Congestion

Back into Manhattan for the only time this week, as I have to come in all five days next week. At least the weather is looking less frigid and I'll be able to leave my laptop in my locked desk overnight. Congestion pricing seems to have taken care of the former snarled traffic below 60th Street, or maybe it's a combination of that and the holidays being over (and the cold!). But all this layering and unlayering, shuffling between warm inside and cold outside, resulted in me actually getting overheated on my homeward commute, and by the time I stumbled home in the dark using my phone's flashlight (Robin's been under the weather for a few days so I didn't want him meeting me at the bus terminus) all I could think of was to strip as quickly as possible and drink lots of water. Robin had gotten me a lovely present, a heated desk pad to go under my keyboard and mouse so I could work without my hands freezing up, but I was too far gone to appreciate it fully. I've just about started to recover, but I'll be glad when the temps get back up above freezing.

Silly Site o' the Day

The news keeps getting worse, the weather is still bone-chilling, and it's all we can do to keep laughing defiantly. Would you believe soup drops are a real thing in the world?

Half Staff

I don't want to think about where our country is going for the next four years. So many of my friends and acquaintances are bound to suffer. Where I'm bound, I have no idea. I stayed far, far away from any news today, catching up on Outlander (only three episodes behind now!) and other TV, reading comics, and generally enjoying the day off. The snow turned crispy and icy and we can't really go anywhere due to the cold anyway. I wish I could retreat into myself until 2029 but I can't, so my empathy forces me to reconsider making art, as our minds and our joy are about the only things They can't take from us. Now I just need to find out what my art is. Tomorrow's it's cooking, and in this cold I can only think one day at a time.

Bloodletting, Fish, and Snow

Today we decided to honor Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy of service by giving back to the community, of our own blood in fact. I donated a pint but Robin, whose blood type is much sought after, agreed to a double-red donation. Took a half hour just for the ALYX machine to be available, then at least another 20 minutes to separate his plasma from his platelets and recycle one of those back to him, I can't keep track of which. We celebrated by going to our favorite sushi place before my most recent coupons expired, and just about made it home before the snow turned to sleet then back to snow. The temps are starting to plummet now, and I don't even want to think about what's in store, but I feel like we accomplished things today, and now it's time to cocoon for awhile.

The Final Countdown

I believe the United States has been in end-stage capitalism since the election of Ronald Reagan, and what's happening on Monday is the inevitable result. As much as I don't want to think about it, for any thinking person it's frighteningly inescapable. So I do what anyone facing dire circumstances out of their control probably does - concentrate on what's within their control. In my case that's doing the grocery shopping in preparation to cook warm food through the coming cold. The rain made a brief appearance this afternoon, but tomorrow the snow arrives mid-afternoon followed by frigid temps as America plunges into the dark ages... sorry, sorry. Oh, there was football today, both English (Liverpool won with two Nunez goals in stoppage time!) and American (the KC Boyfriends are triumphant again) so that's always a good distraction. Bread and circuses!

Normalization

The human body and spirit, they are resilient things. I think my body is actually getting used to the cold now, after being hammered with it on and off these past few weeks. Well, give or take my insomnia, about which there's little I can do except catch up on sleep during the day. My outerwear for grocery shopping today was a jacket over a sweatshirt, no thermals under my jeans, and only one pair of socks, and I was fine. We even had to crack open the car windows on the way home because my glasses kept fogging up. Everything was put away in fairly short order, allowing for lots of nap time and reading time. Looks to be another good weekend!

A Song of Fire and Ice

Thank goodness my brother and sister-in-law in the Los Angeles area aren't directly affected by the area wildfires, aside from breathing in all the thick smoke. Here in NY I stayed in and worked from home during the time my brain was operational, and thanked my lucky stars our freeze-out situation wasn't worse, like my poor friends in California or the middle of the country with all those icy roads. There doesn't seem to be an end in sight, so it'll be heads-down in as much work as I can manage during the next couple of days. That and lots of hot liquids.

It Could Always Be Worse

New York isn't the only place where the wind's whipping about. Wildfires are devastating the Los Angeles area because the Santa Ana winds are out of control. The middle of the country is in a deep freeze, extending even into the deep South. Meanwhile, I layered up, wore my cleats as far as the end of the driveway where Robin and I realized nothing was iced over so he went back home with the cleats while I continued to the bus, then when I got to the office I realized I was a bit too warmly dressed for indoors. So Thursday I'll wear a long-sleeved warm blouse instead of a sweater, but of course I have to get through tomorrow first. Glad I went in, there was lots to do in-office today and I met with six of the ten folks I support. But I really could do without the commuting time, especially that spent waiting for the bus to arrive. Very brutal. But all in all I still consider myself lucky compared to so many others.

Have I Mentioned I Hate January?

The latest deep freeze has settled into our bones. Even with the apartment heat working it just doesn't warm the place up enough in this cold. We're doing what we can, running space heaters in rooms where we spend most of our time and drawing curtains at night and layering up, but it just isn't sufficient in terms of the overall effect. I walk around like a zombie, my brain is stuck, and all I want to do is cocoon. Nonetheless I do have enough to keep me occupied on the job whilst working from home, and tomorrow I get to thaw out a bit during the day in the office. Of course it's the getting there that's tricky; I only hope this afternoon's snow doesn't turn into sheets of ice on the sidewalks tomorrow. Getting my cleats out just in case!

Having Done

All the holiday cards and decorations are filed away, the finances are caught up on, the New Year's Eve champagne is finished, and I've rolled enough joints to probably last me through the winter. And now I rest. I mean, I don't have a choice, it's bloody cold out there and everything is done and my body doesn't like this weather. At least I don't feel drugged any more. On to the Golden Globes!

What To Do When the Things Are Done

Every Saturday I have basic and supplemental lists of organizational chores to take care of: lay out my pills and supplements for the week and reorder any getting low; order comics; make out the grocery shopping list; check the status of my every day finances and decide whether or not they need to be caught up on or filed; and other stuff like Woolite wash or organizing earrings. Well, all that stuff has been done now, the Woolite wash is on the drying rack in the tub, my winter sweaters and sweatshirts on the shelf above the bedroom closet have been reorganized, the holiday stuff is ready to be put away tomorrow, the grocery shopping was accomplished in the windy cold, I've finished reading my comics, but I'm disinclined to do more TV catch-up because my eyes have been a bit tired of late and my concentration is shot. I slept through most of the afternoon and woke up feeling drugged. I'm not sure if it's one of the umpteen illnesses floating about, but I'm noticing a decided uptick in the number of masked shoppers around me, which both pleases me and gives me pause. I hope I can stay inside as long as possible as this weather is become less and less conducive to my health, but I need more concentration to do drawing practice or writing or starting on the Wicked book series. I hate being in a holding pattern, but at the same time I'm pleased with Having Done. Small steps.

New Year's Graveyard

Back into Manhattan today, arriving well before 8:30 even though my usual bus was nowhere in sight and I had to take another one that added 10-15 minutes to the commute. The bus home was much better, I had my usual driver and I swear it only took about an hour from pickup to terminus, so that was nice. But the office was a veritable dead zone, almost nobody was in. I still found enough to keep myself occupied for 8+ hours, caught up on a number of things that had happened during our firm's winter shutdown, and I'm in good shape for tomorrow. Very glad I don't have to go back until Tuesday, as the frigid temperatures have returned, but my winter jacket kept me toasty enough. And who can really complain about a work week this short?

Beteween the Storms

What a howler of a storm in the wee small hours! Fortunately it only woke me momentarily, and I slept for almost seven hours before giving up around 4:30 AM, so I was in good shape to venture out into the NJ mountains to visit Mom in the nursing home. She's doing about as well as can be, seems to have plateau'ed but I'm not sure if that's good or not. I think her cognition has improved somewhat but it's hard to tell, me not being a professional or anything. In any case, it was a nice visit and I was back home in time for Robin and I to grab a lovely afternoon nap until Screeching Childers and the Loud Downstairs Neighbor (who's actually quite a nice chap, just a bit hearing impaired) woke us. We're going out tomorrow to take care of the last errands of 2024 (new sneakers, Robin's meds, and of course sushi before the coupons expire), then a nice day and a half of rest before I hightail it into the Manhattan office again. Aside from the insomnia it's been a decent time off but I'm almost champing at the bit to get back into my routine, oddly. Someday I'll learn how to relax.

Rata-whooey!

I was up in the night for the second sleep cycle in a row, but the temporary insomnia doesn't concern me overmuch as, both yesterday and this morning, I got plenty of napping in after I went back to bed. If this is the new sleep cycle during my vacation break, I'm fine with that. As long as I remember to call my mom every day, and visit once the cold spell has broken. The ratatouille, made without bell peppers because burpage, came out great, and there's even enough left over for another meal. I don't really follow a recipe with that one, so really it was just sweating onions and garlic while the eggplant supposedly drained in a colander in the sink (it didn't really drain, maybe I use regular table salt next time instead of kosher salt), then throwing in the eggplant, then adding zucchini and yellow squash and stirring them for a bit, then adding Campari tomatoes and button mushrooms and a few herbs and s&p and letting everything simmer. A mish-mash, kind of like the way I do stir fry. If it tastes good it's a success, and this one did. I think today's high was like 23 degrees F, so I'm glad I made something so satisfying and warming! Now that the sun has gone down it's getting way colder again, so time to dress in my sweatshirt for the exercise bike. So far the holiday vacation time is going very well!

Frigid Groceries

Well, it finally snowed in NYC overnight and into the wee small hours of the morning, when both Robin and I were awake for the official start of the winter solstice, wondering how on earth we were going to clear the outside steps and the car in preparation for shopping, as today is the least frigid day until after Christmas and we really don't want to go out until Thursday (when I'm hoping to visit Mom). As it turned out, the landlord's handyman whom we haven't seen in a week came 'round to get the trash, we were able to hand him our annual holiday gratitude tip, and in return he swept the steps clean. So I only needed to change into my waterproof sneakers to help Robin clear the car of around 2" of not-yet-icepacked snow, and we were on our way! And OMG, that supermarket. I suspected lots of others had the same idea we did, as there was nary a cart to be found at the store entrance and every aisle was packed with holiday shoppers. Even so, once we were through the veggie aisle (where I beefed up on root veg for our Christmas Day roast veggie extravaganza, and eggplant, zucchini and squash for tomorrow's warming ratatouille) we had time to browse a few other aisles, and wound up with a hefty total but I'll be home all week to partake of it. Home and back in the warmth by about 1:30 or so, and very grateful.

Of Gridlock and Drones

Too many things on my mind to pay attention to local or even world happenings, but apparently there's another UFO scare going around and people in New Jersey are shooting down drones or something? Leave me out of it, I'm too busy navigating Manhattan streets. Got to the post office today to mail out holiday cards, where the worker at the window apologized that there were no foreign stamps left, and besides which there's been a postal strike in Canada for the past month (I told you I haven't been paying much attention). I told her I didn't care about foreign stamps, could she please just get them mailed whatever way works best, and while she was doing that I affixed the US stamps to those cards, then walked back to the office where I read how the Canadian postal strike had ended, so good timing, I guess! Also, even though walking through holiday crowds and gridlocked traffic at the intersections proved tricky at best, I lucked out in that the weather was downright pleasant for this time of year, so I'm glad that's all done and I get to work from home tomorrow. Only one more Manhattan day for the rest 2024!

Brain Freeze

Ugh, it's been hovering at or below freezing all day. And my day started off with a dreadful intestinal issue, possibly due to this morning's omelet. But I felt well enough after napping to bundle up and drive to the supermarket, where we got everything done despite an amazingly crowded parking lot and a lot of shoppers seemingly milling about uncertain about what to buy. I suspect it'll be even worse next weekend. I had to collapse again after we got home, but I seem to be coming out of my tummy distress at last, so tomorrow I take care of all the household things I didn't do today (mostly the holiday cards and finances)...

Paraskevi-dekatria-phobia

The big-or-little chill continues, with temps well below freezing when I woke up, so I spent about an hour to 90 minutes with the space heater on in the office. But many things were accomplished, including the organization of our holiday cards - the list is updated, the insert is written and signed off on, and it and the labels are all printed. Robin even changed a couple ink cartridges and refilled the paper tray while we were at it. This weekend I assemble it all, and as soon as the weather cooperates I'll figure out the stamp situation, probably in Manhattan. This time next year we move to our new HQ right across the street from Penn Station and the World's Biggest Post Office so that'll make things a lot easier! As it's 13 December I gave a shout-out to my "starter husband" and still-friend Steve, now out in Reno. I wonder if he'd like the 2025 Cats on Catnip calendar?

The Party Next Time

This morning we made the decision not to go to tonight's office holiday party at the Javits Center, a schlep at best in years past when we've gone to comic cons there in much better weather, and a nasty prospect this evening considering the weather out there. I also had a couple financial surprises to deal with, as a credit card company still hasn't received my payment check after a week (darn that December mail) and I found out my FSA card is now empty for the remainder of the year (actually a good thing, it's better to have no money at year-end than to be left with extra), but on the whole my head was too full of work stuff today to think about what was going on outside or what else I might be doing or about the state of anything really. More and more I'm ready for our winter break in a couple weeks!

They Run and Hide Their Heads

It rained a bit yesterday but this evening's rain hasn't quite begun yet, just a few sprinkles here and there. Tomorrow is slated to be the deluge, and after that temps plummet. But I'm very glad I was in the office today as there was tons of stuff to be done and much accomplished. Even the surprisingly dank temperatures didn't bother me that much as I didn't have that long to wait for the bus. I'm slogging through our last roundup insert for our holiday cards, which have arrived (alas, one design is full of glitter), and will actually be relieved when that's done and the holiday list is updated. I've lost too many folks on that list, which might be why it's depressing me a bit, but that's the circle of whozeewhatsis.