It seems I always get just a bit antagonistic this time of year. I start ranting at the arrival of cold weather, short days, and the need to scrape frost/ice/snow off my car in the mornings before I can go anywhere. And on top of that, it also means, I have to start bundling up so I won't freeze once outside my cozy house.

I had begun checking the view of my windshield every morning, just in case I needed to get out and kick start the car to avoid the above mentioned scraping. There was no creeping up on the first frost this year. Usually you have a day when you walk out the door and find your breath hanging in a little puffy cloud right in front of your nose. That didn't happen this year, I peeked out the window and there sat my car, covered in a thin candy shell of ice.

As the cold air sets in chilling my bones, so also sets in the night. Here we luxuriate all summer in long idle days and evenings that stretch until 10pm. Now the days are quickly shortening up. It is dark a little after 7 and no longer am I blinded by the rising sun on my way to work... it is just getting to the graying up a bit phase. Of course, when daylight savings time ends we get a small reprieve but it only seems like about a week and it is dark in the evenings. We have a time during the middle of winter when I go to work in the gray of dawn at 8am and come home in the dark at 5. Wait! just a minute.... i don't work until 5 this year. I don't care. I'm going to rant anyway.

My sister has begun planning their departure for Florida with great encouragment for us to join them where it's warm all winter. But if I went, what would I complain about, balmy air, soft breezes, oceansurf, rain showers instead of blizzards... I don't know if I can adjust to complaining about those things. Maybe I should just stay here.

Besides, with all my bitching, there is that wonderful day when you peek out the window and the world has turned into a crystaline wonderland of snowy beauty. I hate snow... but I love it. I love ice crystals dangling from my eaves, I love curling up under quilts with a good book, snuggling down to watch a familiar movie with my cocoa steaming between my hands. Where else but here. I guess I need to just suck it up, admit I'd hate to live anywhere there is no change of seasons; the wonder of fall, the dread cold of winter, the hope of spring and the radiance of summer. Yeah, here is a good place to just be.

funnin' up the chaufferin'

So, what happened is... one day my mom's car came to a time when it was beyond repair. She had it towed to the garage and the mechanic recommended that they shoot it and put it out of its misery. Good plan, I think. Mom at 90 only used the car to drive the few blocks to the store a couple times a week, go to the bank, church... just a little bit of here and there. When she needed to drive out of town, my sister or I took her. Mom drivin' on the highway, not a good idea.

She had been wonderin' when she should just quit driving altogether. She thought maybe when her drivers license expired that would be a good time to just hang up her car keys. Well, it looked like the time had finally arrived. I began driving mom about and trying to see that she had the things she needed... and making routine trips to the grocery store and over to K-Mart... fun places like that. You know!

But Mom just didn't like the inconvenience. If she wanted to go to the store she had to wait for someone to take her. So she began thinking about buying another car. We began car shopping. Wheeeee! Now Mom put about 20 miles a week on her vehicle... so as you can see, she needed something that could handle all that drivin'. We asked around for cars but didn't want her to get stuck with a lemon.

My brother Royce told her she should just quit looking and get a new car. That way "you won't be paying for someone else's problems." So, Mom decided she'd take his advice and last week she bought herself a brand spankin' new 2005 Ford Focus. Uh-huh! That's right!



Is that not the coolest 90 year old lady you've ever seen sportin' a brand new car?

The first time Mom took the car out for a spin, She asked me to follow her... old habits die hard. She was a bit afraid that when she backed the new car out of her garage the automatic door was going to close right in the middle of it. I backed out in the street and watched to make sure she didn't get impaled in her new car under the garage door. After she got the car out into the street, after a bit of struggling here and there... I could see she was trying to find stuff, she finally got the car turned around and headed up the street... right up the wrong side of the street that is. But adjusted things and soon was driving as she always did, right down the middle of the street. She arrived at my house with no serious accidents happening to her. She climbed out of her car and looked at me and said "I have to adjust these mirrors. I can't see where I'm at when I'm driving!" Well, yeah... OK... I understand. I think. We got the mirrors adjusted and she was feeling pretty confident, so she drove back home without me following her.

Well come Friday, I took Mom to town, only this time we drove her car instead of mine. Yeah, I got a bit aggravated trying to get the mirrors and seat adjusted just right, but soon I got myself fit in behind the wheel... and off we went. Now, when Mom needs to go anyplace we driver her car! It puts a happy spin on chaufferin'. I'll have to find more places for her to go. Today, Mom realized she had put over 100 miles on the car. (Actually she notes the mileage every time we go about a block... I don't know how long that will last.) I told her we needed to celebrate. Looks like we're getting that new car broken in just fine.

wonderfully splendifferous

It was a tradition. Saturday mornings - pancakes for breakfast. And if I do say so myself, I make a mighty fine pancake. But life dealt me a joker in the genes department and as I matured I learned I had low blood sugar.

I could still have pancakes for breakfast, and did. But never topped with scrumptiously delicious maple syrup dribbling down the sides. I had learned from my father to poke holes into the pancake so that as the syrup cascaded over and downwards it soaked into the soft texture making a buttery gooey delight that was beyond description. hmmmm.... pancakes soaking up all that maple syrup goodness.

Yeah, well! no more, baby. When I made pancakes I put cinnamon and artificial sweetner into the batter before cooking up the last couple then sandwiched an over easy egg in the middle (mmmm protein). Somehow it wasn't the same and pancakes lost their allure for me.

It is hard to define the flavor one gets when eating sugar free items. There's all kinds of goodies in the diabetic section of the grocery store. There's candy, ice cream, cookies... a whole half an isle... man that's a lot of crap. And the taste. Let me tell you what it tastes like... oh yeah, it tastes exactly like what it is a lot of crap. I did adjust to it... I now prefer diet coke to the original, i really like naturally sweet apple pie... with completely no sugar. But pouring that sugar free stuff into pancakes and telling yourself it tastes good... is feeding yourself a lie.

But then! whoooeeeeee!!! Splenda! Not to get all commercialized on you... but Splenda is actually sugar free sugar. Yeah, that makes no sense. But it's true. Isn't that just wonderfully splendafferous! Why YES it is!

Then I found the neatest thing. Sugar Free syrup made with Splenda! Wow! With a great deal of apprehension I bought that stuff then gave it a test run. The first time I used it very sparingly. I knew I was going to get sick. This was just too good to be true. But I did not get sick. I did not hate the taste. It was quite yummy in fact. So the next time, I poured on a little more. whoooppppeeee! I actually can drown my pancakes in syrup, punch holes in them and let all that syrupy goodness turn into a most delectable goo!

I shall forever love the creators of Splenda! Hmmmm Good.

Now, I wonder if they can make wine that doesn't make me high after two swallows...