BIG TRUCKS, BIG SNOW

Most of this week was used up by a trip to Ohio.  We packed Tuesday morning, brought the seedlings in from the greenhouse for while we’re gone since it gets overheated during the day when the sun shines if no one is here to open the door, and it gets below freezing at night if no one is here to turn the little heater on and then turn it off in the morning.  Naomi from the library comes in to feed the cats, but we have to take care of the seedlings.  We filled up the bay window and then brought in an old long skinny table to hold the rest in the diningroom and pulled the diningroom table out of the way. We left at one, spent the night in a mediocre motel in Parsippany New Jersey. Couldn’t do farther because nothing in PA on I 80 listed itself as no smoking, so can’t stay in PA.  Got going early, arrived in Youngstown in time to check into the Holiday Inn, then drive to Alliance Ohio, for a gig at Mt. Union.   The trip across Route 80 was beautiful through the mountains. I gave a powerpoint presentation based on my novel SEX WARS and the extensive research I did for it.  Then we drove back to Youngstown.  We got stuck for 20 miles behind a salting truck with blinding rear lights going exactly 20 miles on hour on a 2 lane country road. Got up, did a class at Youngstown on women & American lit.  Very devoted teacher.  Good lively class.  Easy for me to connect with – diverse, lots of them from workingclass backgrounds.  Ate dreadful lunch with faculty.  got to rest two hours.  then dreadful supper [university food service slop I couldn’t eat] with very sweet and nice people including two rabbis.  I gave a reading and got a standing ovation.  Signed book.  I was starving but Woody, who had gone out to a steak supper in the neighborhood, had saved half a porterhouse steak for me which I devoted like a predator. I have learned that people in that area don’t know anything about food.  It is so sad.  But otherwise everyone was friendly and good people.  Even a couple of cat people.  And lots of fans of Game of thrones, both the HBO program and the George R. R. Martin books. [I always think of him as George Railroad Martin]. We set the alarm for 4:30, got out of the Holiday Inn by 5.  Woody drove 13 hours, the first four and a half of them through a blinding blizzard on unplowed highway surrounded by 400 huge trucks. It was scary, to understate it.  Our little truck was among them like a chicken in a herd of elephants. We got back at 6 pm having picking up a rotisserie chicken and lettuce to be greeted by five angry, needy cats.  When I finally got to bed, four of them piled on me.  Same this morning.  Even now two of them are trying to get me to stop typing and pet them.  It snowed over 6 inches here while we were gone, so the ground is invisible and the gardens are blanketed again. I had updated my haggadah before leaving and my assistant came back from California in time to print and collate it and print and collate the songs.  I have today to catch up on the 311 emails that came and start 240 tomato plants and finish unpacking, etc.  Tomorrow I start cooking for the seder on Monday. All the Jewish holidays are on a moon cycle and this year they are earlier than they have been since the late 1800s.  A pain, believe me. I’ll finally get to touch base with my assistant Melenie for half a day on Monday.  then I have to start getting ready for the seder for real.  Only 20 this year.  Tuesday I am just going to meditate and unwind. I have been putting in more and more each year about contemporary slavery, but this year I added a little section on hunger.