I wore one of my grandson’s outgrown fiber-filled jackets with a hood this morning to take Alison to work. It is not one of the sleek ones; it is a like wearing a nylon comforter, the material consisting of stitched squares with fiber puffing them out so I look like a three-dimensional checkerboard – only all the squares are red. The hood is big and pushes in to grab my head as well as puffing out to keep the cold at a distance. I felt like an Eskimo – a noticeable, but cozy Eskimo.

I think I am going to be wearing this coat for a while. My usual coat is my old faithful Lands End early thinsulate that is really adaptable to temperatures. But, when the wind chill is -15, the big other one is just, well, more comforting.

Last evening, when I went to the grocery store, I found myself driving home with my hands pulled up into my sleeves – the steering wheel was cold all the way through. I went out in the cold because it was the last day of a big Stouffer and Red Baron sale and there was no need for me to take anything out of the trunk. It’s out there now – the solid lasagna, pizzas and entrees. I figure if someone thinks they want a french bread pizza serving, they can go out and get it. They might think a little bit more about if they really want it or not if it’s in the trunk and not in the freezer inside. Just one of those little grandma maneuvers, dontcha know.

What is it with all these Internet articles regarding updating 80’s houses, or 70’s or 90’s houses for that matter? The news sites are reporting on unemployment; people lost a great deal of value on their homes; websites abound with stories about living with children with autism; stories about celebrities (and addicts sponsored by Dr. Phil) going into rehab and police blotters mention poorer people going to jail.

Yet, comments on the color of the paint on your walls, the special section of wallpaper, the new chalky paint, countertops, appliances, bathroom fixtures are also everywhere. Whatever happened to the roof over your head concept? If a chair is comfortable, why can’t you sit on it, even though its lines are not those featured in glossy magazines?

How lucky these people are to have no worries other than up-to-date color schemes and trendy flooring. I know of many people who have children with life-threatening diseases; I suspect they could have polka dot walls and not even see them. In fact, be glad to have walls.

I suppose soon someone will find it necessary to redecorate Habitat for Humanity homes built a few decades ago. I mean, good heavens, surely they must appear ghastly now.

Is this the end of the rant? Maybe . . . for now.

I remembered to pull the paper stop out of the clock last evening at eight, and then I started reading and after awhile found myself dozing off. I let it happen; medicine be damned. I dreamed a whirlwind, including being in a stage play, going out to dinner with my parents and, get this, talking to John Wayne for a couple of minutes.

Then I woke with a start, wondered how close to morning it was and remembered i hand not taken my pills. Rats. Then the clock chimed 12 times. Rats again. It was a quarter to what? Close to the morning? Shouls I just wait to take my medicine then? It was awfully dark, but it’s that way at seven too. Apparently I thought for about 15 minutes because the clock started to chime and I thought, “Good, I’ll know what time it is. I listened for the 16 chimes, heard a Bong! . . . and then silence. Only one o’clock.

So I figured I’d hit the bathroom, gulp my medicine and then try to adjust to it still being a time I have been known to go to bed at . . . for the first time at night. But all this got me more awake, thinking about the book I had been reading and then marveling, “John Wayne?????”

I checked the news and am considering looking at the weather* to see just how grateful I should be for my warm covers and roof over my head. Maybe I’ll take a stab at reading a bit more . . . I’m finding the book to be not really my preference, but up-to-date informative on aspects of life in India.

As I opened this blog, I noticed the clock update didn’t post visually correctly, so I’m going to fix that and then push publish for this one and the repaired post at about the same time.

* It’s two degrees and maybe going to snow and get colder by three or four degrees.

UPDATE . . . . . UPDATE . . . . . .UPDATE The clock is chiming six o’clock. Woo-Hoo. So I am going to let it go until it chimes eight and then stop it. Then, if I forget until, say, ten something, I will only have to advance it manually through two cycles. Why not stop it now? Well, if I forget until late, I will have to advance it four cycles. Oh, I have to remember to stop it at eight chimes . . . It’s always something.

I have this clock that belonged to my grandmother; I have written about it before. It chimes on the quarter hour – 4, 8, 12 or 16 times, depending upon which quarter of the hour it is. It also BONGS on the hour. Noon isn’t so bad, but if you are just falling asleep at midnight, it can be a jolt. Well, that is, if it is wound. For the past couple of months (or more), it has not been. It is not pure laziness that has kept me from putting the big key in and turning it. It is the coordinating the correct bongs with the hour. Of course, it is very easy to wind it, listen to the bongs and then stop it until it actually is that time, but I forget a lot. What I may do today, because I am not in a mood to do much else, is wind the clock and see what I’m up against. If it is one of those hours that happens in the afternoon and in the very early morning, I’ll have one chance a day to get it going. On the other hand, I could do the manual rotation, but that involves listening to the chimes as well as the bongs. Gosh, I’m a bit wound down just thinking about it now. East Noble closed. I don’t have to get out to take someone to school, but on the flip side, she’s heeeeeere. She’s here all day . . . and she can get wound up.

I was over at the nursing home yesterday afternoon. Kathryn now likes to sit in the large area by the nurse station. At that particular time, it was festooned with helium balloons in red, white and blue; one of the residents inquired about them and I said I thought it was because it was Martin Luther King Day.

No. I was wrong. One of the staff members said it was because a car was being given away that day – in just a few minutes, actually. A car? Yes. The corporation with which the facility is associated was giving away something like five cars, one at each of the affiliated nursing homes that had a two year safety record. Okay. A car.

To be eligible to win, you had to have worked at the home at least 18 months and have had no “lost time” for two years. Yes, that sentence is confusing to me as well. (I would hope the “lost time” refers to unexcused time off. I mean, I would hate to think of sick aides coming in to keep their hopes of a car alive.)

So, one of the head honchos comes in, remarking on how happy he is to be giving away a car. And that’s what he does; he gives the car to an employee, whose name was picked ahead of time to allow for titling and whatever.

One winner among all those workers – nurses, aides, housekeepers and administration personnel. Only the “all those” wasn’t such a big number that the winner was one in a crowd. Those not picked were very gracious and work went on as usual. Meanwhile, I’m sitting there thinking, “Boy, so and so just won a car! and these other people didn’t. I’m not certain this was the best morale booster the corporation could come up with.

I thought I had written a couple of posts, but apparently not. I would say I am off my game, but when George Bush 41 said that to his mother about tennis, she shot back, “You have no game.” That’s probably true of me as well; I just wanted to do a little name-dropping in the got game category.

It warmed up from that 9 degrees, but it is headed back down there tonight, and we had so much blowing snow last night that schools were cancelled today. If I lived in South Bend, I could expect to get between a foot and two feet of snow tonight, but, for some reason, we are not . . . so far . . . alerted to get any. I don’t know, maybe it is mighty lake effect snow.

Since I thought I’d posted, but had not, it occurs to me that perhaps it is time to make it more interesting here by just looking beyond reality into another dimension of my life – or, to keep the general Twilight Zone tone of that sentence – let us say, my being, essence. My whatever.

Yes, I like that: My Whatever.

So, we all had a good time at the Cow Fair today. Ever so often, the PA system would blare: EVERYONE LEAN LEFT or EVERYONE LEAN RIGHT. Being a guest at the Cow Fair, I was not yet cleared for leaning and remained on the up and up, with my usual slouch. However, an entire midway of tilting cows can be a little unsettling to the eye – almost makes you think it is the Ferris Wheel which is leaning out of plumb. And the cotton candy starts to feel a little iffy on your stomach.

Of course, the cows on the Ferris Wheel are instructed not to lean, no matter what the PA system orders. It was a lesson learned the hard way, but learned well. Rose and I rode the “Jump over the Moon” ride and then bought a couple souvenir cow bells for our necks and headed home as evening came on. Our hosts stayed on for the traditional cow games in the pasture. Except for the one with the red nose; they didn’t let him play. Kind of mean of them, but something tells me it will all work out in the end. Rose believes it was the jingling of our bells that made me get that thought, but I’m more inclined to think my brain was foggy in the night air. (Oh, dear, although I have not yet passed my leaning test, I think it’s still okay for me to incline.)

I know. Sometimes I just don’t believe myself. It doesn’t scare me. (Although sometimes it scares the cows.)

Okay, I’m stopping.

Well, that title up there sums up this post – for now. I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this later. They may not be fit to print, by this is definitely not The New York Times.

So, I had no more thoughts for a couple of days. Bummer.

YOU SEE, IT’S REALLY THE 20TH, BUT I’M SEEING IF THIS WILL POST AT ITS ORIGINAL TIMESTAMP.

I looked at two blogs this morning, one I always check and the other on just a whim. Both detailed a lot of effort put into improving/accomplishing. The second one even described setting a timer at 15 minutes intervals to add pressure to the pace of achievement.

I was awed, then envious. Gee, envy, that’s not good; I guess I’ll have to go into time-out and think about my mindset. I will think really hard. (Gosh darn, I’ll bet my grin is giving me away.)

Surely, I am not the only one in the world who needs to just gripe about little things. I know they are little things . . . but circling in my head, aiming down to my mouth and threatening to push my teeth out – which I just had cleaned – is a weaselly whine of My sinuses hurts.

It hurts above my left eye and travels down to my nose, which is throbbing on one side. Of course, I do feel a little wimpy because Quentin is going to have to undergo another snout cleansing, as he calls it, because of irregularities in his sinus configuration. He had this done last year, surgery with bone spur removal, and it is back.

Okay, back to my whining.

It is also snowing outside, although we are not supposed to get too much. I have no doubt that this July I will be sitting in really hot, humid air on a mower and whining about the hear and wishing I was back watching snow. Probably, the engine mower will start to whine itself then and I will have to stretch out on the ground beside it and see if something is binding on a belt . . . and hope a garter snake doesn’t crawl up for a sniff.

I may just go in the Foo Bar and toss back a few.

I wrote the post right below just a few minutes ago. Then I checked the news and saw THIS, and this ain’t good.

Another shooting. And then I see the word Indiana. I look at the picture and see the name on the store looks like it could be Martin’s. And, by gosh, it is. I have not read the article yet; I just got through the first bit that said it was a Martin’s in Elkhart. Well, guess what, folks, my mother used to stop by Martin’s in Elkhart quite often. I don’t know if this is the same exact store, or not, but is close to GoodWill and just off of Highway 120 which was Mother’s preferred route.

The shooting was at 10 pm and, granted, Mother would not have been there at that time, BUT, still . . . Elkhart? Indiana? My turf? YIKES.