Early Winter Doldrums

I don't really have anything exciting in my mental file of potential blog posts, but I feel like I've been neglecting the Faithful FFFans, so let's just start writing and see what comes out.

I went shopping last week. Twice. I normally dread shopping the same way other people dread going to the dentist. Oh, wait, I did that last week, too. Twice. Sigh. It was not a banner week.

Remember this paisley silk blouse, which I bought almost a year ago in anticipation of a January wedding which then turned out to take place in April?


I got winter-white slacks to go with it, but they're miles too long, I don't sew - not even hems - and am too lazy and/or introverted to take them to a seamstress, so I've never worn this awesome blouse. But last week I got winter-white corduroys (which are not miles too long). Then I realized that my office is so cold that unless I had a sweater to wear with the outfit, I'd either still never wear the blouse, or would be found frozen at my desk. So I shopped again and found this...


...nifty red sweater blazer. I can either tuck in the blouse and wear the blazer buttoned, or leave it open and wear the blouse tunic-style with a gold chain belt. Way too nice and cute for an office filled with kitty claws and dog drool, but if I don't wear it to work I'll never wear it anywhere.

I also realized that my $5 Wal-Mart white canvas tennies were probably not suitable for a Minnesota winter, so I got...


...these tan Skechers shoes. Only I opted to put the brown laces in them. I noticed a lot of the shoes came with an optional extra pair of laces. When did they start doing that? I was half afraid I'd be detained by security for attempted shoe lace theft as I tried to leave the store.

Now, wasn't that all just thrilling? When I got the red sweater blazer on Saturday, I also decided to get the ingredients to make a pot of vegetable soup. (Reason to follow.) Since it was, in fact, Saturday, I also had to hit the liquor store... and one particular little shopping cluster in Rogers has Kohl's, SuperTarget, and a liquor store all in the same lot. The Weekend Shopping Trifecta.

I needed soup because it snowed on Saturday. On October 10. This is the earliest measurable snow in 24 years. I could've gone another 24 before breaking that particular record, because by then I'll probably be dead and won't care. It was only about an inch, but since even Minnesotans don't have their snow tires on yet, the traffic situation was a bit of a disaster, according to Tom, who had to go to work that morning.

So I came home and made soup. I don't cook, but for some reason I do make soup. Awesome soup. But I do not know how to make a small pot. I started out with a 6-quart Dutch oven, discovered it was too small, thought about panicking, then remembered I had an enormous soup kettle in the hall cupboard. You know... the kind you'd use while volunteering at a soup kitchen and needing to feed seventy-five hungry homeless people. Whew. By the time I added the peas, carrots, corn, potatoes, diced tomatoes, gnocci, green beans, onion, garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, tomato juice, etc., I had enough soup to feed a family of six for a week. We're going to be eating soup for at least a month.

I must confess that I did make a big dent in it over the weekend. Four bowls in a day isn't much, right? Even with the buttered roll that accompanied each bowl? Actually, it might have been five bowls yesterday, because it's always better re-heated the second day.

Which brings us to today. A Monday, and I'm not at work. It's not because of the Columbus Day holiday (which sort of strikes me as a strange thing to celebrate anyway)... but because my schedule is flexible, and it's snowing. Again. At last look, I had about 3" of fluffy, wet snow on the deck. The sun has just peeked out for the first time all day. Since Tom plans to get my snow tires on this week, I opted to skip the rush hour mess today... my 35 minute commute was guaranteed to be somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half. Don't need that.

I am aware that I live in Minnesota. I came here sort of on purpose. I'm not a snow-hater. I'm fine with the white stuff... in December or January. By February I'm starting to hate it. By April I start to feel a wee bit suicidal when I see snow in the forecast. I'd say I'm neutral on November snow. But we're not even to the official mid-point of October, and this is way too soon. the leaves haven't even all fallen yet. If it's going to start this snow crap already, and I know it's likely to continue to show up through April... I'm just not ready.

I've been looking at U.S. maps, pondering where would be a more suitable place to live. Right now I'm considering southern Missouri. The Ozarks. I'd get hills, rural areas, small towns, seasons (but not the extremes of Minnesota), I wouldn't be in a hurricane zone, wouldn't be in earthquake territory (as long as the New Madrid Fault behaves), be at least slightly out of Tornado Alley, and I'd be closer to a higher number of Cross Canadian Ragweed shows. If we could ever sell this house. Or it (accidentally) burns down. On a day that neither we nor the dogs happen to be home. Or if I just sell my book(s) and we can live wherever we want because I can earn money while sitting on a futon in dog-fur-covered sweats. (My Dream!)

Regarding the current weather here, the dogs are ecstatic. They love snow. But we haven't had a stretch of good freezing weather yet, so snow + Darwin's giant paws + high-velocity fence-running = sloppy, slushy bog. Not a good combination.

Looking out at my cold, wet, white yard makes me want soup. Good thing I have gallons of it. For anybody who's keeping count, this will be Bowl #3.