Sunday, Jan 27 Good morning; nothing scheduled away from home. We awoke to more silver frost lightly covering vegetation and lots of other things. The sky is alternating blue and overcast. Enjoyed some of John’s bread toasted. We need to take a picture of the cut loaf to share on the blog. (We did and published it late, so look below). Meanwhile, I’m spending most of my time on the web page about the 2012 Wilkins family reunion to put a link to in our annual greetings newsletter. Stopped for a piece of fruitcake and cup of coffee to warm up. Covered John with a blankie for his afternoon nap, and lost mine for my feet. So, I went and found another to cover him with and got mine back. Finally, the temperature went up to a 28 high at 2:00 p.m. Pizza for dinner; I’m still working on the computer.
Monday, Jan 28 Did not go to town for exercise; with only one reason for going and using gasoline for a round trip of 25 miles. Spent the day on the computer, paying bills, fixing music for our group, email and so on. The temperature went way up. Will be in the 40s till Friday. I spent a lot of time working on the reunion (June 2012) page, cropping photos, identifying relatives in them, and asking for help from a few relatives in the southeast.
Tuesday, Jan 29 Nice to see out the back window early that the 4 turkeys were back roosting in the trees. We haven’t seen them for a few days. They haven’t been around eating the songbirds’ feed today, however. Nothing really on tap (in town). It’s John’s sister’s birthday, so we tried a phone call this morning, but she must have been out to lunch (so to speak) celebrating her special day. Tried again in the afternoon with no connection. John meanwhile made a chocolate cake we can have here to celebrate her birthday. I finally finished (I think) preparing music for February, a playlist of new songs to give out Thursday. People need to get their paper copies of music in order so as to not fumble around between songs. Still it happens. Now it’s back to working on the reunion page after tackling a bunch of receipt-filing still for 2012 and now starting a new one for 2013. Need to plow through more stacks on the counters. It would help to stay home some to tackle those chores. It just hit me that I should take some of the filing cabinet space I have empted from course materials of the past, replace with file folders for each task, and put things in EVERY TIME I bring some thing home. What a concept! By 3:00 p.m. today, the temperatures were up to 45 and the wind gusts to 41 mph. Two quail (a pair) just came to the back porch and chowed down on black oil sunflower seeds.
afternoon sunlight in late January
Black oil in contrast to striped.
Or these fancy red sunflowers.
Who knew?
The picture above, I’ve now added to my continuing page of frost and birds, given last week.
John made a dinner of fall-apart-tender slow-roast pork, baked potatoes, cut apples, and red peppers. In honor of Peggy we’ll have ice cream atop our cake (it got frosted with icing begun with chocolate chips).
Wednesday, Jan 30 Noon food bank soup kitchen playing, and afterwards, SAIL exercise. Nothing new; spent most time today in my recliner with laptop doing computer projects and watching little birds chow on black oil sunflower seeds.
Thursday, Jan 31 Today is a rare 5th Thursday of the month. Only happens about 3 times a year, but this year we have 4. There is one assisted living home, Mt. View Meadows, which is our 5th Thursdays’ location for playing. We have more than 4 facilities in EBRG which is more than the Thursdays in most months. We went to town a little early for gasoline (and made a bad mistake). The first place was only $3.14, and was full, and we were in a hurry. Went on to another store (passing by others without checking), going to one where it’s normally the cheapest in town. Not today. It was $3.24. Found out later (via a computer check), there were 6 others in town costing less than what we paid. Phooey. But we got there in time to have John help our wrenched-back bass player move his bass fiddle in from his car. And then John stayed around and carried it out again. We had a nice turn-out and the music sounded great.
Friday, Feb 1 Today was a potluck/music at the Adult Activity Center (I just sang along with the audience and a piano player), and then went through a hellacious exercise class. We were all sweating. On our feet a lot. Just as well, to get rid of the calories consumed at lunch. It was whole-wheat spaghetti (never had), and the best meatballs of my life, no joke, cooked in a nice tomato sauce. All sorts of salads, fruits, and desserts. I took my neighbor’s canned pears (a quart), and unfortunately brought some home. Most of my time the past couple of days (weeks) has been working on the family reunion page. It’s progressing but also getting very involved. Oh well, I don’t have to go anywhere the next couple of days, and I’m relieved. There is a scholarship dinner (donation) at the Grange, but we’re not participating this year. Will just donate and stay home. Oh, the coolest thing I did today was carry along my Kindle Fire and for the time between the food & fun and exercise class, I logged on to the free WIFI at the Adult Activity Center and checked my email on two accounts. I’m not yet sure how to send a message but I can read and reply, and today I figured how to add a second Gmail account. Good, because I had a message from the geography department secretary asking for information, which I was able to get back to her even being away from home. John and I grew up when a phone call meant talking to an operator, so all this high-tech stuff is a bit like magic. Remember Ernestine?
Okay.. back to work. I will do some more on the family reunion page, but have to allow some time for the jobs list I haven’t done anything on today (never got to it, so it will happen this weekend). Hot cornbread and chili for supper. Now we’re ready for dessert, but it’s not time.
Saturday, Feb 2 I was quite tired from yesterday, and coughed a lot during the night, so I slept in. John has done all the morning chores, and came back to tell me to get the blog to him, so I’m signing off and sending it for his review, additions, and posting.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan