Musing Cold

February 10, 2021 Well, it is still cold here in the Midwest, in fact, even colder with some of the lowest temps we've had in years.  But the electric service has stayed on faithfully and my house is warm and comfy. 

 

I can't complain.  And am so grateful to our electric company workers who spent hours out in the frigid darkness to warm up the rest of us last month.  And I do appreciate the maintenance crew that shovels my front walk and driveway.  I am one lucky lady. 

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We are now past the January 6th Washington DC capitol riot.  There is nothing I can say that you haven't already thought.  So I won't say much but just have this date mentioned here for future remembrance.  And a ragtag violent mob invading the capitol building, hurting people, killing some, hunting for Congress members to hurt or hang is not who we are as Americans.  This is what we need to remember.  And say, never again!

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My life, like so many others in this world pandemic, is now spent in self-isolation for my safety and for those I may breathe on when out.  I do go for fresh food every other week, always wear a mask and keep my distance from people. What a strange way to live. 

 

I do like living alone in my home in healthy times.  But my normal life is balanced with afternoons spent in our local library.  Or time in Barnes & Noble at the mall on the north side of town.  There's a pattern here where books have been the center and mainstay of my life. 

 

My best friends as a child were always books.  They did not argue, or scold, were always right where I needed them to be.  I had several that I called my "happy family" books.  I read them often and cried a little every time when finishing one...for the third or fourth time.  

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I pared down my own library several years ago and then was sorry for shrinking my collection.  There are still a couple hundred books here on floor to ceiling shelves in two rooms.  Many on history and cookbooks.  And a small collection of food writers, one of my favorite interests.  (In my next life I plan to be a food writer.)  

 

Like Thomas Jefferson said "I cannot live without books."

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I keep adding to the post titled Books For Alone Time and hope that you read and like some of them.  Reading books is still the best way to get your mind off your own life and gain some perspective into others'. 

 

Nowadays I could not be happy without my computer and TV, especially living all by myself.  But nothing replaces a book for getting out of that self for a while. 

 

And that's always a good thing.  

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Stay safe.

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Laine