Happy New Year

 The wind was pretty awful yesterday, whipping the fine snow so wildly that it was like a fog. Some places had zero visibility. Multicar pile ups. A tree came down across our lease road. 

We stayed home. We had no reason to go out. 

Amazingly, we did not lose power. We were snug inside. Tim wandered out to work on his tractor a few times because he can't sit still. I cleaned house, did laundry, talked to my youngest on the phone. 

Last night, something unexpected happened. We lost gas. That was a surprise because that has not happened since we put the new regulator on and so Tim really fretted about that. We do not have the back up woodstove in yet. It was 70° in the house, and there really wasn't anything we could do about it. The regulator is supposed to start itself. It was about 10, so we just went to bed. 

Tim woke up at 3ish, and came out. The gas had reset itself just as it was supposed to. He went down and turned the stove and the water tank back on. The house had dropped 8 degrees, but 62 is a livable temperature. By the time we got up, we had our cozy warm house and plenty of hot water.

I woke up to the very strangest sight. I had a jar of canned beans that had lost its seal, so they were poured out for the crows. I watched a bald eagle circle lower and lower, finally landing and having a snack with the murder of crows. 

Today was breezy and snowy but not horrible. We took my sister and her husband out for lunch for their birthdays. 

My sister messaged me that she wanted to drive separately so that she could go to the Goodwill, and would we mind bringing her husband back home with us.

"I want to go to the Goodwill!" I said. She cautioned me that she was going to be in there a while. I am not sure why she thought this was a bad thing. So today we shopped 'til we dropped. 

I found a ceramic coated cast iron Dutch oven for $14.99. I was more than a little excited about that. I found a very cool paper weight that I knew someone would love, and it will be put away for next Christmas. I got a music box from the Thomas Kinkade collection. It is not to my tastes, but I knew where it needed to go. Two very fancy dresses for the grands, both of them 50% off. They love 'fancy' and when you can give the gift of 'fancy' for $3.50 each, well...a grandma's got to do what a grandma's got to do. I bought myself a nice gray pullover, a sweatshirt, a tee shirt, a pair of jeans and a glittery scarf for my night sky project. A fancy bayberry hand soap and hand lotion from a big box store that we don't even have here in podunk Pennsylvania. New in box with the antitheft sticker on it. I also found a picture that tickled me: "I smile because you're my sister. I laugh because there is nothing you can do about it." That went home with my sister. 

Walked out of there feeling as if every single penny of that $75 had been well spent. Every single minute well spent. 

Tomorrow the weather is going to turn bad again. Anywhere from 6-10 inches. We have some errands that have to be done. We will need to get an early start, and get ourselves home before the storm hits. 

Happy New Year, everyone. It will be spent close to home here.