MountainGoat of Sleet

A few ups and downs over the last couple of days. I had a nice birthday on Thursday. Quiet, but nice. It started off with a hearty bout of shoveling, so the Sparrowhawk could get the car out to go to his long-delayed speech therapy appointment. We said hello to Irish, who was snowblowing so he could go to work. He kindly did our sidewalk too. Three or four inches had fallen in the night. It was crystalline white, fluffy and sparkly. When Deb wished me a happy birthday, I told her I was on my way out to shovel, and she prayed that angels would assist. They just may have. This was the kind of snow that angels would enjoy, and it was light enough that their wings might waft it aside. When I came back inside, the satellite radio was playing "The Lark Ascending," a lovely piece for a snowy birthday.

When the Sparrowhawk returned--speaking in a much louder and more enthusiastic voice--we went to the downtown market to get lunch. The streets were knee-deep in slush and slippery stuff, and it was quite a project just to get into the parking lot. The place he had planned to take me disappointed--changed their menu, fun things not available--so we ended up getting steak sandwiches from the place next to the fish shop, while waiting for our walleye to take home for dinner. We enjoyed browsing around the tea and spice shop next door. At home, there was tea and poetry (he gave me the Everyman's Library edition of the complete works of George Herbert, which I love) and little cakes, before a group Zoom with all the kids that was one of the highlights of the day. We even got a brief glimpse of the Philosopher and family, before they decided that Aquinas needed to be taken away and given his supper. Aquinas looks much healthier and happier than the last time we saw him, and the Lovely Friend is beautiful as always, but the Philosopher still looks pale and tired, and he says he thinks he and Lovely Friend may have sinus infections. They all sang me the Birthday Song before leaving.

The Day After was a bit of a letdown, for the Sparrowhawk kind of crashed with a Parkinson's-related issue that shall not be described, but which caused a lot of discomfort, worry, and fatigue. The city plow, absent for weeks while everyone got used to driving around in a skating rink, finally arrived, just in time to plow us all in and put "abandon hope" signs at the end of every driveway. I had to go out and apply the iron shovel to the cobbled chunks of frosted crap so I could drive out and bring home various otc meds for the Sparrowhawk. I couldn't do any cleaning upstairs because he was needing to take naps at intervals, and I couldn't do much downstairs because I didn't want to be noisy.

This morning took a turn for the better, with a decent night's sleep for the Sparrowhawk, and some sunshine in the morning. We got plowed in again, but not so much, and I didn't bother to shovel it again, because the temperature is supposed to go above freezing for a couple of days, and I hope it will just melt. The Sparrowhawk was feeling better, and did some vacuuming while I changed and washed the sheets and a load of clothes, and we sent off Tron's birthday card. A package arrived from the Nonesuch, containing two pounds of his famous nanaimo bars! He experiments every year with different flavors. This year's box of delights contains peppermint, maple, peanut butter marshmallow, raspberry dark chocolate, orange milk chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, raspberry milk chocolate, chocolate marshmallow, and orange dark chocolate. All I need is about six hungry friends to share it with! The Sparrowhawk and I made it to church, and then ate leftovers for dinner: parts of our steak sandwiches, plus spicy beans with lettuce, avocado, tomato, salsa, rice, and yellow squash/zucchini sauteed with mushrooms. And then the women's national championship figure skating long program. Here's to better days.