Woke up last saturday morning to welcome…but almost freezing rain. Went to bed, raining again after an overcast day but not quite as cold as the morning.
Monday it began to snow. The woman who does my pedicure lives here in McCloud but works in Weed and volunteered to take me over to Weed for the pedicure and then to Grocery Outlet (we had met in Grocery Outlet a couple of times after my pedicure and monday elder lunch when I was still driving).
It was snowing lightly but flakes were getting larger as we got around the Mountain. There was about 3” on the ground. Jessie took me under her care when we got to my house and carried my groceries to my back door so all I had to do was take them inside and unpack them.
She is part of the local Fire Department and drives the Medical Response Unit.
I had not been sure how I was going to make it to Weed … have a need and someone will appear to respond to the need even if you haven’t voiced it. A lesson in humility. Another gift I will be paying forward when I can.
Snow continued into tuesday, heavier in Mt Shasta and Weed than here. Even so, there were reports around McCloud about tree limbs down across power lines and sparking, trees down on 89, as well as power lines just plain down (another thing to add to the list of why there is a need to put power lines in this part of Siskiyou County all underground).
Our Village streets weren’t cleared until beginning about 1000 with grandson helping (school snow day). Still snowing at noon. I voted by mail-in ballot so I was snug indoors.
Total snow by wednesday morning = 4 ½” and snowing very very lightly. Temp 33º.
The rest of the week was pretty much the same .. very cold (freezing or a very little above) followed by cold days (in the low 50s). I had to find a way to cover my nose and ears for a walkabout. Wearing a Covid 95 mask and a head scarf didn’t work because the mask fogged up my sunglasses (the sky was very clear) and the knitted neck cowl worked but was bulky and not really comfortable. I’ll keep trying and find something that does work about the time the cold arctic air flow moderates.
Oh well …
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I am a recent convert to “Midsomer Mysteries” on Acorn streaming and so also to the names in those shows. The first one that caught me was Ms Inkpen who was an ancestor inheritance snob and pointedly not a nice woman.
They are scattered throughout so if you are a mystery fan and enjoy wordplay, Midsomer may be for you. Those Brits are just full of suggestive, sarcastic, watch-to-the-end, ironic, how-is-that pertinent before you understand the name.
Latest were the names Eebell, Clanger, Pullman, and a couple of others I can’t recall just now, in an episode about someone killing the church bell ringers.
Not for you? Too bad.
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Mary LaMonica was here for a few days and we talked until late a couple of evenings (until around 9:30 which is about 3 hours past my regular bedtime).
Most of our conversations were centered around family do-you-remember or did-you-know stories. I learned about Don and Sally during the time between Oak Ridge and Evanston when my contact with them was minimal.
I was asked by a niece of George’s, therefore of mine, to help her write a memoir of her Grandmother Sally since no obit had been written when she died.
It has been a test of current memory, a challenge, adding my genealogical notes, and all together rather enjoyable.
Can’t say I really loved Sally. I didn’t know her well enough. But I did like her a lot and also respected her a lot.
Wish I could have known her more.
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Don’t seem able to get away from doppelgängers …
Most recent was finding a Sydney Greenstreet doppelgänger but with no Peter Lorre to be seen.
And hearing an interview with the producer doing a movie about Weird Al Yankovic who hired Daniel Radcliff because that actor and he, the producer, look like identical twins in spite of having no known blood connections.
Anyone else know Weird Al?
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John was here today to take me to the FNP for my mandated annual physical. It was a thorough hands on evaluation much like RNs used to do when first meeting a patient, i.e. hands on no fancy machine in sight.
The evaluation was that I am as physically fit as most 80-year-olds.
And in giving her a list of things I thought she should know about my physical conditions to understand and watch for such as the splenic flexure syndrome and my stress induced scotomas, the painless version of migraines. She hadn’t faced them before but said she’d look them up.
So this old nurse was able to introduce her to some things she might find useful.
She wants to repeat blood work in three months since following Halloween candy my glucose was on the high side of normal.
But John had to drop me off at home a leave. His partner has a detached retina and they were on their way to the ophthalmologist in Medford who took care of George’s macular degeneration with eye injections.
My guess is that lasers will be used to reattach the retina.
I’ll get a call tomorrow to learn what happened.
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Again it was a busy week and that is why this blog is being posted at bedtime and may have a cluster of mistakes. My apologies.
So to end this week, although I think I posted this before, but yesterday was election day …
“Learning respects no geographic boundaries, … and the spread of learning must be the first work of a nation which seeks to be free”
… James Smithson
‘til next week …