Yes, it is snowing, and the wind has picked up, and it’s 18 degrees. WINTER. This kind of weather used to be a pretty regular occurrence. Not so much anymore. A couple pics from earlier.

Trying not to get too excited about it, because so often it just seems to go right around us, but it’s looking pretty good for it actually happening. Feel bad for those who will be impacted negatively, but at the same time, I love snow and we have not had a really big storm in a very long time. We are in for some high winds, too. Bring in the patio furniture, people. I’m in the red for snow, and the orange for high winds. Ooooo. These were tweeted by @harveyWCVB, Harvey Leonard, my all-time favorite weatherman.

I totally stole this from them.

They are now saying we could get 2 feet of snow Saturday. 24 inches of snow. I will believe it when I see it. Would be nice, though. I don’t have to shovel or drive in it, so I can just enjoy it.

The other thing, Neil Young challenged Spotify to get rid of Joe Rogan, prime misinformation spreader, or his own music. They chose to get rid of Neil, because profit matters more than lives to them. There are rumors of a boycott starting. I will join it. I always say, put your money where your mouth is. If you believe something, somebody, is wrong, do not support them with money or usage or patronage or whatever. It’s the only way they learn.

We had this.

But England has someone who can’t even comb his own hair.

Remember when we had this? I do.

So my homemaker finally came back today. Seems she had covid, Home test was positive. She became ill on New Year’s Eve, so hopefully is no longer contagious, but still not coming in. Shopping and trash, through the door. That is all.

Not been my best week. Vertigo, then just mild dizziness, off balance, sleeping all day, getting behind on every thing yet again. I can read even with vertigo, so hooray for that. Anyway last night was doing some HDPuzzles, and there are two, a day shot and a night shot of THIS place, which I just now came across this on Tumblr. Anyway, when I look at it, the clouds are moving to the right. Fun times, people, fun times.

Still here. Still just kind of vegging, although I did cook a bit here and there.

Corn chowder, anyone? Enough for about three or four bowls: cube two peeled or not potatoes, chop an onion, barely cover with water, cook til tender. Add 2 cans cream corn, simmer a bit, add one can evaporated (not condensed) milk, a spoon or so of bacon grease (or not) s&p, heat, don’t boil. Just reheat single bowlfuls as needed. Just add more potatoes if want a larger amount.

Party mix. Am having some right now. Put into small pan on very low 1 stick butter, 2 sloppy tablespoons worcestershire sauce, about a teaspoon each of celery salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. I like it well-seasoned. Leave on low heat for awhile so spices can soak up butter. Toss with 6 cups Chex, rice, corn and wheat, I like lots of wheat Chex. I do this in a large microwave safe bowl and nuke for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring well every two minutes. Can oven bake for an hour at 250, stirring every 15 minutes. 13 x 9 pan is good for this. Can also add nuts or pretzels or whatever.

Sleep, read, awake most of the night. It’s all getting very discombobulated. But someday spring and sun will be back and maybe I will get it together once again. Possibly. Could happen. Anyway, came across this today:

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

I am a bit appalled today. Finally, FINALLY, went down to get my mail. Trash in hallway. Trash and filth in elevator. Trash in lobby, trash in outer lobby. What has happened to my building? People stealing packages, trash everywhere. We used to have a cleaner who came in and vacc’d the halls and cleaned the glass, etc. My landlord has tried three, yes three, times to scam me into paying more rent. There used to be background checks before you were allowed to rent here. No more, it seems. Rents are high, I can barely manage daily life, how could I ever move, if I could even find someplace? Disturbing. So much crap is going on out there, we don’t need more of it in here. No idea what to do about it, either?

Tweeted by Boston Ma weather updates. Not as much as I’d like, but snow is snow, right?

I am a horrible human being. This was on BoredPanda.com. I kind of like this idea. LOL

Yes, it actually did snow. We got more than six inches. It was lovely, too. I was, of course, awake all night and so got to watch it fall in between bouts of reading. Took some vids so I can remember what snow is like. The way things seem to be going, I kind of expect there will come a winter where we don’t get any at all. Global warming is real. Bein up all night when it’s snowing is nice, but being up all night means zombie Jean the next day. Not fun. Hope these don’t slow down the page load too much.

Places are closing, things are being postponed, the daily count is sky-rocketing. Wear your damn masks, people. Get vaccinated. Or just stay the hell home and stew in your own stupid juices. Good grief. You are ruining life for the rest of us, and actually killing some of us. Are we collateral damage to your selfishness?

About Imagine Dragons song, Natural, on YouTube.

Really hope it’s okay to put it here.

Sharmistha Banerjee

11 months ago I was a fan before but after listening to this masterpiece i am a whole air conditioner.

It seems a lot of what we take as truth is actually ideas foisted upon us by people who want our money. Also, why on earth does bacon need a lobbyist? Who doesn’t love bacon? Except of course for religious issues. But otherwise, it’s BACON. Seriously.

Nice day. 44 degrees. Don’t even need the heat on. Miss G is happy because the bedroom door is open. She begs me to open it, literally, but it gets at least ten degrees colder in the living room when it is open. Why? No idea.

Nothing exciting going on. Just getting through the day, as usual. Need to get to the post office and mail my rent check in the box out front, as I can’t do the stairs, but not looking good for that. Someone usually does that for me, homemaker or my friend who is currently incapacitated by a muscle?? issue. So it’s up to me. Never a good thing. 🙂

It was over by the time I got up at ten am, but the snow is still there. Not a lot, but still. It is 25 degrees, so I don’t think it’s going to melt. White Christmas. Sort of. Yay.

A person in my friend’s ukulele group tested positive for COVID, so I’m kind of glad her bad leg has kept her away. I do not want to get sick. It’s very difficult to be really ill when you are on your own. She is getting a home test kit, and I’m hoping she is okay. She’s the friend who makes me laugh hysterically just about every single time I see or talk to her. Don’t want to lose that. She is really a wonderful, wonderful friend, and her husband is pretty great, too.

Me and Miss G are just vegging. I did finally load and run the dishwasher last night, and washed the iron skillet today. Am hoping to cook something, Jiffy cornbread, or a lemon bar mix I have, or flourless peanut butter cookies. Something. I am almost out of milk, there was no half and half Friday when my homemaker shopped, and my bread went moldy. Fortunately for my coffee, I have lots of canned milk. Growing up, everyone used canned milk in their coffee. It’s not great, but black coffee is not for me. Still have my fatoush and a bit of the falafel wrap left, too. I think tomorrow I will either make sausage and gravy, or corn chowder. Canned milk goes in the chowder, but I need the real thing for the sausage and gravy, although, you can dilute canned milk to be like milk only the taste is NOT the same. My gramma used to make canned milk ice cream in an ice cube tray. We were too poor to buy ice cream. Anyway, will decide tomorrow, if I even am up for cooking tomorrow. Never know til the day arrives. 🙂 It’s kind of good to be eating what I have on hand, too. Lots of canned goods and pasta and some things in the freezer. I could make bread or biscuits or something, too. I have everything I need. Pancakes, anyone? I have Bisquick, but it’s a couple of years old and I’m not sure how long it’s good for. I used to make my own Bisquick. That way I knew what was in it. Oh, I have powdered milk, too. Ewwww, but it’s great in baking. Just add water to replace milk, or just dump a packet into whatever to up the protein content. BTW, did you know that you can blend summer squash or zucchini and freeze it to use in place of milk in baking. Gives a slight pumpkin vibe to whatever. Really nice.

Watched this last night. It’s a yearly tradition. I love The Snowman. Can you tell? Tomorrow I will watch White Christmas. Another tradition. Hey, just because I am alone does not mean I can’t have traditions, right? I used to watch A Christmas Story every year, because one of our local channels in NH played it all day long on Christmas. Now I have to rent it and I really hate paying for things when I already pay for the service. I have a friend who watches It’s A Wonderful Life every year.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve. We always had beer and Dutch Lunch, and Christmas cookies. May have said that already. Wish I was having that tonight. I do have some really dark beer. I love dark beer. It’s porter, I think. Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone, and stay safe.

I am stuck in a rut. For three days now, I have been pretty much sleeping, reading, messing about on here, or watching my streaming channels. I need to load the dishwasher. I need to put the laundry away. I need to do a lot of things. The plan was a friend would maybe run me by the grocery store so I could pick up a few Christmas-type things in the food department. Not going to happen. I can order groceries to be delivered with DoorDash. Have I done that? Have I even looked online to see what I might want? Have I done anything at all in any way productive? I ordered in last night, if that counts.

Snow is predicted for tomorrow. Actual white stuff falling from the sky. I am not holding my breath, however. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Any brilliant ideas for getting myself motivated, beside ‘get up and do it, damnit’, cause that is NOT working At. All. So what I am doing is cleaning up my laptop, backing things up, etc. Me and Miss G are just here on the couch with the curtains closed to keep out the cold, the full-spectrum ceiling lights on to simulate actual daylight, and the fireplace keeping us toasty warm. I had oatmeal and coffee earlier, and I have leftover Lebanese takeaway for later. This was disappointing. And expensive. I can make better fatoush, and have done in the past, back when I actually prepped and cooked actual food. Those days. I have had better kibbee, too, but the falafel wrap was okay, except the wrap was kind of dried out. Still have a lot of that left, and a lot of fatoush, which I am going to whack in the nutribullet and drink instead of eating it. I don’t like salad and this is a good way to get it down me anyway. Drink it. Just add a bit of whatever liquid you have on hand. I have some flavored seltzer in the frig. Juice would be good, but I never buy juice. Anyway.

There used to be a Middle Eastern sort of deli attached to a grocery store we frequented in Salem, NH, and they made really good food.

Almost Christmas. Every year I think, this could be my last Christmas, and here I sit all alone without even a decoration up (thank you Gertrude) and no Christmas dinner or pressies or tree or anything. Not even a Christmas ecard. Or a real one. Bah. Also, humbug. But every year I survive it and it’s okay. I do kind of miss the excitement, though. Was fun when the kids were little. Christmas is for kids, really. Unfortunately, I have never grown up so still could fit into that category. Mentally. LOL Okay. Done for now. Be safe, people. Be safe.

Yesterday I said to Gertrude not to worry, because it won’t be long before the days start getting longer again. What do you know, today is the Solstice. I seem to never know anything about anything anymore. We will now begin marching towards spring, as I read somewhere. I like that. I think January and February are the real winter months here, so still hoping for some snow.

This was in a newsletter I get.

rant: I think I’ve mentioned this before. Reading, if you are not learning something new, is for fun and relaxation. It has been turned into a contest, a competition with self, a burden, a chore. I’ve seen articles about how your reading compares to other people’s reading. Keeping track of it all with lists and notebooks and what not. Making it a ‘something I have to do’ rather than something I do because I love doing it. I don’t understand this trend at all. At. All. I don’t care how many or what books any one else on the planet reads. I don’t need Oprah or Reese or whoever else it is to tell me what books I should be reading. I don’t need to blog about it, or review, although I have done that on Goodreads before for a really excellent book I read, or post my count or any of that. I just want to read. What looks interesting. What’s next in a series I’m reading. What I want to know more about. The book whose cover caught my eye. Or whose synopsis made me want to see more. Whatever. It is not a contest, a competition, with anyone out there or with myself. You know how people find something they love doing and then turn it into a business and then suddenly realize that all the love they had has gone? This is like that. /rant.

Actually, it’s ‘What ho, Fernando’, one of those ‘you had to be there kind of things, maybe. But anyway. It is warmer today thank goodness. My fireplace tripped the circuit-breaker twice in succession while I was watching Traces on Britbox on Prime. You pay for Britbox, then you can watch it on Prime. Good show, and there is going to be a second season. I watched because Martin Compston from Line of Duty. I like Martin Compston. It’s 7,99 a month, I think, and a LOT of good British shows on there.

Does not have all that on it now, because Gertrude. 🙂

Anyway, turned off the fireplace and warmed things up with my heater fan til I was ready to sleep, then turned it on again earlier this am to take the chill off. Have fireplace and tv on now, listening to Pandora Instrumental Christmas music station, which has NO Christmas music weirdly enough, and so far no problem. But it’s 42 out, so not going to get too chilly in here anyway.

Why is there always something? As far as I know, we have no maintenance person, and I don’t want to make any waves anyway since my landlord has been trying to get me out for three or four years now Guess I can’t blame him, cause rents are skyrocketing, and my is not that high and is subsidized. But Miss G and I have to live somewhere, right?

Seriously considered getting my act together and walking up to the new Meat Market store about half a block away, and getting cold cuts for Christmas. Or something. But I will so talk myself out of it, like I always do unless I have someone to go with. This is how I have always been. Fine with someone else, but hardly ever go anywhere on my own. Not sure why, just how it is. I am. Whatever.

I’m tired today. So I guess that’s it. Be safe, people. Be safe.

But none of this:

No snow. It’s winter, for crying out loud.

DD2 sent me a package of KN95 masks. Thank you, Kris. I guess I’m going to be in isolation for a couple of weeks, since Tess is having the leg thing and my homemaker is off both Eves. I can live with that, but it’s nice to have a good mask if I do manage to go out anywhere. Have to keep reminding myself that I CAN walk up the street with my walker. I just have to convince myself it’s a good idea. I am very good at convincing myself NOT to do things. Need to turn that around.

Feeling much better than I was. Mailman actually buzzed me and put the package inside the security door (this almost never happens anymore), and I was able to go down and get it. Yay, me. Someone had thrown all the mail they don’t want onto the elevator floor. Wonder if it’s the same person who steals the packages, or opens them and steals half the contents. I really need to find a new place. My landlord sent me another scam letter a couple of weeks ago. He really wants me gone, but where would I go? Rents have skyrocketed, not a lot of places take Section 8, which is subsidized rental assistance, and I would have to hire someone to pack and move my stuff. I choose not to think about it too much. 🙂

Trying to decide if it’s worth it to order some special groceries for Christmas dinner, because usually when I do that, I am on the couch on the day completely unable to cook anything. I could just get Dutch Lunch stuff. We always had Dutch Lunch on Christmas Eve, my husband and I. Beer, good French or Italian bread, hard salami, capocola, provolone, banana peppers. You know, Dutch Lunch. And Christmas cookies. We used to go to a tavern in Bessemer, near the steel mill, way on the other side of town, and it was a place where you could bring your kids and eat and have a beer and just be comfortable. Dutch Lunch was their thing. Never had it before that. This was in Pueblo, Colorado.

So frustrated with people, especially people in government. We are very broken in this country and I don’t have a clue how to fix anything.

Hang in there, people. Even bad shit does not last forever. I hope. Be safe. Protect not only your own life, but the lives of those around you. Be a decent human being. Please.