Monday, January 14, 2013

Home


Isn't one of life's little blessings to go out into the world like Toad in his motor car and then to return home?  Home, Toadie, home.  If you've never read Wind in the Willows, winter is a good time to do so.  It is a world of creature comforts and a love of home.

Tom and I taught today, dressed in layers of underwear and outerwear (the temperature is 12 degrees fahrenheit and feels like 5 degrees).  We lived in Minnesota fifteen years and so are not strangers to cold weather, much colder than 12 degrees, in fact.

Since menopause, my body is a furnace.  I actually like standing out in the frigid air in front of my building, waiting for Tom to pick me up. It was sunny.  A cold, sunny day is a fine thing.  It's the gray, polluted air that drives some of us insane.

Today was not that kind of day.  It was crisp and invigorating. We made a stop at Ikea, found a box of Hatch's hand-dipped chocolates in Tom's briefcase, that we had forgotten about, and ate three a piece sitting in the parking lot.

We drove home exhausted, rode the elevator up, unlocked the door and there it was, warm, quiet, clean and inviting: home.  The box of chocolates lie on the table, the lid next to it.  I can see the frilly brown paper spilling over the edge of the box.  There's still some chocolates left but not for long.  Home.





4 comments:

  1. Home is, indeed, a lovely thing. Thanks for the reminder (which I may have needed as I cleaned up yet another pile of legos I almost stepped on).

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  2. This makes me want to move into your home. Mine's okay. But yours, especially with its chocolates, sounds dreamy.

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  3. The dog and I walked the other day when it was -17C. It was invigorating and I was cozy wearing my comforter-like coat, my Eddie Bauer mittens, and my snowboots.

    Today the chinook blew in and the temperature went from -10C to +10 within a few hours. If you haven't seen a chinook arch especially at sunset, you are missing one of the most beautiful sights.

    I'm planning my speaker series this year. Do you and Tom want to come up here? We should talk.

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  4. Thanks for reminding me about WIND IN THE WILLOWS. For many years I would have said that was one of my favorite books. And then I kind of forgot about it. How did I forget about it?

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