Four good things

 It’s been a horrible week.  I don’t believe in just tossing it off and saying everything will be fine all the time.  I can’t pay attention to all of it, but I intend to remain aware of reality in at least some arenas.  

However.  Right now, in a desperate attempt to save my sanity I am going to list some good things about the past week.  

1. We unfroze the frozen water pipes in the kitchen.  No burst pipes.  

2. Yesterday it was finally warm enough to do one outside task: I got my car washed.

While the modern car wash itself is the moderately terrifying inside task of sitting in the car surrounded by soap and large brushes coming at you, it is mainly an outside task because of the vacuuming of the car interior. 

I found a nickel as I was vacuuming.  Thomas Jefferson’s image is on the nickel.  We know his story.  What is Tom thinking right now?

3.  Celtic folk music.  

While looking for a recording of "The Canticle of the Turning," possibly the hymn most defiant to the patriarchy (based on this scripture), I found this:

Siskin Green: Will Your Anchor Hold?  A recasting of a stodgy old hymn.

One of my children sent me some videos by this vocalist.  The video is weird, but I love when she sings “We’ll all go together.”

4.  I returned my two physical library books.

Our public library is undergoing a renovation so we went inside to look around.  In the children’s section they have an axolotl!  For some reason that makes me happy.  Also this week I did a deep dive into some blog posts about books.  (That said, most of the books I am reading right now are not terribly optimistic.)

New England just completely
broke away from the
United States of Cookie.  Apt.

We made it through a vortex

Thank you, Valiant But Tiny Hair Dryer.

It’s been quite a week, even besides all the national fuckery.

Friday a week ago, I was upset about the weather forecast. 

Me:  Is it going to snow tonight?  And when is the polar vortex coming?!

Common Household Husband:  [burps loudly].  That was it.  That was the polar vortex.

If only it were that simple. 

Sunday the CHH pulled something out of his sweatshirt pocket, and said, “I wonder why I have this in my pocket?”  It was a tiny glass duck.  Reminds me of the time I cleaned out my purse and found a small plastic dinosaur, left over from mom-of-small-children times.  The CHH put the duck back into his pocket.

Wednesday morning I discovered that our hot water pipe at the kitchen sink was frozen.  It's been years since this happened.  We used to have to drip the faucet if the weather got cold, but then we fixed it, by encasing that pipe in lots of insulation and closing up the area behind a drywall panel in the garage ceiling.  Since then we haven't dripped the faucet in cold weather, and the pipe has not frozen.

But this week’s polar vortex hell-freezing-over cold was too much for it.  And the cold water pipe froze too, at the kitchen sink faucet.    

It was COLD.  “How cold was it?”  It was around -12 F overnight (without the wind chill) and wasn’t much warmer during the day.  Hell has, in fact, frozen over, and all its inhabitants resurfaced this week in the nation’s capital.

The Common Household Husband cut his work day short to come home. We set to work in the 10-degree-F cold garage.  He unscrewed all six screws and removed the panel.  This took a while because we are not Michelangelo and we’re not used to working at the ceiling level.  

He pulled out the thick insulation, and pushed our Valiant But Tiny Hair Dryer up in there.   It died after about a minute.  I felt the universe telling me, “You’re gonna need a bigger hair dryer.”

Not a great place for a hair dryer

I was on hair dryer resurrection duty.  First I went upstairs to vainly look for another hair dryer.

Back to the basement.  I coaxed VBT Hair Dryer to life.  It ran for a few more minutes, enough to get one of the water pipes flowing!  Yes! 

Success!

Then to get the other water pipe freed, we had to go to the other side of the wall, in the basement.  At least there is no panel there.  VBT Hair Dryer quit twice more, but I resurrected it each time.  

Sticking the hair dryer WAY into the wall.

Although he was victorious against the polar vortex, the CHH was covered in drywall dust, and got some in his lungs (not good!), which periodically set him coughing.  He put his sweatshirt in the washing machine.  Later, in the dryer, I found the tiny glass duck that he had had in his pocket.

The duck survived.  I am trying to decide if that is a portent.

Resilient duck.

End of Season

Folks, I present to you one of the few things that I made with my hot glue gun – our felt menorah (or more accurately, our hanukkiah made out of felt).  I think it was the one good idea I got from a parenting magazine.  

All lit up (in a felt craft sort of way)
 for the last night of Hanukkah.

I am guessing it is about 20 years old.   Making things with the hot glue gun usually made me say, #$&#$*!, so it’s a good thing it has lasted. I'm not making another one.

One of the best features of this hanukkiah is the self-storage aspect.  The candles and flames are stored right in the item itself.   

Now you see 'em (just below the dowel rod)

and now you don't.

This week I finally got around to taking this down and storing it in the bin with all the sweaters I don’t wear any more.  I’d like to say it’s the last decoration to be put away, but ’round about April I usually find one last Christmas or Hanukkah thing.

All rolled up and ready to store.
Einstein shown for scale.

That is all.  Gearing up for a difficult week ahead, both climatologically and eschatologically. It feels kind of like it will be the end of the world as we know it, for several reasons. It won't be, but it will feel like it.

And now this painting by my aunt is
back in its place, for whatever awaits us next.

Winter: how it's going

WINTER: HOW IT STARTED

This winter started off with a bang, or, should I say, a slow slog through the snowstorm on Dec 21st. 

Our lemon cypress Christmas tree

We had a lovely Christmas & Hanukkah with all of the Common Household [Adult] Children visiting.  Then an equally lovely visit with extended family after Christmas, during which only some of us got sick.  

The full hanukkiah on Jan 1, 2025

WINTER: HOW IT'S GOING

It’s been c-c-cold since then.  I don’t like being cold, but I am actually grateful. It’s supposed to be cold outside right now.  And, as Adam Gopnik wrote in Winter: Five Windows on the Season (the best essays ever written about winter, in my opinion), we can appreciate winter when we have central heating.  

…nobody knows the names of the men who, in the first decades of the nineteenth century, invented central heating, and particularly steam heating by radiating pipes. Let us name them now: they included Thomas Tredgold and H. R. Robertson and an immigrant genius of central heating, the French engineer F. W. Chabannes (a Russian,

Franz San Galli, would soon invent the radiator).

After that first official day of winter, we haven’t had much snow all at once; it came in little spurts.  Yet the Snow Fairy, (that is, me) quickly tired of shoveling.  For several days in a row, I just shoveled one side of the front walk, and only did that so I could get the mail.  There was nothing good in the mail.

The Snow Fairy's lazy shoveling of
the driveway was not appreciated
enough, in my opinion. I mean, the
snow was not that deep in the first place.

This morning there was about an inch of new snow, and because the Common Household Husband shoveled the driveway, I had enough energy to fully shovel the front walk.  The CHH remarked, “Oh, look! It’s bilateral shoveling of the walk this time!”  

I shoveled it completely.
But it's just going to snow some more.

Now we’ve got a total of 4 inches of snow on the deck, where no one shovels and no creatures walk through.

I have been half-heartedly going through the 10-inch high pile of papers that, in September, I dumped from my desk into a box, and didn’t look at until now.  I’ve reduced it to about 7 inches.  Still higher than the height of the snow!  In the process I found an important and beneficial church communication; in August there was something good in the mail, but I didn’t know it.  The 3 inches of papers also contained some very sad notes from after my aunt died. 

This coming Monday is National Clean Off Your Desk day.  If and when that happens, it will be cause for celebration in the Common Household.  

I have begun to ease into reading national news again, although there is not much encouraging to be seen there.  And I have ventured to call my US Senators a few times, not because I expect to change their minds, but because the right thing to do is to speak truth to power.  And because I believe it is important to keep our “citizenship muscles” in shape as best we can.  Politically I feel like we are now in an “always winter, never Christmas” era.  

But let’s not succumb to the temptation of the turkish delight. There is real and important political work to be done at the local political level this year.  We have municipal, school board, and judicial elections.  And the positions of Judge of Election and Inspector of Election will be on the ballot.  

At church they once again passed out “star words” on the Sunday just before Epiphany.  I have doubts about it as a spiritual practice, but it works for some people, and as I have said before, I like shiny things.  The word I received this year is “Rest”.  Seems like the wrong time for me to rest, as I have umpteen church stats to compile before February, an estate to wrap up, and local elections, not to mention paid work.  But maybe it’s another meaning of “Rest” as in, the remainder.  Those who have been set aside, who are not getting attention. 

Here’s hoping the rest of winter is not too cold, and it only snows when we all can be inside looking out of the window of heated dwellings. Now, to the rest of that stack of papers.

Remind me later to tell you about
this recipe, which has become
a favorite of the entire family.

Favorite Books read in 2024

This was a year which required the reading of 9 (!) books in the Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith, due to Everything.  And several audiobooks, due to eye surgery. And 13 children’s/young adult lit, due to both.  Two of my reads had the same main title (before the subtitle):  “Undue Burden”, due to the assault on reproductive rights.  Three of my reads this year prominently featured elephants, due to completely nonpolitical happenstance.  

I read 81 books/short stories in 2024.  Here’s what I rated excellent, and very good.

Excellent Fiction

Four of these items are children’s lit.  

Lust, Caution: The Story By Eileen Chang. Translated by Julia Lovell.  68 pages.  1978.  Transl 2007.  Exquisite writing.    As Melissa said in her comment on the December First Lines post, it’s a wonder that the writing can be so stellar in translation.  This is not a happy-go-lucky story. 

Ferris, by Kate DiCamillo.  240 pages. 2024. Children’s lit.

I entered this in my Storygraph, but I completely forgot to list it on the blog in First Lines July 2024 edition.

The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol (a short story). 1842.  (Second reading, but the first reading was so long ago.)

The Bedridden Pirates (a short story) by The Common Household Younger Daughter. 7 pages. 2024; unpublished. I will admit I am a biased reader on this one.

The Sword in the Stone, by T.H. White, (abridged; Junior Classics for 7-12 year olds).  Audiobook released 2008. Naxos Audiobooks, narrated by Neville Jason. 

The Bullet That Missed By Richard Osman. 2022.  Just another in the series of these murder mysteries, but I found this one more poignant than the previous ones.

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.  Audiobook read by Geoffrey Palmer.   This is on my “excellent” list because of the narrator.  I’ve read it multiple times but this is the first time I’ve listened to an audio recording.

Pink and Say By Patricia Polacco.  1994.  Picture book (children’s lit).

Excellent Nonfiction

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann.  2017.

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. 2007.

(I also re-read World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil with Fumi Nakamura (Illustrator) which I rated Excellent last year. 184 pages. 2020.)

David Grann’s writing just carries the story. I hope to read more by him.  Thatcher Ulrich is more difficult to read, but I appreciate her chosen topics and just find it wild to read an author who is a Mormon feminist.  World of Wonders I highly recommend again.

And some others I found quite enjoyable and/or thought-provoking

Fiction

Fences, the play by August Wilson.  119 pages.  1986.

Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett. 312 pages. 2023.

Nervous Conditions By  Tsitsi Dangarembga. 204 pages (my print copy has 298 pages). 1988.

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (Mrs. Pollifax #1) By Dorothy Gilman. 208 pages. 1966

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra (Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation #1)

By Vaseem Khan.  320 pages. 2015.

Jitney (The Century Cycle #8), the play by August Wilson. 76 pages. First performed 1982.  

The Book Woman’s Daughter (2nd in a series) by Kim Michele Richardson. 338 pages.  2022.

The Revolving Door of Life (44 Scotland Street Series #10). By Alexander McCall Smith. 281 pages. 2015

Nonfiction

First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country, by Thomas E. Ricks.  416 pages.  2020.

Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes by Adam Hochschild.  320 pages. 2020.

Congratulations, The Best Is Over! By R. Eric Thomas. 240 pages. 2023.

Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy by Anne Lamott. 192 pages. 2017.

Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America, by Shefali Luthra.  291 pages of text. 2024.

Undue Burden: A Black, Woman Physician on Being Christian and Pro-Abortion in the Reproductive Justice Movement, by Deshawn Taylor. 204 pages. 2023.

More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew, by John Blake. 240 pages. 2023.

When in French: Love in a Second Language By Lauren Collins. 256 pages.  2016

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.   464 pages (main text is about 400 pages).  1990.  Pulitzer Prize winner in 1991 in the History category.

Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor By Steven Greenhouse.  416 pages. 2019.

Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency.  By Dan Abrams, David Fisher.  320 pages. 2018.

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America By Heather Cox Richardson. 304 pages. 2023.

Some repeat readings

Books I appreciated reading again:

The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol (a short story). 49 pages. 1842.  

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments

Aimee Nezhukumatathil with Fumi Nakamura (Illustrator). 184 pages. 2020.

Pink and Say By Patricia Polacco. 48 pages. 1994.  Picture book (children’s lit).

Not an easy topic for kids nor for adults.

The Return of the Prodigal Son:  A Story of Homecoming, by Henri J.M. Nouwen. 162 pages. 1992. Reading for church Lenten study group.  The first time I read it was a very long time ago.

The Sword in the Stone, by T.H. White, (abridged; Junior Classics for 7-12 year olds).  Audiobook released 2008.  Naxos Audiobooks, narrated by Neville Jason.  4 hours?  6 hours? 

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.  Unabridged.  Audiobook read by Geoffrey Palmer.   3 hours, 27 minutes • Written text first pub 1902 (editions).  Audiobook released in 2005  by Naxos Junior Classics.  As noted above, this is a completely charming narration by Geoffrey Palmer. 

But I did not enjoy re-reading this:

Mary Poppins By P.L. Travers with Sophie Thompson (Narrator)~ 4 hours. 1934. Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks 2013. Print version 208 pages or so.

My top 5 genres, from thestorygraph.com

That says: Historical, mystery, history, middle grade, and contemporary.  

Top authors

I don’t know why it says I read 2 Kate DiCamillo books in 2024.  When I click on it, it only lists one book.

Keep your eyes open, readers.
Looks like wild times ahead.