Cold Wind

Up at 1:30 to stoke the fire and I know it's cold because my moccasins stick to the porch planks. At least the footing is good and I don't have to worry about falling. Bathrobe over merino wool sweater and long-johns and Linda's hat, still my breath catches. No new snow, though, and my plan for later looks good, drive in with wood and water, some treats to ameliorate the harsh weather, maybe a bar of chocolate. Survival isn't really an issue, but it's damned uncomfortable, the high plains in winter, a sod shack, burning cow chips. High in the art of suffering I have little patience with anyone else and their various complaints. It's a blessing that I live alone, not responsible for any other, because I'd have to listen to their bitching about why we couldn't keep the house warmer. Listen: driving by the wood dump, where they pile wood chips toward mulch, on the way home today, I was thinking, I could live there. It was smoking in the cold, generating heat, and I could burrow a hole and wrap myself in a space blanket. Cold wind and snow. You could hardly ask anyone to join you there, you'd be alone, but probably survive. My lonesome grave. Whiskey has wrecked my body, but it makes no difference. The sun don't shine any more. The rain falls down around my door. What a pale cold moon. Human kindness overflowing, I think it's going to snow today. The winds of change, Willie Nelson, the water six feet high. I'm as happy as a man can be, sail away. Come on up to the house. Got back to sleep around 3:30, then back up for good at 6:30. Forecast says snow, but not until after midnight, not supposed to get above freezing for 4 or 5 days, very cold. Driveway is frozen hard so I walk down and drive up with Mackletree firewood, 5 pieces 30 inches long 12 in diameter, off-load them about 50 yards from the house because of the puddles. I have issues with the puddles and if I broke them up now they'd freeze into a jagged mess, a danger to tire sidewalls. Drive back down, stop on Mackletree and get 6 more pieces of wood, go work at the museum for a few hours, sanding the patches, knock off after lunch and do a large shop at Kroger, pick up my gallon jugs (Green Tea gallon jugs are the absolute best and strongest, I fill them, for 39 cents a gallon, at Kroger, osmose filtered) of drinking water, head home. Less than twenty degrees and overcast, the driveway is solid, back in to where I dumped the other wood. Two trips with groceries, four trips with water, then 11 trips with firewood, take the truck back down, walk back up, roll a celebratory smoke. Restocked but forgot the bar of chocolate. Cut and split some dry oak beam ends I had under the house, great wood to have for really cold weather because they peg the stove quickly. I'm set, I think. Hope to get out again tomorrow so I can help D cover various openings and cases with plastic, as the inside repair we farmed out, water damage, the drainage issue, is supposed to start Tuesday morning. Someone screwed up and got tomatoes on Pegi's Subway, she's allergic, so I have that for dinner, macaroni salad, and an avocado with a few drops of pumpkin seed oil (great stuff) while reading the new Elmore Leonard. Giddy with accomplishment. Like I said, a resupply like this is a random window, I might not be able to drive in for another three weeks; not that is would be a disaster if I couldn't resupply, but I drove in 120+ pounds of stuff, every pound of which I didn't have to carry up the hill. Now I can carry in just a small pack for several weeks, and my menu planning is done. I'm what you might call front-end loaded on breakfasts. I should generate enough bacon fat, during this next cold spell, to see me through the winter; and enough ingredients to make several casseroles. Solid winter fare. Ricked the new firewood under the shed and I'll cut and split it next chance I get, probably bring it all in the house, rick it up under the stairs and in front of the patio doors, because it's frozen and there's a lot of surface moisture. I need the moisture in the house. The bark and sap-wood are mostly gone but it will still be a mess, firewood is messy, but for the million or so BTU's, I'll sweep up after myself. Temps are plunging, it'll be close to zero tonight. I'm dressed oddly, but I'm comfortable in my skin. The world as I know it. Tammy, at work, was matchmaking, wanted to set me up with someone, and I thought about it briefly, but I couldn't live with someone, now, I've forgotten how to compromise. Relationships are all about compromise, and I'm not putting that down, I'd love to sleep with another warm body, but I can't, because our agendas don't mesh; I get up to pee or stoke the fire, maybe get another drink and roll a smoke. My world. Which I struggle to maintain. What I accept you probably wouldn't, inside the house maybe the low forties, the high thirties, you have a thrermostat, right, can adjust the heat. I build fires as a matter of course.