The wind is buffeting the walls and roof of the cabin, as if it means to shove us the rest of the way down the mountain into town. It eats at my nerves, knives beneath my skin. The wind is currently blowing at 18 mph, gusting to 31 mph. The sky is clear, blue, wide and carnivorous. It's a cold and hungry thing, that sky, and I am grateful for this shelter, and I am grateful for the sheltering trees. The temperature is only 35˚F, with the windchill at 26˚F. This is in violent contrast to yesterday when the mercury climbed to 60˚F, with virtually no wind. Yesterday was the warmest day here since October 12th. The weekend will be grim, but it'll get a little better next week. There was a dramatic amount of melt yesterday; Kathryn estimated that eight inches melted between dawn and dusk.
It's hard for me to keep my thoughts straight, with this wind.
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I just heard the news of Terry Pratchett's death. He was only 66. I'm ashamed to say I've never read anything by him.
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Let's play a game. Every time you use "because" as a preposition, your IQ drops one point. I'm keeping score.
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I'm wondering if it's some obscure culinary and/or cultural crime, having ramen and bobka for breakfast. Well, I did.
Yesterday was Part Two of the Root Canal. It went well. The crater now safely packed with sealant and gutta-percha. Week after next, the post will be put in place, and a week later the crown will be installed. Once again, I am very grateful to the people who send donations via Gofundme and PayPayl. You have made the restoration of the tooth possible, all of you. I was sent home numb and a woozy. For dinner, I managed a can of Campbell's condensed cream of chicken soup and a few soggy crackers. Later, I had some sugar-free chocolate pudding. Ugh. I awoke starving.
Last night, Kathryn read to me, and Selwyn tortured the Western conifer seed bugs (Leptoglossus occidentalis) that are overwintering with us. They're an invasive species, and when disturbed they release a pungent, unpleasant odor. We've nicknamed these little fuckers Baileys. Don't ask. But I swear, Selwyn's huffing the stuff. One bug can stink up the whole cabin for ten or fifteen minutes, unless the draft up the chimney pulls the smell away.
We're watching Fortitude, a British mini-series that, so far, feels like a cross between Twin Peaks and The Thing. It briefly featured Christopher Eccleston.
Day before yesterday, I managed more pages on the screenplay. Today, I have to go back to work on "The Aubergine Alphabet," as Part Two will be appearing in Sirenia Digest #110.
From Facebook (yesterday, 10:22 a.m.): "Watching a rafter of turkeys stalk across the snow, the crows, and an assortment of smaller passerine birds (chickadees, nuthatches, juncos, and titmice) coming for the feed we put atop the woodshed, I am reminded that while we may think of the Cenozoic as the "Age of Mammals" one lineage of dinosaurs made it through the K-Pg extinction event just fine. Indeed, there are roughly *twice* as many living bird species as living mammal species. Now, back to the window."
These short paragraphs are irritating me. Here are photos from yesterday:
Okay, this is actually from Tuesday, me and Spooky finishing a jigsaw puzzle.
Yesterday was the first time we'd seen the actual roadway leading to the cabin for well over a month. It's been a white glacial path.
My Woodstock dentist's office.
Yes, it really is called Transcend Dental. This is Woodstock.
The three ominous red elephants who decorate the bathroom.
The view from Transcend Dental.
Back on the mountain, we encountered twelve or fourteen turkeys crossing the road. I'd never seen so many wild turkeys together. We waited while the filed past.
All photographs Copyright © 2015 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac
TTFN,
Aunt Beast