Speaking of media, I just found this lovely painting of winter in NC. [link]

Missing the booze.

Sara, I envy your community.

The good news here is that I just shoveled the front sidewalk and no wheezing or back pain!!! The bad news, it is 5 degrees out there. I'm just getting feeling back in my fingers. I double gloved, but dang. The driveway has not been done...will have to attack that at some point tomorrow as I do need to leave the house at 3.

Community is amazing and I always envy yours, Sara.

And I thought of you last night because I had my first swimming lesson! I was like "sara would walk to the pool, but it's uphill on the way home and I don't wanna--stupid Seattle hills!" It's the one thing I don't love about seattle. As for the swimming lesson I was impressed--two teachers and six students at the community parks and Rec pool?! Not sure they'll manage to make me enjoy putting my face in the water though...maybe I can work at doing laps using backstroke?? Also even when I'm trying to breathe right, I get halfway through a lap of freestyle and I'm out of breath and my heart is pounding. In running I can just walk then, but swimming that seems a poor plan

That's awesome that you're taking swimming lessons, meara! Go you!

And go Hazel

I'm fucking lucky to have found the neighborhood I did. And it was really just luck and a feeling of "this is right" when I got to know the immediate neighbors.

Aw, meara, I'm proud of you! What I tell all new swimmers (and the instructors encourage me, so I guess I'm not the worst advice ) is that don't try to fight the water. Float/glide first, mobile next. Gasping for breath? Breathe more, slow down, fight less. You don't have to be fast, you have to be comfortable, buoyant and moving vaguely forward. And you know what? If you get sorta competent and still don't like it? That's fine, not your thing.

What's truly amazing about tonight is that I didn't need to ask for any of the help. Dept Head saw my lights were on, came back into the building to hunt me down, and told me he and Aaron would be out by my car to jump it. All I contributed were the jumper cables I already had.

Yay for thoughtful Dept. Head!

Yay for kitty doing better!

Yay for people realizing that self-sufficiency need not be rugged individualism.

meara, I am in awe of you taking swim lessons. I have never been able to get the rhythm of when to put my face in the water either. I can dog paddle.

Oh, praise be, sunlight hitting the ground! I can cope with 18 degrees if the sun is out.

At this point, 18 degrees would feel delightful. There are no scorpions in MN .

Connie that's pretty awesome!

It's only six lessons, but they're through the city parks and red, so I figured I'd give it a shot, inspired by Sara and Kat. And the possibility of someday doing a triathlon--right now I have no desire but it's in part because I couldn't manage the swim portion in any good way!

I agree with everything Windsparrow said ^.

I really want to do this [link] but if the ticket line is outdoors starting at 6am (when it is supposed to be 6°) I don't think I can survive that with my fingers and toes intact. I can dress to get to the train station and stand on the platform for 10 minutes, but 2 or more hours standing still? Seems like a very bad idea when the Reynauds has been bad anyway. Damnit.

Missing the diapers in that painting, Calli