Extremes

Happy hour

Two weeks ago, I was sitting on a hotel patio in Tucson. The sun was out, the beer was cold, the chips were salty, and the guacamole was a true treat. I had painted my toenails a turquoise blue to match the water in the pool and the color scheme of my warm weather wardrobe. The weather was perfect: beautiful 82°F  sunshine with a light breeze weather…  sandals weather, skirt weather, sit outside for breakfast and happy hour weather.

Looking up during happy hour

I returned home to weather that was 40 degrees cooler and steadily dropping. We didn’t see temperatures above freezing for nearly a week.  My favorite gloves — the ones I use for driving and everyday wear in winter — were nowhere to be found.

But apparently the weather wasn’t quite cold enough yet for us because spending all day at a cross-country meet in freezing temperatures was on the agenda for the following weekend. The things we do for family!

SnakeMaster runs at the Nike Cross-Country Regionals

We cheered on our boy who is new to the sport, was rather overdressed for the race and failed to bring his spikes (needed for every race but especially one with these conditions).  And then we cheered on his cousin who runs several minutes faster with his team from another school. And finally we cheered on a runner from our high school who happens to be one of the fastest XC student athletes in the nation:  go, Tanner!

 

Now we are at Thanksgiving week here in the United States. Next Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent. Christmas decorations have been on display in some stores for nearly 2 months already.  My house is decorated for fall but it feels like winter outside: an inch of snow on Thursday morning and icy streets overnight most nights. The steering wheel of my minivan is frigid by the time I drive home from work. I still haven’t found my gloves, but there was a spare pair in our supply of winter gear that my husband kindly gave to me. I had those plus my mittens, hat and scarf with me in Idaho at the NXR. And then I somehow lost my keys when we were leaving the race site. We’re waiting on the new key fob but at least I can unlock the door and drive my minivan. As long as the locks don’t freeze, I’m okay.

This evening  — if evening can possibly begin at 4:00 pm — I admired the pink sunset clouds and changed into pajamas. I had been at church for more than 6 hours: setting up my craft booth, rehearsing with choir, staying for the worship service, and hanging out by my booth to answer questions during a Thanksgiving dinner… followed by packing up my booth and being semi-useful to those who were decorating the sanctuary for next week. (Okay, mostly I watched other people decorate as I rested my sore feet.)  I was out of craft fair shape; I hadn’t tried to sell my wares for an entire month.  I still need to finish putting my supplies away before packing up for a quilting day tomorrow at a friend’s house. I might have multiple crafting personalities. 

 

I hear the tapping of a computer keyboard in another room. EB is home for his Thanksgiving break. MusicMan and Rapunzel will be spending Thanksgiving with her parents, and H-J will hopefully have Thanksgiving with relatives who live near his university (his break is too short to drive the 11-hour round-trip twice within four days). I’ll soon be posting pictures and descriptions on my Etsy and facebook pages of the items I hope to sell on Small Business Saturday and into December.

What are some of the extremes and changes in your life at this time?