Wednesday

I woke up with the alarm on Wednesday. I jumped up and checked outside. I’d guess I had about four inches of snow on the front porch railing. But, when I went to get some coffee and looked out the kitchen window, I saw that the “lake” was forming again out back and it looked like it was raining.

I turned on the TV and there was no rain, but it was 36 degrees F. in Detroit (my outside thermometer said 40 degrees here). So, I guessed it was the heavy snow on the evergreen branches melting; dripping into the standing water and imitating rain.

I easily drove out of the driveway and up onto the slushy street. I took Plymouth Road into work, not wanting to trust the expressway drivers. The only problem I had was with the heavy fog (they said on the weather it was a result of the cold snow and the warm temperature). You couldn’t see the traffic lights until you were almost upon them. But, I had left early and got to work 25 minutes early.

[Sidebar: I was REALLY looking forward to having a snow day. I even had planned  just what I would do. But, no dice, dammit!]

I took my morning walk outside as they had plowed the parking lot and, other than the occasional patches of snow, it was just wet.

Inside again, I had a treat. Vicky and her mother had made meat pies and she brought two kinds in for us to sample. One was called Rellenos de papa and was seasoned ground meat with semi-mashed potatoes, covered with dough and deep-fried. The other was Alcapurria which was just seasoned meat covered with mashed plantains and also deep fried. They are about the size of Carla’s clenched fist (although I get a little scared when Carla clenches her fists, come to think of it) but you get the idea.

Both were excellent, but I preferred the Alcapurria. Vicky did say that they taste much, much better when they are first deep-fried, rather than warmed up in the microwave. Luckily, she had two left along with the Puerto Rican rice you are supposed to eat this on top of and she asked me if I wanted to take it home for dinner. Hell, yes!

Still embracing eating different culture’s food, I went to the Newburgh Grill for lunch and had a gyro with a mini-Greek salad. Both were good, but together it meant I ate like a whole raw onion and I reeked of it!

I still had 25 minutes of “lunchtime” left, so I drove down Hines Park west of Newburgh for 10 minutes and then turned around. There were a few hardy joggers, ice fishermen out on the lake, fishing through a hole, some people walking their dogs, an open spot in the lake further on (beware, ice fishermen!) that ducks and white swans were swimming in and, finally, a family of four sledding down a hill. I wished I had taken my camera (but I always think that).

It wasn’t until I got back to work and was describing my adventures that I realized I had a camera in my phone! Duh!

It began to softly snow about 3:00 PM here. But, by the time I left work at 5:00, I had to use the wipers. My biggest fear then was all the standing water from yesterday, as it was supposed to dip below freezing tonight.

Safe and snug in my house, I changed clothes and began the Wednesday Night Wash. I expanded the usual one load of work clothes to two, so I could include all the bedding, thanks to one of the cats with a hairball.

I watched the news on the stripped bed until it ended at 7:00 PM. Then I reheated my two Alcapurria and the rice with the pigeon peas and ate a nice dinner. I checked out a gardener's magazine that came in the mail and then went back to the TV (remaking the bed and then folding and hanging up the second load of laundry during that period) until about 10:00 PM, when I shut everything down and went to bed.