The nor'easter forecast for our area arrived during the night and continues as I write this at 1:30pm. Fortunately the wind gusts swirled most of the snow off our car, but the drifts in the yard are high. Our snow-blow-pro neighbor was here a while ago and cleared a lot of the snow but left without stopping for payment. I figure that he will be back once the snowstorm is over.

My head feels better today, the headache diminished despite sleeping only about four hours. I read all night and nearly finished the book I've been slow to read. I stopped at page 658 (of 814) and went to sleep around 6am. The author has a way of very gradually revealing details about the main character that piques my interest enough to keep reading. I'll be glad to finally finish it.

So far today I have done very little but rest, read, do today's jigsaw puzzle, check email, read a few blog posts, eat a couple of egg rolls and clementines and a piece of pie, take my meds and make sure Toad had taken his morning pills, and try to shape my eyebrows with a little battery-powered eyebrow shaper gizmo that I bought a few months ago but just got around to opening today, and take photos of the snow and Molly Mayhem. Toad took over keeping the woodstove fed after I went to sleep; he must have gotten up around 8am because he said there were just some embers glowing in the woodstove and I had put a new stick of firewood in before I put away the book and went  to bed.

Molly Mayhem in Toad's chair

Molly does not like her photo taken; she got up and left after I snapped this one.

My goals for today are to pay bills online, hang the washed bedding to dry in the living room, clean the birdcages, cook for the chickens, water the houseplants, make us some soup, finish washing dishes and do kitchen cleanup, change the sofa cover, vacuum, wash a load of Toad's clothes, get the recycling ready to take to the end of the driveway this evening for pickup early tomorrow morning, and start filling two large empty suitcases with out of season clothing. Pretty much in this order. I'm tired just thinking about it. It is 1:53pm and Toad is in bed, as usual. I'm going to gather the bills to pay and start on that task. Je me suis décidée.

It's 3:01pm and I had to sit down, gasping for air. I haven't yet found where I stashed the bills to pay--they aren't in the usual spot, dammit. But I did cook for the chickens (Toad is taking it out to them now) and pick up some odds and ends that were out of place and put them away, move a stack of art books close to where I want them, and strip the sofa cover and take it and some of Toad's dirty clothes to the bathroom/laundry room. It is still snowing heavily--big beautiful white flakes, the kind you hope to see at Christmas but not in mid-March.

While I rest and catch my breath I'll practice French for a while. I see that the bastards have four units on my French tree for me to return to gold: Verbs: Compound Past and Compound Past 2, Abstract Objects 3, and  Weights and Measures. I do need the practice, as I rarely can complete an exercise without making a mistake. C'est la vie.

4:32pm  I did practice French but just did one Strengthen Skills exercise and return Verb: Compound Past to gold, but then nature called, and then I did two other things: hung washed bedding in living room to dry and paid the utility and credit card bills online to keep them from becoming overdue. I had to look up my electricity bill online because I couldn't find the paper bill, but that's okay. I checked our bank balances and recorded them and the bill payments. Now it's on to the laundry and birdcage cleaning. Sigh. Both finished at 5:16pm, along with feeding the cats again and cleaning their dishes, feeding the dog, and adding water to the empty kettle on the woodstove. Sigh of relief.

8:34pm now and I did get the dishes all washed and the counter and range top cleaned and I cooked us some scrambled eggs with toast and 100% fruit jelly. I made Toad a French Vanilla cappuccino but passed on it myself. My brother's youngest daughter called from the hospice center so that I could speak a few words to my dad, who is being heavily sedated and still struggling to breathe as his lugs fill with fluid due to his congestive heart failure. She put me on speaker phone and I talked but it was awful; all he could do was make grunting sounds as he gasped for air. I told him that B (Mom) will be happy to see him soon, hoping to give him a bit of comfort.

I was turning on Skype to call my daughter when she rang me to ask if I had spoken to my dad. We were both crying. Bro's gf had called her so that she could talk to him but D said it was hard to hear due to someone beeping in constantly on her phone, probably her cousin, Bro's daughter, who had called me afterwards. D was upset, but I told her that even if she couldn't hear he wasn't able to speak and he could hear her. We chatted for a short while about the boys until she had to go. D and my SIL had taken the  boys to a museum today and they had had a good time but they were on their way home and everyone was worn out. Afterwards I diddled about on FB, messaging a couple of people about my dad's status and reading and sharing posts. Toad is in bed, as usual, but will have to get up to take his meds and remove his nitro patch soon.

Il dort les deux tiers du temps.

9:43pm Just finished the fourth unit on my French tree that needed to be strengthened back to gold. The wind is howling outside. Toad is still in bed. Time to get him up. I've called him and he is getting up now. Done.

10:40pm and I am wrapping up this post and then going to bed to read after I put the clean cover on the sofa.

Bonne nuit.

Thanks Be For: My headache and neck ache (neckache?) diminishing

I'm Reading:  A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara

French Lesson Sentence(s) of the Day:

• Elle a arrêté sa carrière.   She has ended her career.
• Je me suis décidée.  I have made up my mind.
• Je ne m'en suis pas souvenu.  I did not remember it.
• L'horloge s'est arrêtée.  The clock has stopped.
•  Il a conçu la voiture.  He has designed the car.
•  Dommage !  What a pity! 
•  Je n'ai pas beaucoup d'options.  I do not have a lot of options.
•  Il dort les deux tiers du temps.  He sleeps two-thirds of the time.
•  Il a pris du poids.  He has gained weight.
•  Je perds du poids.  I am losing weight.
•  Ma cave contient trois mètres cubes de bois de chauffage.  My cellar contains three cubic meters of firewood.

Photo(s)/Capture(s) of the Day:

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle

Today's Jigsaw Puzzle Completed; I love the colors!

Weather Forecast in degrees Celsius

Weather Forecast in degrees Fahrenheit

What we woke up to this morning--lots more snow!

Getting paths cleared to chicken coop and woodshed once again.

Our snow-blow-pro at work

Snow falling again even as the snow-blow-pro is finishing our driveway