Friday, November 22, 2013

Whoa! A norther blew in

When I first moved to Texas I thought "norther" was some sort of a nonsensical term. And then I experienced one of those dramatic and severe drops in temperature when, sometimes, the air turns blue. I'm not sure last night brought a blue norther--too dark to tell--but it sure brought lots of thunder, lightning, and rain along with cold temperatures. This morning I braved the cold to go to the grocery store, and now with predictions of freezing rain and the like, I'm glad I did. The only other time I had to go out was to get Jacob and a pal from school across the street. (Their much anticipated play date left them both saying they were bored, so they passed the time by wrestling--though Jacob had brought cards, action figures, and all sorts of things for this occasion). I think I scored because I fed them chocolate covered donuts with sprinkles.
But now it's evening, I have a fire in the fireplace, and I don't intend to go anywhere. Probably not for the next two or three days. Church on Sunday is iffy. I have company coming for supper Sat. night and everything in the house to prepare supper, and Sunday I feel a pot of soup coming on, even if I have to eat it by myself and freeze the rest. It's cabbage soup, and I seriously considered substituting sauerkraut--there used to be an old restaurant on Fort Worth's North Side that served wonderful tomato/sauerkraut soup.
Tonight I'll work on that manuscript I'm editing and I'll watch some of the JFK tributes. I've been surprised that I've not been more interested in those than I am, but I think the memories of living through that tragic weekend, glued to the TV, are still raw enough that I don't want to see much of it again. Was he a great president? I don't think the votes are in even yet, but there's no denying he had a vision and a dream for America, and he was compassionate and charismatic--and in that sense he brought us magic. The magic died when he was shot down,  and we've never reclaimed it. In the few programs I've seen, I've been surprised by the great pain he lived with daily and the measures he took to be able to be "on" constantly when he campaigned. Maybe he took a lesson from FDR, another of my heroes.
Elsewhere on Facebook I posted that I see similarities between the dreams, vision, and compassion of JFK and President Obama. I expect to get slammed for that opinion, but I'm just not going to answer.

No comments: