January Days--White, Black, Gray, Green

The week started with snow all over the ground, and the world looked white..  Tuesday morning when Katherine’s aide called in sick, I took off for town. Even though it was daylight, my main sensation as I scanned the landscape was blackness—dark road, dark tree trunks and bare branches in the surrounding perimeter with even the many evergreens looking more black than green in that early morning light.

The next morning I drove to a morning doctor’s appointment as a follow up for blood work.  Gray-white fog  surrounded me.  It was not enough to bother driving visibility as the fog seemed to move away as I drove through it. But that day the world seemed whitish gray with the distant  trees dimmed by the film of fog. 

The last two days have been spring-like with temps in the 60s. Yesterday was sunny, but today was drizzley. As I drove in for a haircut this morning, with the snow completely melted, the green and brown grass now revealed permeated my vision.  The evergreens were green again despite the drizzle and wet highways. 

Mary Ellen was down briefly yesterday with Brian, and we enjoyed hearing about their holiday trip to Hawaii.  With their daughter a senior in high school, Mary Ellen knows what every parent feels when they realize children will soon be moving on.  So this special  family vacation was very meaningful to them, and it was good to hear how well it went after having their flight cancelled in the middle of the night after they had finally gotten to bed only an hour before.  Mary Ellen said they spent the rest of the night arranging another flight to Dallas with a different air line. When they went to bed, they had bags packed and waiting at the door  for their early morning drive to the airport. Fortunately, all details were completely organized and planned, and miraculously they made it to Dallas with a different airline and then by van over to the right airport there to catch their flight to Hawaii.

Our Christmas trees are down and put away for next year. The Christmas cards have quit coming and the mailbox holds mostly advertising pieces or periodicals. I tried a new recipe for chicken stew from a woman’s magazine—as usual making a substitute or two for ingredients not on hand.  Katherine and I really liked it, bit Gerald was less enthusiastic.  It is the right time of year to clean a closet or two and try new recipes and look forward to spring.