Friday the thirteenth

Came home last night in the midst of a white-out snowstorm, slush piling up behind my windshield wipers. Just like the good old days when I used to drive through blizzards without a care. It got better as I headed home, less accumulation on the roads and fields, though it was still coming down as thick.

The kids were psyched with the snowfall. C had heard that if it's snowing and you go to bed with your pajamas on inside out, it will keep snowing and you'll have a snow day the next day. So they did -- and it worked -- kind of. It did keep snowing, but we didn't get all that much accumulation. Just managed to cover the grass. But 25 miles away, where I work, they got over a foot! I got a call at 7am from my boss -- power out at her house, trees down, the thruway closed as far west as Buffalo. "The county's in a state of emergency" she said, "you might as well stay home."

Woo Hoo! Snow day for Mom!

Just to clarify...

...I don't have anything against hippies or vegans. Really -- I'm more than a little hippie-ish myself and was vegan for 3 months (my 10-year-old really hated those three months). It's just all that earnest self-righteousness in one place kind of gives me hives.

My blog languishes...

...because I don't know what to write. I finally got to the library yesterday after a coupla months of quick dash-in-and-grab-something visits. So I brought home an armload of books. Came home and dumped them on the sofa -- C. said "You got Assassination Vacation! Cool!"

"Yeah", I said, "you can read it if you want. I didn't know you were a Sarah Vowell fan."
Said C, "Well, I know who she is..."


Saint-like J took a bullet for me yesterday and did the CSA distribution shift. Not as heavy a job as the farm shifts, but more odious to me, because there's more people around. You see all the CSA members as they come to pick up their share of veggies. I deal with people I don't know well all day every day at work, and by the weekend I barely want to say thank you to the girl I buy the NY Times from. I want to stay home and I don't want to have to make small talk with the insufferable hippies and vegans that belong to the CSA.

We are contractually obligated to work 3 farm shifts and 2 distribution shifts -- to date I had done 2 farm shifts and J had done a farm shift and a distribution shift. And it was my turn to work, because he had done a farm shift last. But he went in and worked this one for me anyway and had to deal with the homeless wino that came looking for free food. I told him next year when we move we'll join the CSA in Elba (able was I ere I saw...) which doesn't have a work requirement!

Happy October

As the year draws down... Where did the summer go this year? Where did the whole year go?

I'm playing hookey from church -- stayed home to make plum jam. But to not ignore the spirit today, I'm going to dedicate today to the five remembrances:

I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape old age.

I am of the nature to have ill health. I cannot escape ill health.

I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape dying.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. I cannot keep anything. I come here empty-handed, and I go empty-handed.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.


Today I'll try to be aware how lucky I am to be alive, well, with the people I love around me. I'll try to be grateful as I should be and act accordingly.