There were two preludes to this dumping: first a dusting, and then some accumulation. Today, at least a few inches of rain and snow mixed, mainly with it being snow. I remember in the past, when it snowed early on, I’d get myself a cup of tea, sit at the kitchen table, and write in my journal. Then I’d either go horseback riding or go skiing.

Today I drove in the slush to town, and first went to pick up books at a local thrift store. Then on to the hotel. There I conferred with Susan (already on site) about tomorrow’s event. After, I braved the elements again and went to the pool where I swam for half hour, after treading water, alternating doing the crawl with doing the back stroke and doing what I call the underwater crawl.

Amaryllis

I like the underwater crawl because I can move right along and am not slowed down by having to breathe. I haven’t yet, but there is going to be a day in which I inhale when I should exhale, and vice-versa. This will be ugly. And on that day the lifeguards, walking back and forth with their rescue floaty thing, are going to earn their pay.

Out of the pool, into the car, back to the hotel, where I screened eight boxes of books that someone left outside the back door. The woman who sometimes works the front desk let us know they were there.

Come 3:15 p.m. I drove over to the chiropractor’s office – he said that I am obviously doing the right thing, because even though my sacral area is sore (I say that it’s fatigued) my hip has not seized up. It did feel a few times today like this was going to happen, but both swimming and the chiro visits kept it at bay.

More work at the hotel, then went with Pete and Pam to check out an art exhibit at the college. The photographer is Harry Banks- his work spans 60 years and consists of early black and white photos and later color photos. I said to Pete that you have an exhibit at this age, and you have actual depth of field. This was not the first showing of a twenty-something year old, but rather the work of an individual who had spent years dabbling (is this the right word?) in photography.

I liked one image of a horse drinking from a trough filled with goldfish, and another of two goats in a tractor bed – the caption of the latter read, “Bucket List.”

On to Wasilla where we went to an outdoor store, ostensibly because it was Soctoberfest, a sale in which you purchase three pairs of socks and get one pair free. Pete now does this every year.

I got heavy rubber boots – I wore my others out a long time ago. One wet foot was par for the course.

I was glad Pete drove there and drove home because the driving conditions were sub-par. The roads (he said) were not that bad, but it appeared to me that visibility was minimal. Rain/snow/glare – I find it difficult to deal with the Big Three.

This evening, I went to clean the horse pen and discovered the horses were wet and snow covered, so I took the scraper and scraped them off. This way, the ice won’t stick to their coats if the temperature drops.

Snow, long story short, I ignored it as best I could, as I went about my day.

Next: 294. 10/29/24: Limping into Literacy