September 1
Another wonderful day in the Midwest, where we have four terrific seasons to look forward to throughout each year. As the lazy summer leaves us, we have the splendor of fall just around the corner.
October 1
The warm weather is still holding out, though the higher humidity is noticeably diminished.
We’re always into a treat with autumn.
October 25
The trees are in full regalia of their autumn hues: yellows, oranges and reds. God’s paintbrush seems to have touched all within eyesight for as far on land as one can see. It’s fabulous. How I love the Midwest!
November 25
The weather has moved into crisp now, and there are predictions of snow soon. This is an exciting time, with holidays around the corner. It’s especially wonderful going into a nice, toasty house with a cool face and savoring the comforting air as it hits and warms the skin.
November 27
Not too much accumulation today of the light snow. I was able to whisk it off the walk with a broom. I can’t wait to be able to get out and play in it—cross country ski and maybe even build a snowman.
December 5
Today’s snowfall was absolutely gorgeous. The flakes were so big, they looked like feathers gliding down and it didn’t take long for it to blanket the entire near world. I’m so glad I live here to experience this beauty. Those who don’t are really missing out.
December 6
The winds were really kicking up last night as I lay in bed and listened to them howl. I was glad I had that decaying tree cut down that was right next to the house above my bedroom. We had ice rain along with it, and it stayed bitter cold too, so as to make everyone’s car doors freeze shut. Most people couldn’t go anywhere the next morning because they couldn’t get into their vehicles and if they did for being garage-kept, the roads were so treacherous, there were accidents everywhere.
December 8
It snowed massively last night and it was so cold, my nostrils stuck together as I inhaled. I have a garage, but it’s free-standing at the far end of a long driveway at the back of my property, leaving way too much to shovel to get out. So in the winter, I park my car at the end of the driveway closest to the street to have less to shovel. I even shovel the portion of the street at the end of the drive so the snow plow doesn’t have as much snow to build up there into a mountain as it passes. But I completely understand that all homeowners have to be responsible for their own mounds. What else can the city do? Fortunately, my sidewalk isn’t too awfully long, so shoveling isn’t that much of a problem.
December 9
It snowed another gigantic amount all day and evening and this morning I had to spend an extra hour to leave the house because of shoveling and scraping ice off the car windows, which, for the first time in my life, had also formed on the inside!
December 11
Even the news is warning not to go out driving unless absolutely necessary. Lots of black ice and they don’t have enough salt. It was so cold this morning, the pipes to the upstairs bathroom froze and I had no hot water, but the cold water faucet still worked when I tried it. Then half an hour later, that didn’t work either. It stayed like that all day and into the night, even though I left the cabinet doors open and also blasted the pipes under the sink with a hair dryer every half hour or so. I also left the faucet handle positioned for the water to run if the pipes decided to start yielding water again. Later I noticed that the double laundry tubs in the basement were half full of water, so I suspect the drainage pipes there were probably frozen too. This would mean that I had to be real careful about running any water and do no laundry or showering, except at Dad’s across the street—(icy to walk to.) Now I was worried about leaving the faucets to the bathroom sink positioned to allow the water to run when it thawed enough.
December 13
By now, it has snowed several times very deeply, rained and melted much of it, then iced everything over, rained and melted the ice again, caused incredible flooding in some areas with people’s their homes flooding or folks being swept away in their vehicles by water that didn’t look that deep to drive through. Ice has formed on every surface outside so much, the news is warning people not to drive at all. Now it’s icy again. On the way back from walking to Dad’s, I fell tonight and broke my right wrist, which got put into a cast in the emergency room, which I drove myself to in my stick shift car. All I can do is lie around in bed, but I’m reading a lot. I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if I weren’t right-handed. But I’m not going anywhere, so I am not concerned about shoveling the walk.
December 14
Every time I get settled in bed, the doorbell rings with people wanting me to pay them to shovel my walk because they can see it hasn’t been touched. I have to get up and go downstairs because friends are coming over with food and help in my one-handed disparity, so when I hear the bell and I don’t know who it is. I decided the only way to get any peace is to get out there and shovel it myself with my left hand, so I did. Then I made a sign with my left hand that says, ‘No snow removal wanted here’ and taped it to the front door window. I plan to leave it there all winter.
The faucet this morning was running, and I was glad, as that meant the pipes hadn’t burst in between the walls, but I don’t know how long they’ve been running and now the double laundry tubs were at the tipity top from overflowing. It’s a miracle the basement wasn’t flooded. I had to get a saucepan and start bailing with my left hand, throwing the water out the basement door and over a wall, which is taller than I am, on either side of the steps going up from the basement. I couldn’t walk up the steps to pitch it, as they were covered with deep snow, and even if not, I would have been afraid of ice. I also couldn’t use a bucket, which would have been three times faster, because it was too heavy to pick up full of water and then hurl over the wall with one hand. The bailing of these two tubs took well over an hour and my left arm was exhausted.
December 18
Drat! I have since bailed the laundry tubs out three more times, and have to pray the bathroom pipes don’t freeze because I can’t leave the faucet dripping or the tubs will overflow. The massive amounts of snow and cold have broken records here for this time in December. So much for global warming. The wind has blown the snow into drifts so high, to get to my driveway from my house, I’d have to tromp through or shovel to near the top of my upper thighs, so are too insurmountable for me to tackle with one arm, as well as the snow too crisp and icy to get through. There is a frozen mountain of plowed snow across the end of my driveway, and shoveling that hardened, compacted mass is also impossible with one arm. Darned that snowplow! I’m pretty sure that plow driver is hiding around the corner until he sees me finish shoveling my walk all the way to the street. And my car being a stick shift, means when I do get it out, I have to shift across my body with my left hand. I wouldn’t even be in this mess if it weren’t for ice and snow! Darned the Midwest!
The weather report in Florida says it is 75 degrees. Don’t know about Arizona, but it’s probably similar. I’m going to have a big garage sale and the first thing I want to sell is my snow shovel to become a snowbird. I think anyone who lives here in the winter is crazy. Furthermore, I’m going to send this to Al Gore.
