It’s a full 10 degrees warmer today.  But it’s dark and cloudy and a storm in moving in bringing slushy rain and snow.  Just lovely for commuting.

I am an English Major (once an English major, always an English major).  Words fascinate me.  I would have majored in linguistics if I could have thought of some way to turn that into a career way back when.

I learned two new phrases this week.  One is ‘insulin dependent diabetic’.  I’ve only had a diagnosis of diabetes since October and in no way consider myself an expert on diabetes (just on my diabetes).  I have learned that when people hear you are taking insulin, they get a little weird.  To me, it’s just another medication.  But something about the word makes folks nervous.  

It also changes the way doctors planning procedures look at you.  I am scheduled for cataract surgery on Feb 2.  I am looking forward to it and thought it was a fairly simple procedure, (compared with the retinal surgery of two and a half years ago).  Well, it turns out that as an Insulin Dependent Diabetic, I get to be scheduled early in the morning so as not to upset the blood sugar too much (good thing), the healing time might be a bit longer (not as good thing) and I don’t have a choice about the antibiotic injection in my eye (yucky thing).

They give you a paper and ask IF you want the injection and thereby avoiding 4 weeks of eyedrops (4x day).  I was going to have eyedrops anyway because of the diabetes so I said no, thank you.  Turns out, I can’t say No Thank You.  I get both.

Life just gets more and more interesting.  

The other phrase I learned is “actively passing”.  It is used by hospice folks to describe the very end stage of life.  My sister in law, who has been fighting cancer for over 15 years is actively passing.  She is one of the warmest, kindest, best people I know and it breaks my heart.  She is 56.

F’ing cancer.

I can’t end on that note so here’s a thought from Martin Luther King, jr.

“Faith is taking that first step when you cannot see the whole staircase”

I don’t think it matters what your faith is (or isn’t), just taking the first step toward something is a hopeful, positive action.  My social rehab poetry group chose “prejudice” as their subject this week.  It should be interesting to see how they interpret the word.

Have a peaceful Tuesday.

The last photo of the tree.  I am always glad to get it out of the living room after the holidays but it’s always a wrench on my heart.  I know next year’s tree will be just as beautiful but it almost feels like part of our family after living with us for a month.

How were your holidays?  We had wonderful, quiet ones here.  We spent a lot of time together in pajamas or lounge clothes, went out as little as possible and enjoyed the peaceful time.  I worked two days in the middle but even that wasn’t bad. 

We put away Christmas for another year this past weekend.  It takes most of a day to take everything down and wrap it up and pack it away in one of 6 large containers.  Then the tree gets 2 containers of its own, plus one for the lights.  But when all is finished, and the things are put back where they belong and things get dusted and vacuumed, it feels like home again.  I thought we were late this year but I read in the Christmas Book that we did this on the 15th last year so we’re right on schedule.  Did I ever tell you about the Christmas Book?  I started it when Peter Kevin and I were first married.  Each year, I write down the highlights (and comments on the world at large) of our holiday.  It’s fun to read back 35 years worth of Christmases and it reminds us of things we would have forgotten.  Each of the girls has one so that they can start their own books.

Speaking of the girls, Kate is now seven and one half months pregnant and this baby is giving her a rough time.  He/She is very active and poor Kate feels like she has bruised insides. 

I have two interesting projects on the needles (plus about a half dozen different pairs of socks and two shawls).  These are my Lotus mittens.  I enjoy colorwork and you can’t have too many pairs of mittens.

This will be my Hurricane Throw.  The creative women at The Unique Ewe dyed up a set of skeins to match the symbol for Hurricanes that seemed to be ubiquitious there for a while.  This is the color sequence plus some white for clouds.  I found a pattern that looks like a hurricane so I think the two will look good together.

This has been a doozy of a month for us.  The dishwasher needed a new part which made the oven jealous so it decided it wanted attention, too and needed a new part which made the furnace upset so the motor died (during the coldest part of the cold spell),  Pk was able to get the motor to work long enough for us to order a new part and we spent the money to get a kerosene heater which helped keep the house warm enough so no pipes froze.  The new part came and works like a charm.  And all of this with Pk still out of work.  Stress?  Why no.  Why do you ask?

Today I see the cataract surgeon to make the final measurements to have my first cataract removed on Feb 2.  I will admit to a bit of nervousness although he has assured me that it’s “nothing” after the retinal surgery I had 2 years ago.  I just look forward to clear(er) vision.

Work is going well.  We have had a series of inspections which went well. The last one is next week.  It’s a Big one since money is involved.  We don’t want to have to give any back.......

So,that’s it in my world.  I have so much to be grateful for.  Happy Monday.