Snow, more snow, permanent snow, snow to come

The story of our lives in New England is summed up above. Every couple of days, we have a snowstorm, some small, some large, some huge. in between, it’s bitter cold. When I moved to Cape Cod forty years ago, some people told me it never snowed here. Indeed, my first winter it didn’t. But whether or not that was true in the past, and historical records indicate it never was, it surely isn’t now. Last year and this year, we have record snows and near record cold. It’s hard for me to leave the house and make the treacherous hike downhill to the truck, but I do it. We went to Hyannis this week for Whole Foods – which I call Part Foods because the new Hyannis store has far less than I’d like. It’s rather small and the produce department is weaker than I’d expect. But it’s better than not having it. Woody needed some hardware and tool supplies and we desperately needed more catfood. It was a treat to get out of the house. The snow is so deep that most of our land is unreachable including the greenhouse and the sheds. Today we’re going to see The Tales of Hoffman at W.H.A.T. I’m fond of that opera and look forward to enjoying it. Going out at night, however, it still a problem because it’s hard to see the ice on the ground while navigating the narrow corridor Woody has created between the walls of hardened snow. Kitty litter is our friend. He spreads it after he shovels. As our huge rescue cat Xena gets more mature, she is becoming far more affectionate with me. She has always been affectionate with Mingus and tries to be with Puck and Sugar Ray and has worshipped Woody since the moment she saw him and crawled into his arms, a tiny skinny kitten. But lately she is far more interested in me. I woke this morning with a weight on me. My dream before waking consisted of having a mattress fall on my chest. It was Xena lying looking into my eyes and touching me gently with an extended paw. This is the second morning in a row this has happened. Woody rises before me most days and she has already gotten her fill or almost from him. But coming to me then is a new habit. After two years of being largely sedentary due to my knees, I am now attempting to build up my strength and stamina. I know it’s going to be a slow process, but I’m committed. I really need to get fit again. My knees deteriorated after the gym accident a bit at a time until the last few years, I could barely walk and toward the end, had trouble hobbling. About six weeks after the first operation, I began to get functional again. The second operation set me back but now I’m able to do things I haven’t been able to for two or three years. I want to keep pushing, but the damned weather slows me down. I can’t really do much walking, nor can scarcely anyone else around here. And now they say snow is coming today, it will snow tomorrow, and then Monday it will really let loose. But I can exercise, including resuming a weight program. I’ve always enjoyed light weight training. My chiro says one of the reasons I can already do so many things other clients cannot is because I have good upper body strength. That helps in a lot of daily activities. She says few women do the upper body exercises that give them that strength.I’m glad to be able to use weights again. My friend and assistant Melenie has gone to McDowell up in New Hampshire for her residency, to work on her memoir. She won’t be back here until March 9^th. in the meantime, my friend Dale is going to try to help me. He came by Wednesday to be shown by Melenie where the most important files and supplies are kept and how she organizing her computer – always a mystery to me. I don’t know if he’ll be able to get here tomorrow. He lives relatively close, but with the amount of snow we’re getting, it can feels like ten miles of hard driving.