Lowspark, brace yourself for even colder weather this week-end in Houston, possibly down to 35°. It was down to 56.6° this morning here, which I do not consider all that cold, and that's as cold as it is supposed to get for the next few days. It should be nice here this week-end. If it does get cold, I will buy some potatoes and make some soup. I plan to go to the Mar Vista farmers' market on Sunday, and there are a lot of things I hope to find there, including olives and olive oil. I have a lot of Meyer lemons on my tree here, but I brought a bunch of Eureka lemons with me from Cathedral City, and so I'll have to find room in a freezer for some of them. I also have navel oranges on my tree here, as well as apples that need to get picked. I plan to make German apple pancakes or torta di miele with some of the apples and then dehydrate the rest. Apple picking season lasts a long time here.

There have been several fun car commercials depicting this. One of my favorites featureed a woman arriving home (in a lovely, roomy, full featured car). She enters her home to find chaos and noise — large Great Dane barking, house-sized drone crashing into things, a zoned out tween daughter absorbed in her smart phone. The woman retreats to her luxury car, adjusts the climate control, reclines the seat and exhales with relief. On a bleaker note. I’ve read accounts of assaulted women, with PTSD, going out to their cars, where in privacy, they could pour their tortured hearts out to a ”listening” tape recorder. That was one of the most painfully poignant accounts I ever read about. (Few people can grasp or are willing to countenance the rage, grief and isolation of PTSD — thus the intense and desperate isolation of trauma victims experiencing this powerful psychological and emotional upheaval.

It’s been a while since we had a good snow, but basically, a couple of days before, go to the grocery store. Get whatever your normal grocery needs would be for the next few days. The day or two after the snow clears will be as busy at the stores as the day before. Get a bag of sand from the hardware or garden store, and put it in the trunk of the car. If you don’t need it for driving, you can use it on your driveway or walkway where melted ice refreezes. Shovel before the snow is done. DH disagrees, but if he wants to knock himself out, again, I know the way to the chiropractor. Shovel the base of the driveway towards the right side. Shovel some snow from the road to the left of your driveway, so that the plow doesn’t push it into your driveway. Clear space before, in front of, and beyond, your mailbox so the mail truck can get to it, and out again. Relax. Watch for drips inside, in case of ice dams.

ah, um, you know (yes, I know two words but you hear it a lot).