Frozen fingers

The landlady complained yesterday that she was tired of the snow and cold. "I'm done," she said. "Time to move on." Then she told me this much snow every weekend and such bitter cold was unusual. I think it's really the snow every weekend that keeps us penned up is the real problem. She's off on the weekends and not being able to enjoy doing anything or going anywhere is cramping her style. We have had snow every weekend for the past four and there's more snow coming this weekend. At least the landlady has finally--after 12 years-- figured out how the heating works in this big old house. I haven't had to use my space heater nearly as much and that means lower electric bills for me. The problem is that the nights are too warm when I like them cold and the days are too cold so that my fingers are frozen when I need to work. Not a good thing. At least I don't have to wear nail polish in a horrible blue because my fingers are already that color.

When I went to the board meeting on Monday night the wind chill was down to 24 below. I don't have any gloves (need to do something about that) and cleaning off the foot of snow with an inch of ice on the bottom from the car was no fun. I made it to the meeting after missing Mike's house again. I stopped at the stop sign at the top of the hill and couldn't get my tires to cooperate on the icy slope. I started rolling back down the hill and nearly rolled all the way back to Mike's house. It took me a while to get turned around on the glassy street, finding just enough snow to give me a little traction, and go back down the hill. I stopped at the store on the way home just to get warm--and food--and toddled on home with a comforting box of White Castle hamburgers, otherwise known as slyders. I needed a bit of the good old days of my childhood to make me feel less cold and keep my fingers warm. Of course there were no onion chips or pickles or that soft greasy slide of the little square burgers down my throat but it was close. And they were hot. For the first time in weeks my fingers weren't frozen.

Go figure. Frozen fingers and all and I made scrambled eggs for breakfast with a side of frozen black cherries.