Or, why you always want some slack in your writing schedule.\u00a0\u00a0 As in,\u00a0 colder weather than we’ve had for at least 10 years, in terms of both hours below freezing and how low it goes (both plain temp and wind chill),\u00a0 in a house designed for a hot climate.\u00a0\u00a0 As in, husband sick and unable to help with the outside stuff like feeding horses, mucking out,\u00a0 helping with blanketing horses, checking outside faucets to be sure they’re dripping, chopping ice in the horse trough,\u00a0 going to the bank, feed store, and post office,\u00a0 hauling hay from the stack to the barn, hauling horse feed from the car to the barn, etc., etc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As in,\u00a0 the need to check indoor faucets as well, to keep the house pipes from freezing up.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, and connectivity issues and power outages.\u00a0 And the first signs that whatever he’s got, I might be coming down with.\u00a0 Do. Not. Want.<\/p>\n
Into every writing life some equivalent things fall, no matter where you are, what kind of house, what kind of spouse\/partner\/parent\/child\/co-worker (or lack thereof.)<\/p>\n
As of now, it’s 20 degrees F, after starting the day at 12F and making it all the way to 16 by noon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not our usual temperature range (25 and up much more common and much more easily handled.)\u00a0 Not our usual duration:\u00a0\u00a0 it’s been below freezing since before dawn yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Freezes at night but days above freezing are much more common (and easier on the pipes.\u00a0 And me.)<\/p>\n
The horses are munching on their pellets, with hay set out for them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I made it to the bank, feed store, post office.\u00a0 Four more sacks of pellets are in the car (I still have to haul them around to the barn.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I hacked a bigger hole in the ice with the axe, because as they drink the water out from under the ice, they have to reach in farther.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The old horse has his blanket on.\u00a0\u00a0 The younger horse didn’t cooperate with blanketing–it would have taken both of us–and so he’s not blanketed but appears fine.\u00a0\u00a0 The cat, the one who refuses to come in the house, is curled into her fleece-lined “cave”\u00a0 like a little bear.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I’m trying to tell myself the scratchy throat is from the cold.<\/p>\n
And anyone care to guess how much work I’ve gotten done today?\u00a0\u00a0 Yup, you guessed it.\u00a0 Zip so far.\u00a0\u00a0 But I will…eventually.\u00a0 When I’ve done the last feed of the day,\u00a0 come up with something the sick spouse will eat, and so on.\u00a0 If the power doesn’t go out for too long.<\/p>\n
Last night we got down to 12…tonight we’re supposed to get down to 13…but last night was only supposed to go to 13.\u00a0\u00a0 So we might go lower.\u00a0 Windchill is still hovering around zero.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes below, sometimes a few degrees above.\u00a0\u00a0 Tomorrow we’re supposed to get up to a balmy 26…we were actually supposed to get there today but we didn’t.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And tomorrow night, another night in the ‘teens.<\/p>\n
However–horses are OK, cat’s OK, husband will eventually get well, and I’ll either get sick-then-well or I won’t get sick (hope, hope)\u00a0 and real spring will eventually come.\u00a0 Meantime…I should put the soup on now (the pot that’s in teh fridge) and eat something hot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Or, why you always want some slack in your writing schedule.\u00a0\u00a0 As in,\u00a0 colder weather than we’ve had for at least 10 years, in terms of both hours below freezing and how low it goes (both plain temp and wind chill),\u00a0 in a house designed for a hot climate.\u00a0\u00a0 As in, husband sick and unable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1040,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions\/1040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}