Hibernating

It feels like I've been hiding under a blankie for a week now, and not getting anything done. Actually, there's been a lot of action, just not a lot of progress. It's one minor catastrophe after another.

First there was the crappy snowstorm. Which won't go away. And on the coldest morning, when it was about 15 degrees, one of the kittens ran off. She showed up happily bounding around the back yard an hour later, happy as a clam, even though we had been out crunching around the block and through neighbors yards calling her until our toes froze off.

Same day, same kitten -- decides that she wants to help me make soap, leaping onto the counter and kicking over one of the just poured molds. Thought my frantic hosing had cleaned her off. But about 15 minutes later, realized that she was in trouble. More hosing, major skirmish, and she really looked not right. So we dashed off to the vet. She got the full on super suds bath to remove the stink, viewed the damage, got some fluids to flush her out, swallowed a little medicine to soothe her tummy. She had gotten a splash on the back feet and then tried to over-groom it off. So a couple of little irritations, a couple of little hairless patches and a blister on the tip of her tongue. She's back to her old self in no time and will be fine.

But the second kitty, who napped through the whole escapade, suddenly decides she no longer knows kitty number one. It's the smell of the hospital or something and she goes all skittish, growly, hissing and fighting and running off. The poor beleaguered one is so confused and despondent that her best friend has shunned her. They've been inseparable, and peas in a pod since the first day. It was very unhappy for everyone. A day and a half of cat fights and reaquanticing, we are back to the happiest best pals in the world, minus a little fur.

But we are still freezing. The furnace decided to go south. Technically I am not without heat. It's just a big operation to turn it on for a little while to heat up the house. The valve box (which we just had replaced) is not working. So there is a lot of manual carrying on, jimmying wires, flipping switches, fumbling with the panels each time we need a little heat. At night there is nothing. And it's 19 degrees outside. Which is the best part. So with the holiday weekend and all, it's going to be days of this dance.

You know those little windshield dings that the garage fills with superglue stuff? Turns out that when it gets really, really cold for days on end, and then you take little road trips in between, blasting the defroster and heater for a while, and then parking the car back out on the frigid streets over night . . . those little dings turn into monster cracks that travel across the windshield while you are driving. I guess I'll be scrabbling around to get a new windshield this week.

I'm supposed to be working on soap stuff. But I can't even face my mail pile any more. I don't want to do a single thing. I just want to hide out here, under the blankie, and wait for this frozen hell to thaw and life to get back to normal.