Everybody talks about the weather

I may as well address this brutal cold.  Misery loves company, and it seems as though the whole country is in the grip of Old Man Winter, even in the south.  I'm thankful for a warm place to eat, sleep, and live.  I'm thankful for e-books from the library, so I can check out a book anytime I feel like it.  Once again, let me count the reasons I love digital books. 

1.  The ease of checking out books without leaving home.

2.  I can make the print be whatever size I need.  It's a comfort knowing that as these cataracts grow (they seem to be advancing rather slowly so far, knock wood), I can make the words readable until the time comes I need to get the cataracts removed.  I know it's a simple procedure, but my mother ended up blind in one eye after her second cataract surgery.  So it isn't always as simple as you think... sort of like Cliff's 8-day torment in the hospital for what was supposed to be a "simple" gall bladder surgery.  Not so simple when you have stones all through the inside of you and have to have drainage tubes put in place to get through your ordeal.  But I digress.

3.  I often have trouble keeping characters in a book straight, but with an e-book, when I come upon the name of a person I can't quite place in the story, I hold my finger on the name and am taken to a passage that explains to me who it is.

4.  Using the Kindle or Kindle app, I can share whatever I'm reading to Cliff's Kindle.  This is nice if I'm reading a book I know he'll like, one I may have reserved for weeks or months before I got it.  If he wants to read it, he won't have to wait for it like I did.

5.  A digital book takes up no space in a house where there's already too much clutter.

6.  With my slightly arthritic wrists, holding a book can be uncomfortable.  I can lay the iPad, or the Kindle device, in my lap; when I'm ready to turn the page, the touch of a fingertip will do the job.  

Now, every time I explain online how much I like digital reading and give the reasons, I'll get somebody trying to argue with me.  Folks, I don't care if you prefer real books, I'm happy for you.  I'm not trying to convert you.  I just want people, especially older folks with arthritis and failing eyesight, to know there is a way they can read without straining the eyes, hurting the hands and wrists, and leaving home to get the book.  You do NOT have to convince me that paper books are better!  That, my friends, is a matter of preference.

Now, on to the weather.  The two Holstein calves we bought recently are thriving in spite of single-digit temperatures.  They're already eating a lot of calf starter, which could be considered baby food for bottle calves.  I know the larger of the two is eating the most of it; in fact, I don't know if the other one is even eating any of it.  That's the problem with multiple calves in a pen:  You don't know which one is doing what.  They are quite healthy, though, getting two bottles of milk replacer daily.  I also take them half-a-bottle of warm water between the morning and evening feedings.  There's no way to keep water out for them in this cold weather, and I like to know they're getting hydrated.  I've not heard of anyone else giving bobby calves water in their bottles, but I've been doing it for about fifty years; so far it hasn't hurt anything.  I feel bad for those babies when I see them shaking with the cold as they take their bottles, but really there isn't much you can do about it.  And I'd rather raise calves in winter than summer any time, because with the flies and hot temperatures of July and August, germs have a heyday multiplying in summer.      

This is Gabe, watching me create this blog entry and wishing he were on my lap.  He likes to sit on my lap or beside me in my chair, these early mornings, but there's no room on a computer chair.  My computer room is also the toy room, and this boy just can't help himself sometimes:  He'll snatch one of the Little People or a Legos block when I'm not looking and run away as fast as he can.  What a character he is.  He has most of his adult teeth now.  I'm working on his frequent tummy upsets, which usually seem to be tied to eating too fast.  I am in the process of switching dog foods, going from the very expensive kind the breeder preferred (Eukanuba) to the EXTREMELY expensive Blue Buffalo brand.  I'll be mixing them half-and-half for a long time, because I intend to use the Eukanuba until it's gone.  It seems as though if I feed him small amounts, and don't fill his water dish too full, he gets by without any problem.  If he weren't growing so fast, and if he weren't feeling so full of life all the time, I'd probably take him to the vet.  But for problems like this, sometimes I don't think the vets really know what's wrong either; they just use trial and error until something works (while throwing in an expensive x-ray or two).  I'm doing what I've always done with my calves:  Watching behavior closely and making changes slowly.   

I believe that's my blather for the day.  Stay warm, be thankful, and spoil your dogs.

Happy New Year!

What a fun day Friday was

Cliff and I went to buy ingredients for the seasonal dishes I crave.  We don't have company coming in, and I'm not cooking Christmas dinner, but there are certain things I only fix around the holidays.  Things like sweet potato pie, brown sugar fudge, butterscotch cookies, and hot hamburger dip.  I mostly make those things for my own benefit, but things like the cookies and hamburger dip are enjoyed by other relatives who might drop by; so I wanted to be ready to make plenty.

There were crowds at both places where we shopped, Costco and Walmart, but I took a deep breath before we left our car, reminded myself that anything unpleasant that might happen inside would not be directed at me personally, and then made Cliff go in with me as a bodyguard and guardian angel rather than sitting in the car reading a book on the Kindle as he would have preferred.  I bought a Costco fruitcake for a very reasonable price, which made my day since I love fruitcake, and a big bag of grapefruit, among our other purchases.  Merry Christmas to me!  This got me into the spirit of the season, so even Walmart wasn't a bad experience this time, in spite of the swarms of people.   

I had chicken salad waiting at home (made from some frozen Costco chicken breast from our pre-Thanksgiving trip there), so we got home and made a sandwich with that.  While I was still making my sandwich, Cliff said, "There's a vehicle sitting out in the driveway."

Sure enough, there was a van with writing on the side.  Before I could figure out what was going on, my cell phone rang, but it took me so long to dig the phone out of my purse, the caller hung up.  It wasn't a familiar number, but I rang back anyhow.  It was the guy in the van, saying he had some food for us.  

"But we didn't order anything," I said.  He responded that it was a gift from our insurance company (Coventry/Aetna), and that they were supposed to have called ahead.  I explained to him we miss a lot of calls, since neither of us stays by our phone all time time.     

Well, he started bringing in boxes and I could hardly believe my eyes.  What sort of food could be in there?  Maybe Christmas cookies, or fresh fruit?  Maybe some of those cheese assortments you get at Christmas?  I was rather excited!  

Folks, I had forgotten the pure joy of opening an unexpected box containing gifts the nature of which I could only guess.  

 Two loaves of bread and 10 frozen meals:  two breakfast, eight dinners.

 Frozen milk and juices, and some desserts.

Enough soup crackers in individual portions to get us through the winter. 

 Several individual packages of peanuts and two packs of animal crackers.

 Granola bars, raisins, fruit cups, etc.

 Powdered milk

Small individual cans of food, various kinds

Now, we likely won't use the milk, either frozen or powdered.  I will see if any of my relatives want it.  The bread makes good toast, so it went in the freezer.  We microwaved the frozen breakfast meals yesterday morning just to see if they were fit to eat, and they were better than expected.  It was a decent meal.  All this food is no-salt or low-salt, so we sprinkled a little salt on it.

The funniest part of this was how happy and excited I was with something that hardly fits in with our lifestyle at all.  It was so much fun discovering the various things in those boxes.  You see, we don't do presents, and haven't for a long time.  We have everything we need, and aren't great at choosing gifts for others, which is why we stopped the madness.  I cook our meals.  Canned and frozen meals are things I wouldn't normally think of buying in the store; I don't even like them that much.  But in the form of a surprise, this was perfect timing.  

It also made me think of the folks our age living alone with barely enough money to make ends meet.  Some of them probably don't bother fixing meals and opt for a sandwich.  Those folks, I'll bet, were overjoyed to see all this bounty.  I'm thankful Cliff and I are still able to purchase the foods we love. 

Thanks, Coventry, for the seasonal cheer.  I thought I was past being surprised at this stage of my life.

As for yesterday, my daughter and I ate lunch at Jazz and went to see those mummies at Union Station before they leave next weekend.  This is one thing Cliff has refused to see with me... he thinks it's creepy.  This is the guy who thoroughly enjoyed "Bodies Revealed" when it was in town; go figure.

It's been a good couple of days, even though it ended on a sad note when I was messaged by a friend telling me her mother, one of the dearest souls who ever walked this earth, had died.  I knew her time was near.  Somehow it feels like the snow that surprised me when I went to bottle-feed the calves earlier is a message from Shirley telling me she made it, safe and sound, to her final destination.  

Beyond this land of parting, losing and leaving

Far beyond the losses darkening this, and

Far beyond the taking and the bereaving

Lies a summer land of bliss.