Baby! It's Cold Outside!

Last Edit December 22, 1998

Saturday was boring - the impeachment.
Did nobody pay attention to the election?
Can we say recall?
I liked the resignation. People in glass houses should not attack others.
$40M on a sex scandal when day care is impossible? When Social security is in trouble? When health care is a mess? I'm lucky I have insurance. What happens when I get older?
I don't care if he can't stay in his zipper. Means he has more energy. Means he won't nap during meetings. Means he is not yet senile. I regard it as a good thing. Glad I am single.
Someone agrees with me - Clinton's approval rating jumped 4 points after he was impeached! Ha! Now can we go back to focus on real issues?
My son drove me home - taking me to buy his Christmas present first. I allowed that since I wouldn't be able to get out.
And I was feeling OK. He also let me stop and get food. Nice thought. And we checked on my younger one - he was working. My older one bought himself a camera - a RebelG - from his brother - the same camera I had bought the younger one for his birthday. I bought him a camera case to go with it (sing happy birthday now) and bought myself one too. It's weird to buy things when your kid is behind the counter!
I came home to find 76 channels of nothing. Better than the 32 channels of nothing at the hospital. Takes longer to surf. Allows me to zone out.
Allows me to ignore laundry piled 3 feet deep, dishes undone, garbage unremoved and overflowing and animals starving.
The kid did no dishes, no laundry - I am still counting animals.
I cannot move well - I am about to zone out.
No twist. No lift. No strength. No sneezing. No coughing. Forgot to get medication - softener.
No driving. Ugh! How long will that last?

Sunday I tiptoed around. I took a shower - washed my hair. Shaved my legs - it's amazing what contortions you can get into when necessary.
Did laundry. Did dishes. Hot water. Yeah! It was cold and stormy.
My older one called. There was SNOW in San Jose. Drifting on his balcony.
It looked like it but didn't snow in Fremont. The forecast was snow to 500 feet. Unusual to say the least.
By Monday I was longing for LA where it is considered "nippy" at 60.

By Monday Fremont had hit 29. There was BLACK ICE on the freeway. In parking lots.
We are not used to this. Cars skidded and crashed all day long.
Usually, we drive to see snow and ice. Then drive home.
I don't like ice on my windshield. I always forget gloves.
I don't like black ice. I skidded out in a 360 spin in a small Renault when I was in college. Ended up climbing a snow bank and barely missing a tree. I can still see the trunk. I closed my eyes and pulled the wheel hard left. I was 6 feet in the air.
Three men came out of the house and lifted the car back to the street. I drove the rest of the way to my Aunt's where I was a boarder during the week at 10 miles per hour. My fiancee, whom I called ASAP, came to lead me in. His car was bigger.
I don't like a running nose from the cold, the furnace churning. I am zoned out on the sofa under a robe, dressed in a flannel nightgown. Pure frump.
Tonight my 5 degree sleeping bag (new addition) is going over my bed. At JLT, I used it and another sleeping bag on top and was sleeping in a double wide on a mattress. I get cold at night. My feet freeze.
I am curled in front of the fake stove (gas heater that looks like a real log burning fire - cute). It puts out a lot of heat.
The other furnace is struggling - it needs a new control. It has a swing range of 15 degrees.
And I have a third one - in the garage - keeping the chinchillas warm.
The dog refuses to stay outside. This "I was raised on a ranch" sheepdog.
The cat zones out in front of the new gas heater. Curls up right next to it.
He doesn't care for this either.
This weather is one thing when your house is built for it. We are not. I have insulation in the new addition walls - not in the rest of the 45 year old house.
I have insulation in the roof of the addition - not yet rolled into the raised roof that I put over the rest of the house.
I replaced all the windows with double-panes. They had been single. Back east, they use triple. Due to the heat, triple panes are the vogue in San Diego.
I don't have drapes up.
I am hunting wool socks. This is complicated because all the bedroom furniture is stacked in the old livingroom and I can't open drawers.
The carpet comes tomorrow or Wednesday.
I did pick up junk out of my room - stripped now of the big furniture pieces so we can consider carpeting it tomorrow or Wednesday. The beds are all that remain in place. Lot of junk (whatever fell off the bed - aided by the cat). Lot of dust (we are near freeways and we have a gas furnace - this is a dusty house). I hate moving beds.
Found the missing Fabio-in-LA negatives from the fan club meeting in 1995. YEA!!!!!
Knew they were around. I had damaged the photos. Want enlargements. Couldn't afford them before - I had been laid off 4 weeks earlier and wasn't working yet. These are the ones where he held on to me while they figured out my cameras. The one camera had jammed. They (other fans) made a quick dive for the second.
He hung on until it was certain I had my photo. Nice man.
It's OK. That is the camera that got left behind on a boy scout outing. I never bothered to back for it. It's been replaced.
Merry Christmas to me!
The Christmas tree is delayed. It will go where the furniture is.
I have actually put up a tree on Christmas eve. Swore I wouldn't do that again. I think I'll reschedule Christmas.
No, He's only 17. He wouldn't tolerate that.
He tells me he isn't working Tuesday or Wednesday. So I will wrap packages that I have and order two computer games. He's got enough other stuff. And he wants to put up lights. And they are painting trim tomorrow. If they aren't freezing to death!
Most important, now that they finished the counter, I want my Christmas candles burning and the nativity scene in place. It is more important than the tree. But this year we won't add to it unless I find something after Christmas - mall shopping is a no-no at the moment.
I may try driving Tuesday after the sun is up. Maybe. Perhaps.
I definitely need to roll over the engines. Time to give a basic car care lesson to the boy. How to handle a cold car. Gently. With patience.
And why I want to move back to San Diego!!!! (Not just because it's closer to LA!) (Although, that's OK too!)