Response to Weather Matters

Snow yesterday when I got up at 4:25am preparing to go to on our ward temple trip to Albuquerque. Snowing still when I got to Leslie in her 4WD truck. Snowing still when we got to Hurley and waited for the others. Snowing still--all the way--to the Hatch turnoff at Deming. The roads were snow-covered, all the way down (60 miles) and on to Hatch and on to Socorro, according to the state police. Already we were late for our 11:00 appt. Couldn't make it until maybe noon--the snow slowing the 4 1/2 hour drive. We turned back and drove the snow-covered road home. I got home about 8:00am.

My sister, who lives with me (or I with her depending on--), is always cold now. She has said to me several times--"I hate people who say, in response to me saying I'm cold, it's 76 degrees in here. Like that would make me any warmer." But we do not turn on the heat in our house, except in my mother's room. I get up every morning about 6:30, clean the ashes from the woodstove into the ash tray, take it out and dump it down the slope in the back yard, and come back in to build a new fire. 80 degrees is what my sister likes. 68 is more my style. Luckily, my room is furthest from the woodstove. And it has a door that closes.

Wind today. Sunny, blue sky this morning but cloudy now and yeah, windy. It makes the dog door flap. It makes my sister come back here and say, "Build up the fire, would you?" She can build it up herself, but it is my job, as loading the dishwasher is hers.

I remember how hot it was last summer.

I recently read through several years of my grandmother's journals. Every day's entry begins with the weather. I'm not kidding--every, single day. She moved from New Mexico to Vermont and back, and back and forth she and my grandfather went testing the weather in each place, measuring it against the other--Vermont snow and trees vs. New Mexico sun and dry air. They both died in New Mexico. I hope the weather was good the separate days they departed.