We woke up to the white stuff today, and lots of it. Even though I don’t think there was actually that much, what there was seemed to have been blown into our yard, along our streets and all over our cars. But when I went outside to scrape, I discovered it was all white fluffy fluffness, easily brushed off. The roads, on the other hand, were not so fun. We narrowly missed being trapped in our neighborhood by a bus that couldn’t make an uphill turn and then WERE trapped by another bus that couldn’t make the turn in our tiny traffic circle. He finally slid to the side far enough for us to go around. Ice everywhere underneath, and frozen snow snakes all the way to Gårdstånga. Just before we got to the highway, where I could see long ropes of red taillights heading up the hill to Lund, there was a truck, also slid, blocking traffic. We managed to get around him and made it up the hill at a steady pace. We actually got to work only about 5 minutes after we would have with no snow, but people coming from parts southerly were stuck in snow chaos traffic for ages. It was a bit strange that it was only my daughter and myself at work for over an hour!
Work is already insane and it’s only the second week of January. I don’t want to talk about it.
It was snowing again during mid-morning but by lunch the sun had come out and the snow had stopped and what there was seemed to mostly disappear. Not sure if was blown away or melted, because when we left at 4, it was FREEZING out. It sure looks pretty, even if it’s a pain to drive in. And since we had only a dusting of snow in Michigan over Christmas (while they had a white one here), I’m glad to see some of it, especially after two solid days of pouring rain. I’d much rather have snow than rain. It’s so pretty and it lightens EVERYTHING up. Even if the light is slowly returning, it’s hard to tell in January.
I’ve been wiped out all week and weekend, fatigue is painful. I get so tired, I can’t see straight, and despite trying to stay up until a reasonable hour before going to bed, I still keep waking up several times at night. GAH. It can’t still be jetlag. Whatever it is, it’s a pain in the butt. I have things to do! I can’t keep taking naps or being tired all the time.
Yesterday, we met Anders’ sister and his mom at her apartment to pick up the rest of the things she wanted to move to her new room in the assisted living facility we moved her to right before Christmas. When we first moved her, it was only with the bare minimum: winter clothes, bed linens, dresser, nightstand, chair, TV, some plants, and a bookcase. But it looked and felt very unfinished. Now she has paintings and pictures up on the walls, family photos arranged on the shelves, another chair and coffee table, and lamps for her windows. Much cozier!
We also went through and cleaned out her refrigerator, freezer and pantry, and started work on figuring out what to do with all her stuff. Anders and his sister will need to decide what they want, if anything, before they let the grandkids loose. Then whatever is left over will go to charity or possibly auction (depending), or get tossed. It’s not a big apartment but it’s still a lot of stuff. It makes me come home to my own stuff and look at it with jaded eyes.
Our house is too big already and it’s full of stuff, but it’s all stuff I LOVE. It’s all stuff I have spent years accumulating and when I look around it’s hard to think about getting rid of the things I see. I regularly purge things, but still…and I can really only purge my OWN stuff. There are three other people that have stuff here, and I can’t just get rid of things that are theirs, even if a couple of them aren’t here much anymore. At some point, they won’t get a choice…out it will have to go! I did manage to fill two bags with books for the AWC book sale coming up at the end of the month. I will look again this weekend, because I know I can get rid of more. That’s one thing that struck me…what would I do without my books?? I don’t think I could live in a one-room apartment that I couldn’t fit all my books into. Perish the thought.
And now, guess what? I am tired and my eyes hurt, and I am thinking about going to bed, even though it’s not even 9 pm. All this tiredness is making me feel old. I shall go and read more of the book I am in the middle of, since I have to finish it by tomorrow night. It’s for book group on Thursday and since I have a dinner to go to on Wednesday, I’d better get cracking.
Anders is in the kitchen, chopping red onions in preparation for pickling. I bought them and asked him to make pickled red onions because they are so good with the salads I make and take to work all week long. Yum yum! And I have hearts of palm to go in, too. Tomorrow my salad will be spinach, smoked salmon, feta, hearts of palm, pickled red onions, pumpkin seeds, baby plum tomatoes and a little zucchini. Lyx!