Holy Vostok, Antarctica, Batman!!!! Four days ago the temperature was a balmy 63 degrees and we walked the mountain as part of our daily exercise routine. This morning the thermometer is a shaky 22 degrees (wind chill in the teens) with patchy thick grey clouds spewing dry snowflakes off and on. Last night wind gusts were so sudden and strong that the house groaned and few times I turned on the outside lights to see if the forest had been blown up onto the porch. The furry plaid trapper hat that Mark gave Cliff as a Christmas joke gift is keeping his neck, ears and head warm this morning as he chops and stacks more dry oak for our stove. He started a fire when we got up at 6 and the house is toasty warm. It's going to be a good day for baking wheat bread, simmering a hearty beef stew, making a quiche and other meals for the freezer. Later when the temperature peaks around the predicted 35 degrees (wind chill in the 20's), we may bundle up and walk to the mailbox and back. It's a lot more comfortable sounding than going from a nice warm sauna into an ice hole or rolling in the snow.
Some days are full of doing tasks and chores that Cliff did for me. The floor wasn't that dirty but he enjoyed saying. "Guess I need to pull out the vacuum. I'm tripping over debris." I thanked him. Whenever I was in the kitchen trying out new recipes, making cookies or the double batch tapioca pudding for him, he was there beside (getting in my way sometimes) washing the utensils, pots/pans, cutting boards, drying them and putting everything back in their proper places only to have me take some things back out and reuse again. "I just washed that" he would state. He learned to ask if I were through with things before he cleaned up after me. I thanked him. He emptied the dishwasher when it was finished in such an orderly manner (getting in my way sometimes because I was also in the kitchen working but he wanted to be there with me). I thanked him. Every morning he made my bed reminding me of the order that the pillows needed to be placed. John&
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