C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 35

Jane has posted. :)

Yep. She has.

Today Jane’s having a bit of fun…

She had as a prezzie one of those Chinese models to paint and assemble—in this case a really gorgeous ‘moon’ style Chinese bed with intricate fretwork. Wiishu-scale. Amazing creation, very meticulous. So she is taking a day off from sinks and floors and emergencies to assemble and paint this gorgeous thing. She’s taking pix, but hasn’t had time to put them up.

Jane got the sink fixed.

Our household ‘snake’ got it, after Jane disassembled the plumbing. Not one clog, but three. The sink now runs and dishes are being washed. Dunno but what 8 days of really cold weather helped create the situation. But it is now dealt with. Got bottles of weird stuff sitting all over the kitchen counters, from undersink, but at least—we saved a plumbing bill.

I, meanwhile, am gimping about. Day before Christmas, I backed up, caught the edge of my robe with my heel, and went backwards onto my backside…really a pretty good fall, dislodging a chair, a table, and breaking a glass, but no damage done. Backside is fine, but I apparently turned my foot weird and pulled a muscle in the backside of upper leg, go figure.

Fortunately my prezzie from Jane this year was a new pair of muffies—remember I said they help sciatica—and I knew instantly the old ones had gotten pretty worn. So I had been getting some aches from the hip—but the new muffies, with a new, properly positioned inset, cured that. So I traded one ache for another.

Merry Christmas to all!

Ours is happy—we have no floor, well, plywood, so don’t think of us dancing on the floor joists—but we have ample food, we’re baking cookies, and will exchange a couple of prezzies—we’ve both asked for new muffies (house slippers)—but most of all, we have a floor in one room and prep work done for other areas. And I am cleared to work on it until the 6th January, at which point I’m back in restriction, but with a new lens in the other eye.

It’s snowing up a storm–there’s now 10″ of accumulation out there, and more coming tomorrow, after which it will clear and be very, very cold.

Beautiful trees out there. I had to go out and whack snow off the bendable evergreens and the sapling dogwood to prevent the sheer weight of wet snow from deforming them—Jane’s laboring hard to get our kitchen into shape for epic baking.

And..we had a pond visitor. And a hole in the ice.

Grim as it sounds, if something died in there, it has to be extracted.

So I, fearing for the neighborhood kitties, and worrying because I have seen what looked like cat tracks on the pond ice, don snow gear and go out to see what tracks can tell me.

Well, tracks immediately tell me this was not a cat, but a fairly fat raccoon. And that the visitation was before the last inch of snowfall. The pergola recorded really excellent tracks, but those beyond its cover were under new snow, which fell after 2 am.

And there was indeed an exit point. Raccoon fell in and broke the ice on the west side of the bridge, and had to swim under the bridge, breaking 3/4 inch thick ice all the way, to reach a shallow bank where he could climb out. There is a set of tracks departing…a very cold, soggy, fishless retreat.

Note to self: buy some black pepper before spring thaw.

But as you can see by the weather report in the last post, the pond should be well and truly frozen.

We have groceries, we are tucked in, and it looks like snow…

…as if a thin white meringue had landed from the skies over every twig and bush. Wet snow. This is the time, if you have arbor vitae, and we don’t, you get out and tie cord around them to keep them shaped like candle-flames or you have fountain-shaped arbor vitae come the melt.

Today

Snow. High near 33. Southwest wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.

Tonight

Snow. Low around 26. South wind 8 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

Thursday

A 30 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 31. South wind 7 to 9 mph. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

Thursday Night

A 40 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around 20. Light southeast wind. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Christmas Day

A 40 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 24. Light south wind. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

Friday Night

A 20 percent chance of snow showers before 10pm. Patchy freezing fog after 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 9.

Saturday

Patchy freezing fog before 10am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 20.

Saturday Night

Patchy freezing fog. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 16.

Sunday

Mostly cloudy, with a high near 25.

Sunday Night

A 20 percent chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 20.

Monday

Cloudy, with a high near 26.

Monday Night

Cloudy, with a low around 16.

Second checkup clear…

Jane got up at 6 to shovel 6 in of snow plus the 10″ icy snowplow berm off the driveway (the snowblower broke) so I wouldn’t have to take a cab to my Dr.’s app’t at 9. Grateful!

Next surgery on track for the 6th. I now have 20/20 vision, though one eye sees things slightly browned or yellowed. The right eye, which has long been having worse problems, is now taking over most ‘work’ and seeing (in a monocular way) when I really need detail. This is a good thing.

One of those pretty winter mornings…

every tree is white, down to the smallest twigs, not with ice, but with snow. The PNW does (unlike Oklahoma) have many very still days, and this is one. Snow is still coming down and it coats even tiny twigs.

Got the finally checkup for the eye tomorrow…and I’ll continue the eye drops until 5 days past surgery on the next on the 6th Jan, which will put me into another month of eye drops. I swear, 4 rounds of 3 drops a day—thank goodness I have a chart!

Doing well; had dinner with Patty and Mike Briggs last evening, very pleasant outing.

It’s icy and snowing. Love snow.

Here’s a recipe we worked up that’s dirt-simple if you like curry.

Needed: sour cream, curry powder, chicken strips or leftovers of chicken, pork or beef. Rice. Broccoli, raw, your discretion.

Cooking rice: One hour before dinner: put 1 level measure of rice into the pot. put 2 level measures of water. Bring to boil until froths. Remove from heat, let set for an hour. Doesn’t matter what measure of rice you use, teacup, measuring cup, etc. The ratio for white rice is always 2x the water as you have rice.

The sauce. Steam broccoli in small saucepan with chicken, pork, beef strips, leftovers, etc. (Omit broccoli if you have no broccoli. you can also use green beans or any ‘quiet’ green veggie like peas, snow chestnuts, etc)

Have a very little water (one tablespoon) left. You may have to pour some off. Add slightly heaping tablespoon of curry powder, any flavor; add half a cup of sour cream. Cook until bubbling. Pour onto rice in individual dishes.

Voila. Curried chicken, pork, beef, whatever. Curry comes in Vindaloo, Madras, yellow, red, green, etc. Take your pick. You can also add nuts, even citrus fruit, raisins, sky’s the limit.

Counting that rice cooks unattended, you can start with cooked rice, whip up the sauce in five minutes and have it ready in five more.

First post-op check

All optimal. The only unwanted effect is a thin striated bar reflecting from headlights or very bright lights, slanted from 11 to 5 on the clock, and the doc says it’s real, and many don’t see it. It’s a fold, I think in the new lens, and she says many if not most people’s vision isn’t acute enough to see it. It may flatten, the brain may learn to ignore it, or if not, there’s a quick and easy laser fix that will cure it, too. I’ll opt for that, if need be, but it’s still in the post op swelling phase, too, so maybe it will cure itself.