rapists while protecting a certain criminal and rapist even though it draws that brutality and violence to themselves.

I’m trying to avoid certain words and names again as I think my last post was suppressed in some way judging by the number of page views or rather the lack thereof.

Well, I may be a weenie when it comes to being cold (especially low humidity cold; my lips are chapped and the inside of my nostrils are raw and sore), I admit it, but the blood is thin down here and I challenge anyone who calls me thus to come live through one of our humid summers. Which (again) reminds me, back in the early ‘80s we rented an empty building that had been a grocery store at one time and had an apartment upstairs that was just a few blocks from home. This was before the economy crashed in Houston later in the ‘80s and we had to give it up and move back to our small garage studio. At the time there were two stained glass wholesalers in town and one of them sponsored workshops and I forget the circumstances but we agreed to host one of them in this building. The instructor was from up north somewhere and he was teaching a beginning stained glass class. Anyway, it must have been in the summer because the guy was complaining about bleeding when he nicked himself. I never bleed at home, he said. 

Back to winter here, today is cold and the sky is overcast though fairly bright. Neither the cat nor the dog nor me for that matter has any interest in going outside. My sewing machine is still out and I have a pair of polartec pants from my river guide days that I’m part way through replacing the stretched out elastic. Maybe I’ll finish that or maybe I’ll get out the blank bookmarks with tassels! and play with those.

Oh, here’s something new. Starting February 10th every other week Hesed House will have a Tai Chi class! According to Stephanie, the woman who volunteered to teach it had to be convinced that there were enough people in Wharton interested. She's still skeptical. 

I’ll leave you with this quote I came across a few days ago:

What each of us must realize is that our intent always comes through. - Thurgood Marshall