It takes a while, to get used to the cold, dark, and wind. In a month or so, it will get colder. Then the temperatures in the low 30s will seem warm. I’ve been through this before and suspect that I’ll be through it again.

I woke up, looked out the window, saw a carpet of snow on the ground, and put my pillow over my head. Pete’s first words to me were, “if you have the time, could you harvest the carrots?” I was taken aback because I wasn’t even awake.

Tomatoes are ripening

I immediately got up, got dressed, went outside and first took care of all the animals. I then went and grabbed a pitchfork, went into the lower garden, and began unearthing the carrots, putting them in buckets. I was surprised because while the bed surface was frozen, it was less so underneath.

Pete came down and supervised for a bit, then went back up to the cabin and (upon my request) milked Swampy. His last name, Praetorius, means keeper of the gates – this may be why he always secures gates, doors, and car doors before going anywhere. This time, he secured the greenhouse door (it has a wooden latch) leaving me inside the garden.

I could not get out via the garden. The gate closest to the greenhouse is wobbly, and the other gate has two latches that are fastened together. So I yelled and whistled, well knowing that by now, Pete was inside, making breakfast and listening to the radio.

I was wearing my rubber boots, which are uninsulated. I was lucky in that I was wearing my gloves and a few layers of clothing. Finally, Pete came down and let me out of the greenhouse.

All this, and I wasn’t even awake.

When finally, I awoke, I was off to the dentist, for an 11:30 a.m. appointment. At least this was the time I had been told to be there. The woman at the desk finally told me that my appointment was at noon. Jen, the hygienist finally appeared at 12:15 p.m. I knew then that I’d be late in getting to the Meeting House where an assistant was to help me clean books.

The news on the dental front wasn’t good. I am going to have to have a front bridge replaced – it is going to go back quite a ways and include the space where I was supposed to have an implant. I was told that this is going to have to be done soon – I am going to wait until after having a CT scan, which will be done on Friday.

The hardest part of all in dealing with this is that I have to be proactive and deal with my self-administrativa. This means making sure that I connect with health care providers (hard, in this, a fourth world country), and that I do so in a timely fashion.

The upside to all this is that winter is a good time to have all this done.

Next: 281. 10/13/22: Escapees: A Conversation with Tyra