random thoughts – Day 2,154 (Sunday) – show time

Performance day rolled in with bitter cold. It was -3 degrees – yes, minus three degrees. We’re talking Siberian-type temperatures. No bueno.

Show packing. 

The time before leaving for dance practice was spent organizing for the show tonight. Costume parts and accessories for each dance in the show tonight were grouped in zipper seal bags.  Bags with hair accessories, jewelry, and various underlayers were lined up on the dining room table.

By noon when we left practice, the temperature had risen to 15 degrees. It felt like a heat wave compared to earlier in the morning. The sun was shining and the snow along the edges of the roads was turning slushy. I began worrying and wondering about the roof leak and whether the new heat wave would activate it again. Roofers are scheduled to check things out Monday morning.

At home, lunch was eaten. Makeup was applied and then the various powders, tubes, and applicators were set into the travel toiletry bag. The trickiest things to pack are the 25-yard skirt which is takes up a lot of room in a bag and the water bottle which is mildly clunky and heavy when full of ice and water.

Then I sat around calmly, trying not to undo the makeup that had already been done. I read a book. I paced. I bothered Kiki to pet her pretty little face and then reward her with treats. She is a sucker for the Temptations mixed treats.

The show was great. And despite it being Super Bowl Sunday, there was an enthusiastic audience. 

There was, once again, a variety of music and dance styles and beautiful costumes. So many beautiful costumes. The troupe dance went well. People were amazed we had nine of us on the stage, but we have actually danced in smaller spaces. And weirder spaces, like last fall when our designated dance spot at an event was on a hill. We are very adaptable. The duet went beautifully, we looked great, and we had fun.  My new hair piece stayed put and the only "malfunction" was three or four times before dancing when the sparkly stones on my mesh leggings got stuck together. Overall, a stellar night.

random thoughts – Day 2,153 (Saturday) – snow globe

Another morning in the snow globe.

I had heard it might snow over the weekend, and sort of zoned out after that. As a result, I was a bit surprised/perturbed when I woke up around 7 am and the world was once again a snow globe. It snowed heavily and steadily for about four hours. The neighborhood plow dove up and down the street with plumes of snow sent airborne from the side edge of the plow. 

In other exciting news, the drip in the kitchen cabinet over the stove was still dripping. The towels placed there last night were wet and about a half-inch of water was pooled in the plastic wastebasket that wasn’t even under the main drip. The wet towels were run through the spin cycle of the washer then popped into the dryer before being returned to drip collection service.

The house was quiet and I was on extra high alert for unusual sounds, especially of water dripping. I wandered from room to room examining the ceilings in search of signs of trouble of the hydration variety. Is that a new spot or is it old or is it just a shadow? Should I pull out the property inspection from the summer and look at all the ceiling photos?

In between rounds of ceiling critique, time was spent reviewing the troupe dance and the duet. The phone was always in hand or within reach in expectation of the promised call back from the roofing guy. At noon, having heard nothing, I sent a text to check in. 

After the neighborhood saint cleared the driveway with his snow blower, I went out to do the finer shovel cleanup. I started a path behind the house for the roof guys to have some sort of access. Luckily, the new snow and the snow from the last storm was light and fluffy. It was up to my knees as I scooped and tossed the stuff further into the yard. Icicles were knocked from the roof with the shovel. The whole thing was a good arm workout that I may regret mightily tomorrow.

The duet partner arrived for practice. We moved the furniture out of the way and got to dancing. We were great in the first run-though, then a couple spots got a little messed up the next couple times. That happens when we start getting into our heads. The roofer called while we were practicing. He could send a couple guys over Sunday morning, but I will be at dance group doing final troupe run-throughs before the show tomorrow night so we scheduled for Monday morning.

After that, I went full-on snow-day hibernation and sat on the couch to read a book.

The leak in the cabinet seems to have taken a break, and the wood that was obviously wet earlier seemed nearly dry by 8:30. The towels were washed and dried, and a couple were reset in the cabinet in case there is more hydro activity overnight. The temperature has dropped to a whopping one degree with an “extreme cold warning” in effect until 1 pm Sunday, so whatever was leaking is probably frozen again and that is okay with me for now.

random thoughts – Day 2,152 (Friday) – bangs and buckets

Back with bangs.

There was a hair appointment in Worcester today. As I left for the appointment, a guy in a bucket truck was working on a pole down the street. A sandwich board stuck in a snow bank declared that some new not recognizable brand of internet something was happening. There were too many words on the sign and they were too small to read from the car. Note to sign makers – nobody can read your novella in passing, even when the speed limit is 15 miles per hour.

After weeks of consideration and countless minutes searching for reference photos that looked even a tiny bit like my mostly wavy, partly straight, longish hair, on a person with glasses, I took the step and boldly reclaimed my bangs. When I wore contacts, I had bangs for years and loved them, except for one or two stifling humid summer days when they clung to my forehead in a puddle of sweat. When contacts finally failed me and required the addition of reading glasses, I ditched the contacts and switched to full time glasses.

With full time glasses, bangs felt like too much stuff happening on my face, even though I think other people with bangs and glasses look great. There have been brief flirtations with wispy bangs, curtain bangs, side-swept bangs, and face-framing layers, but today, full bangs and I were reunited. For a while anyway, they tend to grow fast and once they are in my eyes I feel like a sheepdog and then I get testy. But so far, so good.

In a bucket on a cold day.

The bucket truck was still on the street when I returned several hours later. A couple hours after that, it was outside my house. The truck was driven by one guy, with a second guy in the lowered bucket in the back of the truck. Bucket guy would yell to the driver when the truck was near where he needed to be, then the truck would stop and the bucket would raise. And lower. And raise. And adjust until it was correctly placed, with yelling to the driver the whole time. I felt bad for bucket guy. It was cold out. At least driver guy had heat, even if he had the window down to hear when he was being yelled to by bucket guy.

After a debate about whether or not to eat supper, and if so, what that supper should be, with contenders including yogurt, soup, pasta, and grilled cheese, a frozen pizza was decided upon. While setting the oven temperature, I noticed the top of the control panel of the stove was wet. Very odd. An amateur investigation ensued. It revealed that there is a leak in the cabinet over the sink where the range hood vents to the outside world. Water is dripping behind the vent pipe, making it impossible to get any sort of bucket, bowl, or collection device under it, so it's towels for now.

The potential spring/summer roof exploration because I really want siding and the professional guidance is to do the roof first, was near the top of the list, but not necessarily at the top-top under the belief there was plenty of time. Now it looks like roofing work is, at the very least, a more urgent winter repair. Hooray. I always love a surprise. (No, I don’t.) A roofer has been contacted. There will be a phone conversation in the morning. 

random thoughts – Day 2,151 (Thursday) – activities and practice

The days, the weeks, the months are flying by at a head-spinning pace and I don’t understand it. Not sure I need to understand it, but I do wish it would slow the heck down.

The day was spent mostly at home.  There was a trip to the mailbox and then Dollar Tree to get some dinner napkins. The Dollar Tree store overachieved with the additional acquisitions of Swiss Rolls, sugar wafers, vegetable broth, and a hook for the bathroom door upon which to hang my bathrobe.

It was sunny and around 29 degrees, so pleasant (relative to recent weather). The weekend forecast is for more bitter cold, so it felt important to get out and enjoy the civilized weather while possible.

A week ago, I noted a tai chi class on the calendar at 1:00 today. It turns out I’m better a noting events on the calendar than I am at checking the calendar to attend the events. It was 1:40 when I remembered the tai chi class. Maybe next week I’ll remember in time and attend.

Costume jewelry.

There was a duet dress rehearsal tonight, in preparation for the Sunday performance. We donned our jewelry and tights with our dresses and I tried out the newest hairpiece that arrived a few days ago. The costumes look great and our rehearsal was smooth, even when I smacked myself in the forehead with a prop. We are in the final finessing stage of presentation and paying attention to the details and it feels good to feel prepared. I might want larger, bolder earrings, but right now that is the only potential change.

After practice, the avocado that had today achieved the perfect ripeness was mashed with garlic and lemon juice and a scoop of salsa. It's always a very small window of time between the stages of not ripe enough, perfectly ripe, and then gross. The magical point of avocado ripeness usually results in the immediate cancellation of any other meal plans. Tonight, it was turkey soup that got the boot. The couch was the solo dining spot for avocado with flatbread crackers. Delicious.

random thoughts – Day 2,150 (Wednesday) – jewelry and sanity

The latest episode in the ongoing search for the misplaced jewelry took place this morning. The step stool was brought to the bedroom closets to explore the shelves. In the process, a shoe box stowed on the shelf was explored. It contained a random assortment of stuff including a Longsjo Bike Race cowbell, my roller derby armbands with my player number (813), a silver charm in a box, the fitness watch I abandoned wearing, buttons from vintage clothing items, a book about tarot, and the necklace I made a few years ago from vintage brooches. I didn’t expect to find my missing dance jewelry in the shoebox, but finding the brooch necklace was a win. I thought it was misplaced in the same bag with the dance jewelry.

The contents of the storage bag with the many troupe costume veils, hip scarves, and a top was reviewed and refolded with the tiny hope that the missing necklaces had appeared in there since a few days ago when I last pawed through it. They had not.

Reunited.

The shelves in both closets were tidied and some shoes were stowed away. As the operation was wrapping up so I could check on the soup on the stove and set the table for lunch with Mom and Sis, I looked down to the floor of the closet, and there, on top of a pair of dark colored boots, was the gray three compartment travel bag which I immediately knew contained the two missing dance necklaces. My stress level was immediately reduced and my sanity improved.

How it landed there or when I cannot guess. I can say with certainty that I didn't see it there when looking for boots to wear with dress pants just over a week ago. It's possible it was on the shelf and fell when I was looking for it in recent days. File it under household mysteries. At least this one had a positive outcome. Other missing items have never been found and still haunt me. 

random thoughts – Day 2,149 (Tuesday) – search

I needed a stamp to return the city census form because I didn’t feel like driving downtown to drop it off. The last time I remember using stamps was when sending Christmas cards, so a search for the remaining cards ensued. The leftover cards from 2025 had been set in a box with the leftovers from two or three years previous in a cabinet with art supplies. Address labels were found, but not the stamps. A stamp was eventually found in a desk drawer, but it was a flower stamp from a couple years ago and not even one of the holiday stamps.

Later, while sitting at the desk tracking bills and upcoming social events, I wrote an entry in my date book intended for February, but accidentally wrote it in March. No worries, corrector tape will take it away. The search began. It wasn’t in either of the desk drawers, so I checked the box of office supplies, which ended up being staples, paper clips, assorted pens and sticky notes and the thread trimmers from Mummu’s job at the yarn factory. The trimmers were moved to the sewing desk drawer with the fabric cutting tools.

Somehow, the search for corrector tape led to finding a bag of craft supplies. Those were moved to the sheer storage drawers with the other craft supplies that lives next to the filing cabinet in the guest room closet. Trims were found in the fabric tub in the craft room and placed in the newly acquired trim storage box. A weekend travel bag in the craft room closet was discovered to hold several jigsaw puzzles I had recently wondered about. Those were moved to the shelving in the guest room. 

This sort of activity went on for nearly an hour before I returned to the desk with little recollection of what I was originally looking for or why until I spied the datebook again. It was just another day, and this is totally typical. I go looking for one thing, find several other things, get sidetracked, forget the original mission, and do some other random things. In the course of it and with luck, random tasks are advanced or even completed. With even more luck, the original goal is somehow achieved.

Tonight after dance group, I found the corrector tape. It was in the pencil drawer of the filing cabinet which lived adjacent to the desk for several years in Lowell. Now, the filing cabinet lives in the closet. The same closet I was in organizing craft supplies earlier in the day. I was so close to the original target the whole time. Next up is the resumed search for the missing dance costume jewelry. That should also be fun.

random thoughts – Day 2,148 (Monday) – lunch, taxes, dance

The day flew by. In addition to the usual routines that keep me functional and semi-sane, there was time spent in the kitchen starting a pot of stock with the rest of the turkey carcass that has been in the freezer since Christmas. After several hours, the bones were removed from the liquid and the onion skins and trimmings were removed from the freezer and added. After a couple hours, the heat was shut off and the skins were removed. Later, the pot went into the refrigerator. Tomorrow, soup making will resume with the addition of vegetables bought on Sunday. Bonus -- there is now enough room in the freezer to hold some ice cream. Finally.

Stuffed mushrooms.

Lunch was a quick heat up of the rest of the artichoke stuffed baby portabella mushrooms. They came in a package of seven, prepared and ready to heat from the produce department at Aldi and were quite tasty. The first three were had for Sunday night supper. 

As the aroma of simmering turkey broth filled the house, I sat at the desk and tortured myself. There were job applications and then work on the tax return. Ugh. The timer feature on Turbo Tax estimates how long the return should take and mine started with a laughable estimate of 54 minutes. I remembered from last year how far off the estimate was when it was simple, but this year is blowing it to shreds with the house sale, unemployment, and the moving of bank accounts and the former company’s 401k. There is no longer a module in Turbo Tax to calculate the value of non-cash donations, so dealing with the eight or nine pre-moving donations to Epilepsy Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and St. Vincent de Paul are a lot more complicated. I don’t see me building a spreadsheet, logging the handwritten sheets done at each donation, and hunting down the values. If only I were a millionaire able to make large, easy to log cash donations. Sigh.

The countdown.

So far, I’m at 4 hours and 24 minutes on the clock on the tax return and I'm only 3/4 of the way into the Federal return. Chunks of that time were spent searching for online documents and entering information from paper forms and discovering there are still some forms missing from accounts once held at the now-defunct former employer. Super fun.

The evening included dance practice and it was a good way to shake off the dust of the afternoon. Redemption was sweet and had a great soundtrack.