Positively Freezing

For my friend F up in NY, and for my sister.... and to anyone else who doesn't believe me when I say It's freezing down here! -- Well, today it's really positively freezing here... the numbers on the thermometers have dropped down to 32 degrees.

The weather gods are being most unkind. We didn't get the sleet and freezing rain in this part of southeast Texas, but other parts of the state didn't escape the icy conditions. Hundreds of miles of I-10 in the San Antonio area had to be closed down due to the ice on the roads. Snow is supposed to be falling in the Dallas area today. Schools and businesses have either closed or limited their hours. Traffic on I-45 isn't as heavy as usual this morning because a lot of people are just keeping their cold little bodies in their warm homes.

Speaking of warm..... I went out in the cold yesterday after dinner, to get some things at Kroger. After listening to the weather reports, today was supposed to be colder than yesterday (which it is) and I didn't want to have to go out today or tomorrow. So off I went to the local Kroger. I was freezing as soon as I sat in the car in my garage.... and then a little light-bulb went off in my head. This car has heated seats! I turned on the little button for the seats, and within minutes I was sitting on heated leather. It was the warmest I had been in three days.

I drove to Kroger, sitting on those warm seats with Barry Manilow blasting on the CD player.... and I was sorry that the supermarket wasn't further away... and I even contemplated driving to a different Kroger that was a greater distance from our subdivision. But I didn't do that... no sense in tempting the somewhat-questionable weather last night. I swear, I could've driven from here to the northeast as long as those seats kept my body at such a toasty temperature. That's what we need for the house here... heated seats in the sofas and all the chairs.

I had a dental appointment yesterday, for a regular cleaning. When the hygienist was finished, the dentist came in for a look-see. I hate it when she says Oh my! when she's looking at my teeth. It seems that one of my crowns needs to be replaced... it was put in about fifteen years ago, and my gum-line has changed since then and it's getting a "teeny tiny bit of decay around it," to quote my dentist. She wants to fix the little problem before it becomes a big problem, which is one of the reasons why I like this dentist so much. Not to mention the fact that her office is the most efficient and the most nicely decorated that I've ever seen. Somehow, it helps to have pretty things to look at when you're sitting in a dentist's chair. (And a diagram of the inside of a mouth doesn't fall into the "pretty thing" category.... she doesn't have those pictures.)

So back I will go to the dentist on Monday, so she can remove this crown and do whatever has to be done underneath it. (My thanks to the inventor of Novocaine.) Then I'll have to go back in two weeks so she can put in the new crown.

On my way to the dental office yesterday, I was going to stop by the little bakery that opened up next door to the dentist. My plan was to get some cookies or cupcakes or something sweet for our neighbor ML.... I didn't want to return her soup container with nothing in it. The bakery, however, was all closed up, with the blinds closed down. I asked the girls in the dental office if she had closed for good, and they told me that the owner of the bakery took the month of January off. The baker has had shops before, and her business has always been very slow during the month of January--- she thinks it's because so many people start diets on the first of the year, with all good intentions of cutting down on sweets. So that's when she takes her vacation. She comes back on the first of February, when people have forgotten their New Year's resolutions and are ready to kick back and splurge on sweets and buy extra goodies for Valentine's Day.

There isn't another bakery close by that I cared to go to (and the Kroger bakeries don't count-- not when you know what real baked goods taste like). I came home and filled ML's plastic container with gourmet chocolates that I had put aside for our Valentine's party. I can always buy more... and better to have the chocolates in ML's house than in our house.