Sunrise, December 30th

From my bedroom window.

Snow and Travel

The snow is almost, about, nearly gone. In the hollows and in shaded places it continues to stick stubbornly but in most places it is vanished.

Spring? Maybe!

Meanwhile, I scribble like crazy. Also, I prepare to go to MO for a visit. I'd planned to go anyway but my mother needs circulation restored to her diabetic foot in an attempt to save it from amputation so I will take her in for that procedure in 48 hours. My brother who lives with her has run out of vacation time due to his own accident at Christmastime, so they are very happy I can take her.

I'll leave in a couple of hours. There is lots to post about but it seems to all go into my journal versus here. I will stay in Sioux City IA this evening and get to my hometown of Sedalia MO by around 3 in the afternoon tomorrow. My brother will cook up some fish for dinner tomorrow night.

I liken Mom's situation to what would happen if one never did oil changes on one's car--it falls apart, as does the human body if it is neglected. One ignores diabetes at one's great peril.

My family covets your prayers.

Palm Sunday

was spent at the Church of the Kitchen Table with Morning Prayer led by Deacon MacBook. With over a foot of new snow on the ground with pretty stout drifts and an unplowed road, worship at my usual place was out of the question. The 8 am service was cancelled last evening, and around 23 or so showed up for the 10 am Eucharist.

A bit of a twist was added to the drama--our rector was out of town with her youngest son doing college visits, and my former rector was scheduled to be the supply priest. However, he flipped his tractor clearing Monday's snow and broke his arm. He still managed to get to church today to preside at the 10 am Eucharist. One of the two deacons got there as well.

Taciturn spent over 3.5 hours digging out our driveway. The county snowplow did not come until 2 this afternoon.
Try to get into my front door!

No Container Gardening Class Today

Due to this.

These are some of my neighbors trying to get an early start on clearing the foot of snow we are predicted to get today.

Hopefully we will be able to snake down the canyon into town for Palm Sunday service tomorrow am. I am acolyting and T is reading the part of Judas in the Passion narrative. But we've noticed that the county is not as prompt in clearing roads on weekends as they are during the week. We'll see.

Many blogs are discussing the tragedy in Binghamton NY yesterday. I add my prayers to the growing chorus.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Wednesday, after another blizzard and before the next

Can you tell I am tired of continuous snow?

Monday into Tuesday we got at least a foot of snow at our house. The back deck was impressive with the snow piled up 1.5 feet and drifting up past the window sills. Taciturn dug out the driveway, the front porch and to the back door on the deck for a total of three hours yesterday afternoon.

Another storm is headed our way on Friday. My much anticipated Container Gardening class (only way I can garden; I live on an acre lot but it is on an 8% grade with herds of deer tramping through almost continuously) was scheduled for this Saturday. It has been postponed until May 2nd. Grumble.

Saturday T and I went to the Black Hills Builders Home Show. In the past, we've always enjoyed this show but this year it was like, "Ok, let's go simply because we go every year." We ran into every person we never wanted to run into again. Especially I ran into a former friend and her husband.

This is one of two people who are officially "former friends." The other one joined a Willow Creek based church and became viciously anti-everything; I called her on it and she said we could no longer be friends, and oh btw I must not be a Christian. I'm just glad she isn't God. The woman I saw Saturday is the only friend I have ever felt like I was divorcing. It happened when the blinders came off and I saw that she just needed someone to boss around and I was that person. We really had little in common. I realized those two things when she and her husband, temporarily homeless through circumstance, came to stay with me when T was stationed in Korea. Oh, btw, her husband had at one time been T's boss.

Suddenly they were my parents and I was the teenaged daughter. They didn't like how my furniture was arranged so they re-did it. They would watch my only TV and invite me to watch it with them. They screened my phone calls. They terrorized my elderly cat. They portioned out my food as they thought I ate too much (I lost a good bit of weight while they were with me, and they said it was due to them teaching me how to eat properly). And she criticized my going to church. I was too educated to believe in air.

There were other things too. After three months (one of which I was in Korea with T), I came home from an errand to find some more stuff rearranged. I said that I preferred it the regular way. My friend drew herself to her full height and asked, "May I ask why?"

"Because this is my house and that is how I like it," I snapped.

She jerked back as if I'd slapped her. "Well!" she said. I heard her a couple of days later on the phone telling someone that she was still awaiting her apology.

My thought was that if she wanted me to apologize for wanting things my way in my house, she would be waiting a very, very long time.

They moved out into the house of another friend that weekend.

And that was that. And that was four years ago.

You must understand that I loved this friend so much that I was unsure that I had done the right thing. I even went to my priest to talk to him about it. He had heard me complain about her for months; he was astonished that I needed to ask! I don't remember exactly what he said but it was on the order of "What took you so long?"

I was incredibly angry and told everyone I knew all that she had done to me. Sounds like what people do when they are divorcing, doesn't it? I regret that I had spread the news, so to speak. But I did. Then we moved away to Washington DC.

Fast forward to Saturday. The guys, who had been friends themselves (I thought), were chatting like crazy (my biggest regret of all of this was that the guys had to side with their wives). As she and I chatted, I mentioned in the course of something else I wanted to tell her that I had been to seminary for a year--her smile turned brittle and she cut me off. The goal of what I was saying was not to brag about being to seminary but to tell her about a serendipitous thing involving one of my seminary pals. But she heard "seminary" and that was all, for her.

The guys exchanged phone numbers. But I bet we don't hear from them. T said later that he never thought of my friend's husband as his friend; he was his boss, nothing more. So they won't hear from us, either.

Sometimes things really suck, don't they?

Winter wonderland

We have not entertained in our house since we moved back to the Black Hills. I hate that we have this big house with amazing views and do not share it, so I had my friends DB and PB over for a bit of lunch today. Nothing fancy, just some bread, cheese, wine and homemade soup, with coffee and homemade applesauce for dessert. It was just great to have my friends over to my home.

While we were eating, the light snow that had started got thicker and thicker and by the time they left, close to 3 inches had fallen! It is just beautiful out now. Here is the view from the upper bedroom.

We also noted a ten point buck who ambled out of the woods into our clearing, probably in search of a little lunch himself. For some reason, though, the photo I took of him doesn't post. Trust me, he's great. Beautiful day.