Going quietly mad with these cold temperatures :(

When I walked home from work today it was damn cold. Frigid. When there is a constant blast of cold wind in the face one tends to walk hunched over, head down, body clenched and thoughts focused on survival. Your whole body feels stressed. Eyes stream wet drops that run down cheeks too cold to notice. In the morning the “weather eye” on my iPhone said it was -27 degrees Celsius with the wind chill. When I checked after work it said -21. GAWD!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do dress for the weather. Winter hiking boots suitable for my half hour walk through ice and snow, a layer of tights under my trousers (no skirts for me in winter!), a sturdy winter coat over a couple of sweaters, the hood from my coat pulled up over my thick faux fur lined hat (with draw strings pulled tight), scarf wound around my neck and pulled up over my chin and mouth and of course, gloves shielding my hands. The only exposed skin is about 5 inches surrounding my eyes. Still it is nasty and I am cold!

Unpleasant is an insufficient word. Just as tolerance for a substance builds up, intolerance to adverse weather also builds up. I am at my breaking point.

Ok, I exaggerate, but God, am I getting grumpy about our nasty Canadian winters. It is March – why can’t spring come in March rather than in April or as it did last year, in May?

OK, rant over now I get onto other pressing thoughts… Like my daughter Laura (aka Lilly) telling me tonight that next year when she goes back to University she will move in back home with me, so I shouldn’t refurnish her bedroom as my office and she should not buy furniture for her new place, because, where will she put it when she moves back home? I have only one word: HA!

Hmmm, I will bite my tongue now.
Laura is taking the year off school to recover her energy and motivation so she can finish her BA, which she has worked on for the last 3 years and only half completed. The other reason she is taking the year off is that she worked all of the previous summer and didn’t save any money toward tuition (the deal was she would pay 1/3rd). Not that she didn't work - she did - however taxis and bar tabs and fun kind of ate into her bank account. Gee, what is a gal to do?

I am sharing with you a picture of Laura (right) and her best friend Betina (left), who is coming back from a 3-4 month visit to Calgary this week. Laura has missed her "partner in crime" and so looks forward to her return.

Back to the Laura story. She moved out in January to share a place with a girlfriend, since living with her Mom was a bit restrictive - she really would like to have friends back occassionally at 3:00 a.m when she gets off work at the bar. I had offered that if she paid me rent that I would return it to her at the end of the year as her tuition saved, however that offer passed up for the lure of "her own place". Well, she is old enough now to make her own decisions.

I am suspecting that she is will not be able to save any money toward tuition in this next year, so I have no fear of her really going back to school and moving back in. But I am looking at the “wanted ads” for jobs in Dubai, just in case!

By the way, I did finish studying Chapter 4 yesterday and created about 30 “flash cards”. As I review the material I am creating these home made study aids. I am carrying them around with me and can spend time reviewing them during idle moments during the day.

I plan to put in an hour studying tonight and will go through the flash cards once or twice to help fix into my memory the stuff I went over on the weekend.

Before I "sign off", I have to tell you about the calendar I have in my bathroom. It contains a wonderful series of Zenga Paintings from the Gitter-Yellen Collection and Quotes on Zen Practice by Shunryu Suzuki. I put it in my bathroom because where else is it important to meditate? (OK, I am being silly, but you get my point, eh?). Each morning and evening I do my daily absolutions in that space and I just thought that it an appropriate spot for Zen thoughts and images.

I was absolutely delighted with the March Zen thought. Each day this month as I do my duty in that room I will gaze on the words "Just sit and see what happens".

Chat tomorrow, my friends!