Screens so caked with snow, I had to open the door to see the accumulation.
So far, we have only four or five inches but it’s supposed to snow all day. Today’s plans cancelled, of course.
I left the writing retreat early yesterday and so did two others. They were predicting snow for much later in the day for Amherst and even later than that for Boston, but it was already doing SOMETHING at nine a.m. and anyway I was gonna be too tense to be able to write or listen well. It was the right decision.
What I wrote on Saturday and Sunday morning was disappointing in any case. For instance, the scene I produced yesterday started in Henderson, Kentucky and somehow ended up in West Feliciana, Louisiana. Oops. People didn’t know if the daughter was the mother or the daughter or dead or alive. Ha! This kind of feedback is helpful.
Other off-the-cuff writing didn’t land either. One narrator (um, that would be me) was dubbed “smug.” Yikes.
Listening was the best though. It often is at these things. Many phrases and characters will stay with me for a long time (I’m looking at you, Ronna!)
I drove briefly around the UMass campus on Sunday and there were so many new buildings that I barely recognized the place. Oh, there was the library (I liked a carrel on the 11th floor). There was the art complex (topped with solar panels — yeah!) And there was the ugly concrete Campus Center. There memory held — it was ugly in 1978 and remains ugly today.
Didn’t feel a lick of nostalgia.
Speaking of snow and blizzards and memory and the 70’s, I would’ve been at UMass during the Blizzard of 1978. Hmm. I don’t seem to have much memory of it and let me just say that is as good a descriptor of me back in the day as anything.
As for the tariff decision, I’ve been schooled by Hubbell. Let’s take the win, he says. Marshall got it wrong, he points out. Don’t be so defeatist, etc.
Yes, it could have been worse because in this timeline EVERYTHING can be worse. The SCOTUS could have, for whatever reason, hallucinated all over the relevant statute and invented more (MORE!) broad and sweeping executive powers. They properly read and applied the law. Hoo-hey!
Let me emphatically state that I am thrilled Trump lost on this.
I thought of you as I was listening to my friend, Robert, this morning. Yes. Let’s take the win. Dems need to learn to celebrate. We are so often the folks at the party who put the turd in the punchbowl.
I made cinnamon rolls, mostly to overnight to Grace to have in time for Thursday, but the timing with this storm was fortuitous. Had my first, and now I’m dressing to snow blow with an aching heart for John who was the snow manager. I’m ok, just lamenting.
Wish I could be there to help. To listen.
And FOR ONE of YOUR CINNAMON ROLLS!
I don’t read Hubbell anymore. I HCR sometimes. Joyce Vance sometimes. Paul Krugman frequently. Austin Kleon always.
I swing between outraged, very angry, fairly dejected and deeply sad. Deep breathing and yoga help. Also singing protest songs (old and new) and dancing to loud music. “Were not gonna TAKE IT… ANYMORE”.
Definitely in mourning. I am also wishing I had left the country when there was a chance – wait, there wasn’t one. OK, just thankful Europe and Canada are not going to take it anymore – right? Please tell me that is true? Do they owe this country any allegiance? Not anymore…
I have 50 postcards with stamp to send out. Any suggestions for a topic? I can’t decide because I can’t figure out what is most important – midterms, yes. I have a list of the seats that could be overturned. That’ll probably be it for this month. Open to ideas.
I think we got 14 inches of snow so far… good day to make Gluten Free Goddess pumpkin muffins now that the shoveling is done. I actually had the right variety of flours in my cupboard!! (I went to grab the link for the recipe but she has changed the recipe to use all-purpose flour). I had just enough almond flour, coconut flour, sorghum flour, oat flour and xanthan gum.
You at UM Amherst! So beautiful.
Be safe and warm 🙂
I just signed up to send postcards to voters in Wisconsin about a judge race.
Dee~ That mouse is just too much! So charming and filled with adventure. Your yard looks beautiful all blanketed in white and stillness.
“Didn’t feel a lick of nostalgia”…I’m really liking that feeling when it comes. A relief in a sense.
Is that B&W pic you?? It’s a great photo, filled with inner-outer reflection. What a beauty.
Yes pic is me. Speaking of the 70’s. It is still snowing. But barely.
You look beautiful Dee! Speaking of 70’s…it was above that today! lol
I’ve never done well driving in the snow so I commend you for being able to navigate in such conditions. May you and Ken stay warm and safe as this bomb cyclone continues. I can see both of you, reading on the couch, you have a pot of something wonderful on the stove, Finn nearby and of course, you will not be watching the State of Dis-Union….but maybe you will, to cackle and heckle and bear witness to the lying bomb cyclone that is this leader of the regime! .
Robert Reich uses a word that I have not heard in a long time when he counters the lies. Rubbish is the word he uses, old-fashioned yes, but so satisfying to say, especially if you draw it out. Here’s to tossing out the rubbish, come the mid-terms.
As for tonight, when the airwaves are filled with words of lies, hate, and stupidity, I will counter that by filling the airwaves in our home with the uniting music of SALSA, guaranteed to clear the rubbish…my beloved Celia Cruz, Willie Colon and even some Bad Bunny, will deflate the hot air coming from DC!
And may I add that your photo holds today as it did then: a bright, strong, determined lovely young woman, a bright, strong, determined Woman who looks clearly, deeply and with wisdom, at the world.
Fortunately I didn’t have to drive through any snow. Or in the dark.
I don’t think we’ll be watching the SOTU tonight. Just don’t think I have the stomach for it. And besides, I’ll see tons of clips in the next news cycle.
We are at last shoveled out. Thanks mostly to Ken. I managed to get to the grocery store today where it seemed like a normal day.
I admire you for driving all the way out there. For the short time I lived there I lived in fear of the Mass Pike. I am still traumatized just thinking about driving/riding on it. Happy to be home in Brookline again. Never driving out there ever again…LOL….I am ready for spring though!
Did you have an accident? People are mostly okay on the road but there are frequent tailgaters. Even when I’m doing 75! Those guys are dangerous and drive me nuts.
No accident. Just all those trucks! They are so huge and scary!
Yeah the trucks are stressful especially when they’re in the passing lane.