February 2026: How It Started

I am sitting here in my pajamas at 11 AM on the last day of this month, having nothing in my head.  But I do have photos on my device!  

Herewith, the first half of our February.

Feb 5th: Following several ultrasounds and a consultation, the doctor told me I need to have some unwanted uterine stuff removed, for diagnosis.  That will happen in May.   (No photo.  Sorry, but you are not sorry!)  The doctor said usually this material is non-cancerous, but they can develop into cancer so it’s important to get it looked at soon. 

PSA:  Do not neglect your visits to the gynecologist, ladies!

Conversation, on the trip home from one of the pelvic ultrasounds:

Me:  Thanks for taking me to get my lady-parts scanned. 

Common Household Husband: I’m going to tell the folks at the casino what I did today. “I had to take my wife to the hospital to get her lady-parts scanned.”

Me:  You tell them this:  “I took my wife to get her lady-parts scanned.  It’s amazing – for women, it’s all a bunch of bags in there!  They don’t have any sticky-outy parts.”

That description is based on what I saw on my ultrasound image.

Feb 7th: Assiduous readers of this blog have already seen this photo, but I must repeat it to emphasize How Much Damn Snow We Got.

Feb 7: Carveout for the mailbox.

I spent most of the month attempting to abolish ice, in one format or another.

This was how I spent my Superbowl Sunday.

Feb 7th, conversation at breakfast

Me:  The month of January this year lasted 4,587 days.

Common Household Husband: Sounds like the number of years.  5,487.  

Me: ??  I was talking about the number of days in January.

CHH: I’m talking about the Hebrew calendar.  Isn’t this the year 5487 or something? 

[We check.  It’s 5786, if you count from Genesis 1.]

CHH:  What do you think people were doing in this neck of the woods, 5,786 years ago?

Me: They were happily shored up in their protective lean-tos.

CHH:  Do you think they had a societal structure?  Were they preparing to hold elections?

Me: Yes, and they probably had some way of picking their leaders.

CHH:   Maybe it was a death battle.

Me: You mean, like in that movie?  Wakanda?  The reason we have elections is to avoid a death battle.  

CHH:  We’re past that now.

Me (moving on to the important task at hand):  What is there for breakfast this morning?  

There are two servings of peaches left.  Once we are out of peaches, we use raisins, which signals approaching fascism.

CHH: There are sardines in the closet.

Me:  We are not at the sardines part of fascism yet.

Feb 9th:  I made a little speech in public at the Town Council meeting, to say I want no official collaboration of our police with federal frozen water.  In January and February I worked very hard behind the scenes to help other residents also speak publicly at this meeting.

The meeting went on for about 3 1/2 hours; I left before the end.  There were 29 residents speaking in favor of the resolution (to not sign a 287g agreement with federal agencies) and 13 speaking against.  I am pleased to say that on Feb 23rd the resolution was approved, along party lines.  This was only possible because of the election victories we had in November 2025.

Feb 10th:  We woke up to a temperature in the house of 60 degrees.  That was one day after the outside temp went above freezing and then again down below freezing overnight.  

Diagnosis by Mr. Furnace Man: Ice in that intake pipe.

The fix: He knocked the ice out of the pipe.

Cost: more than $100 but now we know.

That day, the outside temperature went above freezing for the first time in four weeks.  God bless all y'all in Canada and points north.  I am not made for this prolonged cold.

That evening, the closet door fell off.  The CHH fixed it.

The secrets that pipe holds!

Feb 11th was the glorious day I got my car gloriously washed.

I have about 10 more photos from inside the car wash.
That is how thrilled I was to do this.  Also,
the car wash has a certain level of
fascinating horror to me.

Feb 13th: The best Valentine's Day gift ever.  A collection to warm my heart, hands, soul, and sidewalks.  The Common Household Husband said that was the last jug of sidewalk salt in the store.

P.S. That plant is not dead. Yet.

The ever-astute readers of this blog will already know that we went to Cleveland, Ohio, mid-month.  A daring move, knowing what the weather can dish out to that lake-side city.  We lucked out -- it was sunny.

Shout out to one of my favorite authors!  There is a church named after her in Cleveland.  She has a new book, recently published!  I would tell you about it but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.  

The Church of St. Mel! !
Posted here in honor of one of my
favorite authors, Melissa Westemeier

We took a little side trip to Oberlin, Ohio, to the Allen Memorial Art Museum, on the grounds of the college.  Highly recommend.  And look, the snow has mostly melted!

I hope to say more about this in
a future blog post because art is necessary
in these times.  We shall see if that post materializes.

Well, folks, that's my recap of the first half of this hapless month.  It's noon-thirty and time to get out of the pajamas and start the day.